The National Dog Show - the general championship show organised by the Birmingham Dog Show Society - this weekend celebrates its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, at its 2009 event in Stafford.

The National is one of only four shows which has CCs on offer for each breed, which always helps to draw a good entry, with this year’s show actracting well over 11,000 dogs.

From its first show in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1859, (the show pre-dates the Kennel Club by an impressive 14 years) through various venues - including the National Agricultural Centre and Perry park in Birmingham - the shows new home at Stafford Showground seems a popular one with exhibitors.

With a current committee which includes Annette Oliver-Wyles, Ben Ashcroft, Meriel Hathaway and Ann Britton, to name but a few, it’s understandable that the show has survived and flourished well into its 151st year. Eric Smethurst is the Society’s current President, following a long line of Earls, Dukes,Viscounts and Lords!

Birmingham has also led the way in bringing through new talent for the committee and helpers at the show.

Some time ago, the Society ran a scheme for developing talent identified in the YKC. The brainchild of the then Chairman Mr Eric Smethurst, who was also in the same position at the YKC, and in association with Merial Hathaway who was the Midlands Coordinator for the YKC as well, the scheme has brought through young people such as Ben Ashcroft, Jenny Fairhill, Adrian Bettis, Jenny Shorer Wheeler and Rebecca Barber. Eric and Merial did sterling work and also brought in a training scheme for the YKC, the third of which runs at this year’s National. Eric told OUR DOGS, ‘I am proud to see the young people coming through and congratulate all concerned’.

Read Peggy Grayson article about  the National

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