Crufts

Doggy-Licious

Crufts

Attraction (General)
in/near Birmingham, Shropshire (Inc Birmingham),
England Heart Of Inc Birmingham

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Review added: 15/01/2008 17:15
By: katygriff (£0.00 earned from reviews) Earn £££'s

"The national exhibition centre in Birmingham is fantastic and hosts many exhibitions each year with literally thousands upon thousands of people visiting. One of these which is an annual occurrence is the legendary Crufts which is for dog lovers everywhere. I went last year and had a great day out with my mom and sister and would definitely go again. Hopefully in this review I will get over why this is a great show to go to especially if you love dogs.

Ok so the address of the NEC is as follows;

National Exhibition Centre
Birmingham
B40 1NT

You can get there by car via motorway links which is easy enough and the NEC has a huge car park for hundreds of cars so you will be fine. Expect to pay between £5 – 10 to park depending what shows are on. You can also get there via train which costs a few pounds. Get to Birmingham New Street and then a short ride to Birmingham International and you are there.

Ok so Crufts is on once a year and as you probably know from seeing it all on the television, it is a massive show and attracts thousands of people. As a dog lover I have been meaning to go for a while and I had no expectations really and just went along. I loved it and I will go through what you can do there now.


The Dogs

Now of course the reason you are here at Crufts is to see all of the wonderful dogs who are bought in high hopes to gain some recognition. They have to show how good they look and how well behaved they are. As you walk into Crufts which is basically a massive showroom you will see all of the dogs.

They are all in categories so west highland terriers will all be together and so on. You do have to choose a day to go to Crufts and depending on what day you go will depend on the types of dogs you see.

Hundreds of people bring their dogs and you can walk around where all of the dogs are being kept and watch owners getting ready and also have a chat to them about Crufts. There are dogs everywhere and we must have spent at least two hours wandering around and stroking them. They were lovely!

This is a massive area where they wait and takes a while to walk around.


Small Shows

In the main hall you will see several small shows which assess the dogs and you can sit and watch as many as you like for as long as you like. These are however just dogs walking around in a circle but still nice to watch.


Main Shows

Now in the main theatre you will find lots of dog shows. You may have to wait a little to get in there but you can visit as many times as you like and stay for as long as you like. Here they have lots of shows and we sat and watched several assault courses, guide dog show, police dog show and a safety show. They are all very enjoyable and last around ten – fifteen minutes each which is good.

You do get a seat in this theatre and is a must to go and watch some while you are at the show.


Stalls

As you can imagine at Crufts there are a lot of dog stalls for you to visit selling everything you could ever want for your dog. We sat transfixed for a while watching dogs on treadmills and they loved it. We also bought lots of treats which were on special offer, dog leads and a nice basket.

Unusually enough there was a cat stall which I noticed and as you can imagine there are lots of charities there including the RSPCA that you can go and take a look at. There are souvenir stalls to which are of course animal orientated but nice to look around and I got a really nice art work from here.


Food

When you are at an exhibition at the NEC you will always find that there are food and drinks stalls all around you so you don't have to walk far to find one.


Other

Toilets are everywhere in the NEC and staff are always on hand to help if you need them. As this is a dog friendly place you will see lots of dogs and the atmosphere is great as animal lovers are usually lovely people.

We stayed for about six hours and could have stayed longer really but we arrived late. It is a fantastic day out and you do get to meet some lovely animals and some obsessed owners. I would definitely return to Crufts as it is wonderful and tickets costs between £10 – 40 depending on the day that you go.

I suggest if you are thinking of going to check the categories on the day you are thinking so you can see the type of dogs you want to. A fantastic exhibition!!!

Thanks for reading.

xxx"

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