As many as 426 dogs made a beeline to participate in the 35th and 36th All Breed Champion Dog Show organised by the Madurai Canine Club at Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College in Madurai on Sunday.
The show saw 45 native and foreign breeds of dogs from Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Tirunelveli, Kanniyakumari and neighbouring States including Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, even Maharashtra participating.
The show is happening after a one year break owing to COVID-19 induced lockdown restriction in place, said S. Vinayaga Moorthy, president, Madurai Canine Club.
“The response is honestly overwhelming. We have never had so many entries pouring in compared to all these years,” he said.
The canines were judged by three international judges, Ranjith Singh Munjal, Sanjit Kumar Mohanty and C.A. Martin. The participants were short-listed based on their ideal traits of their ears, tails, height, weight, running abilities etc.
The show that extended two hours longer than the scheduled time saw Bosker, German Shepherd and Caravan Hound bag the first, second and third place, said Mr Moorthy.
An awareness programme on the Thanjavur Kattakal, a breed that is almost endangered, was also held. “This Indian breed, a native of Thanjavur district, is specialised in catching rats on farmlands for decades. These dogs help in saving large amounts of produce being affected by rats. Hence we brought in 25 Kattakal dogs to create a dialogue on this endangered breed,” said Mr Moorthy.
Common breed like German Shepherd, Jack Russell Terrier, Bosker, Dachshund, Pug, French Bull Dog, Chow Chow and Rottweiler were seen in abundance and native breeds like Kombai, Chippiparai, Rajapalayam, Kanni, Caravan Hound and Mudhol hound also participated.
The special entries in the show were Whippet and Miniature Schnauzer.
Madurai Canine Club secretary S. Ramanathan and others were present.
