Here is an exclusive report realised by our team on the ring of the Yorkshire Terriers, where an attentive, numerous public had come to admire “the king of the Toys”.
Saturday March 11, third day of the show, was dedicated to the Toy and Utility Groups, which counted respectively 2,747 and 2,975 dogs. Unlike th FCI nomenclature, where the Yorkshire Terrier belongs to the Terrier Group (Group 3), in the UK it belongs to the Toy Group (equivalent of FCI Group 9).
With 132 entries, the Yorkshire Terrier was the 7th most represented breed of the Toy Group (21 breeds). The Yorkshire Terriers were judged in Hall 5, ring 31, by British judge Mrs J Leslie, who was kind enough to let me do my job in excellent conditions.
The Toy and Utility Groups are typically British, with for instance the Yorkshire and Cavalier King Charles in the Toy Group, and the Shih Tzu, Lhasa Apso and the Toy Poodle in the Utility Group.
The judgement of the Yorkshire Terrier also has its specificities, from the little red presentation box to the judgement table, along with the judgement in movement. Each exhibitor played the game, with fair play and sometimes quite a lot of stress. Some exhibits also caused the public to laugh and cheer during their walk around the ring, especially a very young dog, who refused to walk back and forth, and laid, or indeed flattened himself on the ring, before finally accepting to come back to his presentation box.
The great winner of this 103rd edition was among the few ATC exhibits. It is the Italian multi champion Qoccle’s Oliverlightsome (Hunderwood Oliver’s Twist x Hunderwood Lipstik), whose parents are both French bred. Oliverlightsome is quite famous in Europe, where he already finished several times on the podium of his group, and also for the Best In Show final (Milan, Moscow, etc.) He belongs to his breeder, Nicoletta Pollini. This 5 and a half years old dog is one of today’s top Yorkshire, and his victory at Crufts is well deserved. In 2005, he had already won the CC. But this year, he made it to the second place of the Toy Group, on the main ring, after having won the breed against the bitch CC CH Paulwyns Pearls Of Wisdom (Candytops Cracker Jack x Paulwyns Pearl Of Powys), an other famous Yorkie, who had also already illustrated herself in Crufts (Res CC en 2004). The high quality of the exhibits confrimed that British exhibitors can appreciate the changing in the breed, even if for the last ten years, thge most influential lines come from the USA or the European continent. Let’s hope that we will see more ATC dogs and bitches in 2007, as this little dog is a world star, and Crufts’ catalogue should reflect this.
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