A story of our trip to a sloughi show in morocco...

Our group consisted off...

Djahirah min Darazja Loewwla, female, 4 years old

El Raisuli min Darazja Loewwla, male, 1 year young

Anu min Darazja Loewwla, male, 8 years old

Asjsihr min Darazja Loewwla, male, 8 years old

Mrs. Sonja van Rij- van Baarle (owner)

Alexandra Stout (me)

September  27 1993, day 1

5:50 a.m.   We left Vlaardingen (the netherlands)
6:45 a.m.   We drove into Belgium (70 km)
9:00 a.m.   We drove into France (245 km)
11:35 a.m. We passed Dampier (570 km)
3:30 p.m.   113 km outside Bordeaux (949 km)
6:50 p.m.   We drove into Spain at Behobia (1278 km)
9:00 p.m.   With very poor visibility, we decited to stay in Bilbao

September 28 1993, day 2

8:00 a.m.   We left Baskenland and headed toward Burgos
1:40 a.m.   We drove into Ocana (1926 km)
9:30 a.m.   We reached Algeciras, from here we take the boat to Tangier (2637 km). we stayed overnight.

September 29 1993, day 3

5:00 a.m.   We waited for the boat to depart
10:00 a.m  The boat departed, we sat on deck with the dogs
12:25 a.m  We docked at Tangier
1:35 a.m.   We finally passed customs and headed to Casablanca (3004 km)(a lot isn't?)

Well, to the hotel and rest, that was our plan, but to our surprise, the hotel we booked now refused the dogs!
Whit the help of Dr. A. el Baroudi we met some french people and they invited us to stay for the night.
They were very nice people.

September 30 1993, day 4

With the help of the french family, the Javeys, we went looking for a hotel in a quiet  part of town. (Casablanca is as busy as Amsterdam). We found one at the beach  that was a real moroccan hotel, el Riad Salam. The sloughis were very welcome!     In the evening we went for a walk on the beach, the dogs without a leash. They had a ball!

October 1 1993, day 5

We went for a walk on the beach until Anu came back to us with a limp; he cut himself on a piece of glass.
We went back to the hotel to give the dogs a rest. Tomorrow is the big day.

October 2 1993, day 6 THE BIG DAY

Armed with 4 sloughis, a camera and a video camera we drove to the club. We were very curious about the moroccan sloughis and expected to see a lot of them. Our dogs were given a covered kennel, nice and cool. There were about 150 sloughis at the show. It did strike us to see that there weren't as many sand-colored sloughis; 50% were brindled, 30% sand with black coat, only 20% were sand or red, in spite of Dr. Baroudi saying that sand was the most wanted color for the breed. (Dr Baroudi is the president of the sloughi club)
The unwanted white, which in Holland used to raise quite some dust, didn't seem to be a problem over here.
About 70% of all the dogs had some white on the legs or chest. We saw some dogs with F16 ears; a double curled tail and with hardly any pigment, light eyes. We even saw 4 Bonzai sloughis (not higher than 45 cm as adults). Most of the dogs were very skinny, due to the drought over the last two years.
There wasn't enough food for the dogs (and their owners), according to Mr. Basciano (judge and board member of the club). Later on we discovered a box in full sunshine. It contained two fourteen-day-old pups with neither their mother nor food and water. They were brought there to be sold. We fed them soaked puppy food. Later, as we were told how all the dogs were brought there from the desert, it reminded us of cattle being transported; all of them stuffed into a trailer. The club took care of the transport of the dogs and their owners, the plan was to let the owners travel with their dogs, but it didn`t work out that way. Everybody was packed into open trailers/busses. They arrived there at 4:00 a.m.! And the show, which supposed to start at 9:30 a.m.,  didn't start until 1:00 p.m.!

The bitches had to go to the other side of the building, where they had their own ring. The males stayed, and started with Youth-class. Sonja showed el Raisuli, who really tried his best and seemed to enjoy himself. He competed with 40 other dogs, and got a red ribbon! Winner! He now was Moroccan Youth-champion! They were congratulated by the Moroccan people, which is quite unusual in Europe therefore quite a surprise for us. The judge was H. Kanouni, vice president of the club.
Now it was time for the open class males and Asjsjihr got to do his best, and from the looks of him he was having a challenge. He showed the stars from heaven, and beat 60 other open class males. He got three ribbons; red, white and green from L. Gaudois, a judge from france, and Asjsjihr also was congratulated by everyone. We didn't show Anu (2-time world-champion) because he still had a little limp from the glass on the beach, and we didn't want to force him, so we took him out of the show before it started.

Meanwhile, I (Alexandra) took Djahirah to the other ring and showed her in the open class. The judge was Mr.Basciano. She had to compete with about 50 other sloughi bitches. This was a real challenge for me because I hadn't showed many times before. They split the dogs into 3 groups, and after a long time, 15 dogs
were selected to compete with each other. It was a very large ring, and Djahirah was obviously enjoying herself and showed herself perfectly. Lucky for me, this way I only had to run nicely beside her. She won and
got red, white and green, best bitch in the open class. Later, Asjsjihr and Djahirah competed against each other for best of breed, and Asjsjihr won.
We had never thought that our Dutch sloughis would score so high over here, so we were quite impressed!

At about 5:00 p.m., the prize-distribution took place, and we had to stand in the middle of the ring and all the other owners walked around us with their dogs. We were amazed; it was very nice, like a celebration. We were given a large cup for Asjsjihr and another one for Djahirah. Additionally, we received a money prize, which we gave to the Moroccan dog-owners, we didn't do it for the money and they could use it very well. It was equal to a week's pay. We were asked to come back the following day, the best dog in show would than be proclaimed.

October 3 1993, day 7

We slept very well, were still a little dazed about yesterdays winnings. In the morning we took a walk to the Mohammed V mosque which was very beautiful. In the afternoon we drove to the club ground for the concluding day. The best dogs of each breed were standing in the middle of the ring and Asjsjihr was next to a German Shepherd and a Chinese Spaniel. They had to show themselves for half an hour and the jury had a rather busy time. Then, by the sound of hunting-horns, the best dog of show was pointed out and it was...
Surprise! Asjsjihr! Can you imagine how proud we were?
He got another cup and was honored. We were ever so proud!

The next day would be the day to go back home, but by now we felt ourselves quite at home. At the gala diner later that evening, we were offered a sand-colored bitch (best in Morocco, they said) to take home with us. We felt honored, but decided not to take the offer, for the well being of the sloughis. This one had grown up (3 years old she was) in the desert, never felt a leash and didn't know cars, or ever saw other people but it's own.

• El Raisuli         (Moroccan youth champion)

• Anu                   (didn't show, injured)
• Djahirah           (Moroccan champion)
• Asjsjihr             (Moroccan champion)