Dog lovers flock to All Breed Championship Show.

KARACHI -- The Kennel Club of Pakistan (KCP) All Breed Championship Show held at the Zamzama Park here on Sunday turned out to be quite a healthy outing for not just the competing 100 to 150 canines but their owners as well. And what's better than coming out of there as proud owners with certificates, cups and trophies to boot.

The show was not one where the dogs obey commands, jump through hoops, etc. 'That would have been a training show. This is not that kind of a show,' Zahid Sindhu, one of the organisers, told Dawn. 'It is a breed conformation show,' he explained.

A Breed Conformation Show is where the judges are looking at pure breeds or thoroughbreds. At the park, the KCP in collaboration with the German Shepherd Dog Club Pakistan and the Pakistan Rottweiler Club had two separate rings with different judges. One ring was dedicated to German shepherds and Rottweilers while the other was for multiple breed dogs, including bulldogs, bull terriers, boxers, Labradors, golden retrievers, poodles, though not mixed breed dogs.

Ayesha Baigmohamed, a judge for the German shepherds there, told this reporter that she was going to see the contesting dogs and compare them to the breed standards. 'Basically, you are looking at the anatomy of the dog, which includes its height, length, the wither, the croup, the length of the legs, the position of the ears, the teeth, etc. Can you define its gender from just its head and its face?' she explained.

'There is also a gun test for German shepherds where you fire a blank to check if the pitch of the gunshot makes the dog skittish or wanting to run away or bite. Of course, you want the dog to be as sound and as stable as possible,' she said.

Another judge, Imran Husain, who was there to look at all breed thoroughbreds, said that he had been judging dogs for some 40 years now.

'I am an...