On Tuesday 6^th and Wednesday 7^th April, the Kennel Club Building at Stoneleigh Park hosted the auditions for the role of Toto in a gala performance of the forthcoming stage production of The Wizard of Oz. as part of the BBC1 programme ‘Over the Rainbow’.

The event was extremely successful, with hundreds of dogs passing through the Kennel Club Building doors along with their happy owners who had travelled from as far as Scotland to Cornwall to take part.  

Prospective Totos started arriving at 6.30am, with some even camping out on the road outside the venue before the car park gates were opened. After queuing outside, the dogs and their owners were looked after in one of the two halls by Kennel Club staff and volunteers from Leamington Dog Training Club, who were on hand to offer advice and to help keep the dogs safe and comfortable.  Some of the pets auditioning were also show dogs used to the limelight, but for many others it was a first taste of such surroundings as they came along in the hope of landing the role of Toto.

The Kennel Club ensured that owners behaved responsibly by supplying poo bags and making sure they picked up after their dog, and also supplied water bowls both inside and outside the venue. The number of exercise rings available helped to make the building the perfect venue for the auditions and, even with the large number of dogs attending, they were all impeccably well behaved with no incidents being reported - just a lot of happy dogs!

Even though there is a strong campaign in progress, rooting for a Cairn Terrier to be the new Toto as in the famous film version, there was a wide variety of dogs taking part in the auditions, ranging from Chihuahuas to Leonbergers, and with plenty of cross and mixed breeds.  It was wonderful to see such a varied selection each with their own trick and unique style to impress the judges.  A Great Dane even arrived with a rather fetching bow tie hoping to make an impression.  Many of the owners commented that they had just come along for a day out and if they got through it would be an added bonus.   

The Kennel Club worked with programme producers talkbackTHAMES from early on in the organisation of this exciting event, to make sure that owners signed what was required of them and their dogs.  This included suggesting parts of the Terms and Conditions that the owners had to sign that referred directly to the health and wellbeing of the dogs. The Kennel Club had a responsibility not only to the production company to ensure that the event ran smoothly, but more importantly to the dogs and their welfare once they had arrived at the venue.

As well as ensuring that the dogs inside the building were well looked after, Kennel Club staff also patrolled the car park at regular intervals to make sure that no dogs that had been left in any cars, and that warnings about dogs in hot cars were on display.

After registering attendance and waiting for their audition time, the dogs were taken by their owners in groups into the second hall where they were judged by Jodie Prenger, Gerry Cott and Sarah Fisher.  From each group one or two dogs were chosen to come back in the afternoon for individual auditions. As part of the afternoon round of auditions the owners were accompanied by their dogs for interviews on camera with the various judges and had an opportunity to show off their dog’s skills.  Each day up to 20 dogs were chosen to go through to the next round and they received an exclusive green Toto audition rosette.

The judges followed the second day of auditions with a conference where they chose 10 dogs to travel to London to meet ‘The Lord’, Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

The audition process will be part of the ‘Over the Rainbow’ programme on BBC1 over the next few weeks.

Jenny Deakin, a member of Team GB going to Denmark this summer for the World Heelwork to Music Championships, made it through the first two rounds of auditions with her Border Collie, Tom. She is now waiting with baited breath to find to out whether she made it through to the final ten.

The production company, talkbackTHAMES, chose to hold the auditions at the Kennel Club Building over similar venues in the Midlands area because of the excellent facilities that the building has to offer. 

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