Well interestingly enough. I was at a show on Saturday and chatting to a lady who was a veterinary nurse who worked at the vet centre at Crufts. I asked her about the dogs two of which she helped deal with.
The leo we all know about.
The bulldog collapsed but apparentely he had been showing in Europe the day before and was not looking good when he was bought into the show. A vet had attended previously and the owner advised not to show as they felt the dog was dehydrated.
The pap owner actually left the dog in the car for a few hours so she could show her other dogs (bearing in mind how warm the sun was that day) and found the dog collapsed in the car. She carried the dog into the vet centre but it was already dead from heat exposure according to the vet.
So although my sympathies go out to some of the owners. They certainly don't go out to the pap owner and I hope they are prosecuted.

A lot of people (the public) took their dogs with them as although it clear not to take dogs on the Crufts Website it was not so on the NEC website. So the dogs were put in the creche at the vets as they wouldn't let the dogs go back to the car in that weather. So credit to them there.

My God thats awful. All those poor poor dogs

how sad for those poor owners

Sorry, but my only sympathies go to the Leonberger owner, who took a calculated risk and it went wrong. As for bringing a dog straight from another show, with associated long distance travelling, that is stupid in my opinion. My dogs need a good few days to recover from a show as they take a lot out of them mentally and physically, I hope I never get to the point where going to shows is more important than my dog's health and well being.
As for leaving a dog in a car .... words fail me.
More ammunition for the anti Crufts and anti showing brigade, unfortunately.

Yes it would appear, now we have more facts, that some owners considered showing at Crufts to be far more important than their dog. As per usual the dogs are the ones that suffer.
Becky

Absolutely agree. The leonberger could not have been helped, it could of happened on a walk or anytime.
However the only sympathy I have is for the dogs in the other cases. I live 20 mins from the Crufts venue so no travelling really. However my dog was absolutely shattered until the following afternoon. And he's a young dog. It's a long day for any dog and having to stay til 4pm doesn't help. Hopefully this will be looked into in the future. There's no need for dogs to be kept there that long. If you want to look at dogs that's what discover dogs is there for.

Just wondering how many dogs were there over the period? statistically speaking with the sheer volume of dogs, there would be some losses sad though it is..

a bit like saying 9 out of 10 cats if that makes sense
(i have just worked a night shift!)

I dont think crufts and showing is to blame just some irresponsible owners and a sad case of a dog being lost prematurely through natural causes.

If that is true that the owners of the bulldog showed it despite veterinary advice not to they ought to be prosecuted - same with the Papillon owner.

Leaving a dog in a hot car like that until it died of heat exhaustion is inexusable and not only should she be fined, named and shamed but given a ban from owning dogs altogether.

Some exhibitors are far more interested in the glory than their own dogs welfare, thankfully they seem in the minority.

I think over the four days there were around 24,000 dogs exhibiting. Then there's the display dogs, discover dogs, agility dogs etc. on top of that.
I don't think showing your dog is the problem. If you take a healthy dog along, look after it etc. then it's not too bad. Some however want to win too badly and will drag their dog along.
My only major moan this year was I found the halls to be terribly warm. The temperature in the halls should be set for the interest of the dogs, not for the public.

I quite agree.
Obviously I was told this by a veterinary nurse attending but I see no reason why she would have exagerated the truth. She dealt personally with the pap owner and said she just walked in with the dead dog in her arms. Now it's just my opinion but if that was my dog and it genuinely collapsed I would want to know what happend and totally agree to a post mortem, which this person refused. Why? JMO