The Yaiza City Council, with the support of the Spanish Presa Canario Club, held a monographic meeting to promote knowledge of the breed and generate interest in the world of dog shows, with the participation of more than thirty specimens from Lanzarote and Gran Canaria gathered last Sunday in the Plaza de la Alameda de Yaiza.
As the objective, more than competing, aimed to offer information about the Presa Canario, the exhibition was preceded by a morning of presentations focused on the history, morphological characteristics and personality of the breed that took place on Saturday at the Casa de la Cultura Benito Pérez Armas of Yaiza with notable attendance from neighbors.
“They are molossoid dogs, strong, weighing between 60 and 65 kilos, with a large head, excellent guardians and above all potentially affectionate, balanced dogs that easily adapt to any environment”, explained Diego Hernández, vice president of the Spanish Presa Canario Club, who also served as commissioner, assisting the judge in the Sunday competition.
During the competition, the judge Ricardo Oramas maintained that “the idea was to highlight the virtues of the animal and minimize what could be its defects”, however, due to the educational purpose of the Yaiza meeting, the judge did not limit himself only to evaluating the animals, but also to indicating to the owners how they should correctly handle the dog and advise on aspects to work on to improve its development.
The Presa Canario is an international breed recognized by the International Cynological Federation (FCI), the largest canine organization in the world. At the Yaiza exhibition, the public was able to appreciate specimens of three color coats, brindle, fawn and black, and puppies from 4 to 6 months old to champion dogs that have been in competitions in the peninsula and abroad. The mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, and the councilor for Festivities, Daniel Medina, presided over the awards ceremony for the trophies made by the southern craftsman Pancho Ortiz, a neighbor fully involved in the organization of the meeting.
The Yaiza City Council intends to organize a new meeting in the municipality to continue learning about this breed considered heritage of the Islands and very popular throughout the Canary Islands and beyond its borders for its imposing figure. According to the Spanish Presa Canario Club, 40 percent of the breed is found outside the Archipelago, estimating the number of specimens at 20,000 globally.