The golden collare went to a Norwegian King!

By Mikael Nilsson

Italy's most important dog event in Milan was a show full of glitter and glamor. All judges and handlers were dressed in evening dresses and tuxedos. It was a popular event with 11 000 spectator and broadcasted all over Europe with 15 million TV-viewers. Our spectacular standard poodle King, Ch Topscore Contradiction ended his tremendous year by going BIS at Collare d'Oro, the golden collar.

I was thrilled when we received the invitation to Collare D'Oro 2002. I had heard it is a fantastic experience, to show there. All handlers were dressed in evening dresses or tuxedos and the atmosphere was very special. Dogs were invited from all over the world. This made the TV show great. Last years event was one of Italy's most seen TV-shows. The interest for dogs in Europe is enormous.

The invitation was to Milan for two persons and a dog including travel expenses, hotel and hospitality. To travel with a dog is normally very expensive, and King's ticket cost more than Stein's and mine together! Of course, Kari traveled with us, this was an event not to miss. The hotel was of high standard, as all hospitality and arrangements. First day started with information and an early dinner. After that we went to the arena for general rehearsal. I heard some people came, just to see King, but as I had arranged with a Stand-In, those people were disappointed. I showed a greyhound owned and bred by Swedish Italian Birte Ahrens, Sobers. I didn't want to show King as all judges were present.

The day of the show was long, but very interesting. The arena was full of dogs, that had entered in regular competition. The dogs with the highest scores, based on 6 judges judgements went through. These dogs went to a knock out competition. The best of these went to the evening show with broadcast and spectators, that we were directly qualified for. During the day, all judges had to pre judge the 18 invited dogs. VID or Very Important Dogs, as they called us.When the events of the day were over, we were transported to the hotel for lunch and a couple of hours rest. During these hours we were interviewed by Croatian press. They were very interested of King. They came from newspapers as well as dog papers, and told us everyone would recognize us, if we ever came to Croatia!

Back to the arena for the evening event. By now all actors looked fantastic. More glitters and pearls on judges and handlers than you have ever seen before. I don't think I was the only one that felt good in tuxedo. The dogs entered the ring. The Italian spectators were very vocal in their admiration or opposite. All was very fun. In between our entries, they had entertaining by Italian singers. The main attraction was a group of young women, dressed in the smallest, red skirts I had ever seen before. To be honest, I don't even know if you would call it a skirt! The "skirts" were of cours see through type. Back to what we had come for, to show dogs. King was judged by 10 judges and got a total score of 94 out of 100. It was the highest of them all. By that we were qualified to compete in the last BIS final with one, single, superior judge, this year it was Italy's Paolo Dondina. When the three qualifying dogs from our group were celebrated, it was nice to be Nordic. Second in the group was Elisabeth Axelsson with her Maltese and third was Birte Ahrens with her greyhound bitch. Three Scandinavians at the first three places, was something for the Swedish Kennel Club to brag about. A fourth from our group was voted for by the spectators and their mobile phones. It went to a Labrador. The second group with the remaining dogs gave further four finalists. The spectators favorite was another Scandinavian, the Norwegian Belgian St Bernard.

Late that evening we entered the ring for the BIS final and the atmosphere was high. Paolo had us moving and didn't hesitate to shortlist five. Third place went to Elisabeth and her Maltese, an Italian whippet was second. Paolo Dondina said in an interview after the show that he think King is the best dog in the world! Of course, he placed him number one, when he had the chance. The ring was very chaotic after the awards were handed out. Everyone wanted to be in the pictures with the winner and we even had to write autographs!

When we at half past one in the night was back in the hotel, it was nice to eat dinner. King was, as the winner he was, also invited as the most important guest in the restaurant. The Glennas got a cup as a symbol of the win. Night was long and we had lots of champagne.

The end of the story was that the Glennas suitcase was stolen in the lobby at the hotel the last morning. Luckily it was all a mistake but they received it several weeks later. King and his owners could go back to the normal life in the village of Porsgrunn. Far away from TV-kameras, glitter, champagne and crazy dog people.