The future of Crufts

In light of last nights program, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, on BBC1, what are your thoughts on the future of Crufts?

I'm posting this thread as I guess there are a lot of people who do not want to take part in the other, rather silly titled thread.

I dont think the future of Crufts will change one bit, from the results of last nights programme.

If as is reported , the BBC , is no longer going to cover it... I doubt it will be missed as it is presented by buffoons... maybe a new channel will cover more of the dogs and the meaning of the event.

C

Personally, I wont be watching it again. I am not a dog show fan anyway, and realistically the program confirmed what I felt. I think its awful to see dogs like the EBT covered in talc or chalk or whatever it is to make them whiter, to watch dogs who are supposed to be the best of their breed huffing and puffing round the ring.

It makes me sad that the people are competing in what is basically a beauty competition and it cant take into consideration the health of the breed as it doesnt ask for health tests etc. As long as your dog looks how it should for the breed standard then they can trot round the ring. If it collapses afterwards that doesnt matter!

I think there will be many people who will look at it completely differently after that program.

I would like to see Crufts become more about educating people on breed traits and temperament, evaluating all the aspects of the dog including health and temperament and actually awarding the dog who is the best all rounder rather than the best looking !

For example i would rather see more agility and challenges that actually interact the dog than people standing in a ring posing.

Well said JB.
Crufts on the bbc has been less about the show and more about the shopping etc for ages. Crufts and the KC dont need the BBC to survive, its such big business, and I'm sure another channel will jump at the chance to televise it and hopefully it might be produced better.

I wouldnt say it will go yet, but I do feel if the bbc were to pull it, it would suffer. So for that reason I think it will change from how it is now.

Problems should the bbc pull would include loss of tv money as any other tv channel who pick it up would not offer nearly as much due to the viewing figures that are not huge.

Sponsorship likely fall aswell as many will shy away from sponsoring something that someone has dropped for the reasons mention in that program.

I have seen a few sports in the past that have big fan bases suffer when a tv channel has dropped it and they couldnt cope on attendances alone..

All I have said is worst case but to be quite honest I dont see the bbc dropping it.

Hmm see im not really up on all this, but surley it would be in the best interest of breeds for health checks to be compulsary and of a high standard to be able to show. So why wouldnt people who show for example the cavelier people from last nights programme agree with this to prolong the breed and keep it healthy. it just totally baffles me. looks should not be more important than health of a animal/breed

Personally if I was in charge of Crufts I would pull coverage from the BBC, for effectively doing the dirty on them!

On a more serious note, I think Crufts will continue, as it is the largest and most prestigous dog show in the world.

Nobody is perfect, and while the program makers focused on all the bad points they could lay their hands on, no-one is saying the Kennel Club and Crufts haven't taken things on board and won't move forward to help make sure health is more of a priority and part of winning at Crufts.

Nor do I, to much coverage and money involved for them.

Lets face it, the BBC are in the business of making money, they are ruthless in the pursuit for ratings..

Do you think they bought and aired that programme last night to bring awareness to the GP over the practices of bad breeding ....

No, of cause they did not, they take a calculated risk, when buying programmes from independent companies... as to whether it will give them good viewing, and ratings...nothing more.

Whatever the BBC do, Crufts will survive. Even if they lost the TV financial support. The usual sponsors tend to continue as it is such a well attended event. The KC could afford to run the show anyway. LKA is held there each year albeit in three of the halls as opposed to five but with the tradestand contributions and the large entry figures. Double and more of other Champ Shows then the show will survive. It was going and popular before the BBC got their hands on it and it'll continue to survive.
I don't really watch the televised programmes much anyway as I cringe at some of the comments the presenters say. They also seem to have reduced the televising of the other many things that go on at Crufts. Fair doe's watching the group is nice as often I know of someone that is in the group, but otherwise the agility and other displays are far more entertaining than watching dogs run a triangle round the ring unless it's a new breed I've not seen before. Crufts is the biggest dog show in the world. They will always get sponsors whether it's from here or overseas.