Becks shows who’s best

THE BEST Dog in Show at the True Pet Expo and German Shepherd All-Breed Championship on Sunday was Becks, an imported timber Rottweiler dog who arrived in the island the previous Monday.

According to its owner Warren Clarke from Warrack Kennel in Trelawny, the way to go to winning dog shows now in Jamaica is through importing A-class breed animals from overseas. So he chose to make that investment.

Although tight-lipped on the money spent to import the dog, Warren told The Gleaner that Becks, who was born in 2021 and won another international competition in Sweden before coming to Jamaica, is from Serbia.

“Good dogs are here but just not what I’m looking for. When I really want a showdown and I just could not find, not saying that it’s not here, but the look that I’m looking for I just could not find (it), so we decided our mind to try the international market, and so far we have about 12 to 15 dogs today in the show,” Clarke, who imports dogs and invests in the championship out of love for the animals, told The Gleaner after being announced the winner on Sunday at Hope Gardens.

“The figures I won’t get into, but to source the dog to catch a breeder’s eyes, it takes a lot, but to pick one about three months, to get the dog here after you buy the dog, is one year,” he explained.

He added that animal importation is a very costly and lengthy procedure because of the red tape and the guidelines and restrictions by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

“So when someone imports a dog, it’s a big deal, because it’s very, very tedious to do so,” Clarke said.

“No matter what breed and how pretty the dog is you will not get back your money. It has to be from love. And, just for you to know it, Becks is not the only imported dog that we have. We have seven imported dogs which would have came into the country within the last one year at Warrack Kennell,” he said.

Another problem Clarke said local dog breeders face is that when the dogs leave the island to do a show internationally, they sometimes have a serious challenge getting their dogs back into Jamaica, given that they have to go to a vet and check for diseases and do the required tests for rabies. He noted that it is simpler for their dogs to leave the island than it is to get them back into Jamaica, which can take up to three months.

“And that is where the problem comes, and if we could fix this within our country, we could even bring tourists [and] you would even find more Jamaican dogs going internationally to enter [competitions] just like a motor sport or a track and field or a football,” Clarke explained to The Gleaner.

New blood

He has been breeding dogs for 15 years, and took breeding and competing to another level three years ago when he wanted a real showdown.

Clarke said he started Warrack Kennell out of his love for dogs as “dogs are the most loyal to the world”.

Jalil Dabdoub, president of the German Shepherd Club, told The Gleaner that he does not have a problem with imported dogs winning local competitions.

“Jamaica has a small gene pool of any livestock, so if you’re going to keep improving the quality of the livestock you’re going to need to keep bringing in new blood to put into the local breeding programme, so kudos to Warren for bringing in the dog,” Dabdoub said.

“It’s his [the dog’s] first show, and it seems to be a good review he got and obviously, he won the best in show; the best local bred was a German shepherd dog and was reserved best in show,” he said.

Tina Hamilton, senior pet manager, True Pet Food, said: “It’s really heart-warming seeing the dogs come out to play. Many of them don’t really have an environment like this to just come out and be themselves [and] have fun,” Hamilton said.

She added that although it was a one-day event there were numerous economic benefits for Jamaica’s pet industry.

“There were actual practical things helping in all areas of the industry. It’s helping the people who owns the dogs, it’s helping the dogs themselves, it’s helping the people who have pet businesses [such as] the groomers, trainers [and] people who are selling accessories,” she said.

O’brian Wynter, the owner of a Pomeranian dog, said the show was “interesting and informative because it’s new to me as a first-timer”.

He added: “I never knew that this dog show existed, so knowing that it does exist and being here it shows me Jamaica is really a dog-loving place and it provides a lot of different options for dogs.

“The different shows involved are very interesting and the pawtenders were a very nice addition to the show, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again next year,” Wynter said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com