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The Federation Cynologique Internationale’s (FCI’s) World Dog Show (WDS) was held in Paris Nord, Villepinte, at the Parc Des Expositions, which is located only a few miles from Charles De Gaulle Airport. The 4 days of judging 21,589 dogs (entered) involved 90 rings. The “building” is enormous and consists of many halls that adjoin one another. I can think of no building in the US that’s that big. The NEC facility (for Crufts) in Birmingham (UK) may be bigger, but not all of the Exposition’s halls were utilized for the shows. There were over 200 commercial booths, many with nice, unusual wares. If you found an item you liked and deferred its purchase until later, you would have a real task finding that booth again. Many fast food places and even sit down, semi-formal restaurants are located inside the facility. The French Societe Centrale Canine (the French AKC) Championnat De France Show (entry 14,765 dogs) was held concurrently with the WDS in the same facility, employing the same rings, etc. Many exhibitors entered both shows. I had envisioned this combo would likely produce many problems, but things seemed to have gone well. Because of the size of the entry, the largest ever, the WDS (the FCI) dispensed with several of its regulations/ requirements in order to speed judging up: dogs were
not measured, written critiques by judges were not required, and they let it be known that they would not check for foreign substances in coats. Despite of the large size of the facility, it was at times relatively crowded inside. The doors opened at 6:00 AM for exhibitors, who had to display their entry cards to enter. Non-exhibitors were not allowed to purchase tickets to enter until 9 AM even though judging was scheduled to commence at 8:30 AM. Does this make sense? It didn’t to me, but it no doubt did to the “organizers.” How’s this? They knew that judging would not really start until an hour or so after it was scheduled to begin. Well, if there’s a will, there’s a way. I was not going to miss a minute of judging. I walked around Hall 6 (about ¾ mi.), found a service entrance, and walked in unchallenged with people who knew what they were doing/where they were going. Voila! One cause for the judging delay was that before judging exhibitors lined up inside the ring to get their armbands from the ring steward. This seems like an unnecessary waste of time. The line moved slowly. Terriers are Group 3 and 2,795 were entered. There were 131 Wires (Fox Terrier a Poil Dur) and 84 Smooths (Fox Terrier a Poil Lisse) entered. That’s a switch! I’ve