OLAF KNAUBER (D)
will judge Afghan Hounds, Italian Greyhounds and all breeds of the Club del Levriero, with the sole exception of Whippets, offering exhibitors a truly international judging perspective. Below is his profile.
The acquisition of our family’s first Greyhound (a German bred grandson of the American import Hewly Harry Tucker) in the late 1970s marked the beginning of a growing passion for this beautiful breed as well as the entry into the „World of Sighthounds“.
My sisters and I started showing our Greyhounds afterwards and participated quite successfully at Junior Handling competitions all over Europe. We soon got our first home-bred champions at the small kennel of the Knauber family celebrating its 40th anniversary already. One of our best-known Greyhounds should be Int. Multi-Ch. Happy Hunter’s Coco Chanel, who went Specialty Best in Show in an entry of 223 – considered as one of the world’s biggest Greyhound Club Shows ever – held near Paris by the French Greyhound Club in the early 1990s.
I feel quite lucky to have grown up in a family passionate about Sighthounds and being mentored by some great personalities of the scene. I couldn’t be gladder to get connected with Dagmar Kenis-Pordham (Solstrand Greyhounds & Irish Wolfhounds) during several stays in England from teenage age on. Until today there still is a strong connection. Further names like Frans Gerritsen (Velocity Greyhounds in the Netherlands) as well as the immortal Dr. Gôran Bodegard from Sweden and Mr. Frank Sabella from the US need to be mentioned on my journey to become a FCI judge.
Since the early 1990ies my interest and later professional background in marketing and communication brought me to the editorial team of the German Sighthound Magazine printing more than 4.000 copies every month then. Until 2018 I have been a show committee member of the internationally renowned Sighthound Festival Donaueschingen with more than 1.700 entries, coming from more than 25 countries at my very last event, including exhibitors from South America and Australia.
After starting my judge’s education for Greyhounds and Whippets, at the time as youngest breed judge of the German Sighthound Association in 1997, I am actually approved to judge more than 20 breeds (all sighthounds and related breeds of FCI group X and V). Up to now I had judging appointments in more than 20 countries all over Europe beside breed specialties in the USA, Russia and UK.
Some of my personal highlights was awarding CC’s at the prestigious English Hound Association Show, the Irish Wolfhound Club Show of Northern Ireland, the Saluki Club of Greater San Francisco (California), judging a Greyhound and Borzoi Club Show in Russia, as well as judging the major Sighthound Specialties and Greyhound Club Shows in all Scandinavian countries, including the world famous Skokloster Summer Show in Sweden. To award Best in Show lately at the French Sighthound Specialty Pompadour has been a memorable moment, as well as an amazing entry of Italian Sighthounds and all related Sighthound breeds of FCI group V at the German Winner during the great World Dog Show weekend ’17 at Leipzig / Germany.
Since 2014 I live in the north of Germany together with my partner and passionate greyhound breeder Ina Koulermou from Cyprus. We are living our dream with the success story of Ina’s Fashion Greyhounds.
We bred the top-dog all breeds 2022 in our country, who also won the Hound Group at Crufts and Best in Show at FCI European Winner ’22 in Paris. We still continue breaking records with Standard Greyhounds bred in Germany – but most important for us is to promote this noble and ancient breed in the best sense of the word.
Ina’s Fashion Greyhounds has been ranked as top greyhound breeder UK for several years (according to Our Dogs Ranking | UK). We had the top Greyhound in the UK for four years in a row with several Best in Show wins at the English Greyhound Club Show. Beside other amazing awards, the #1 Sighthound in Finland as well as the #1 Greyhound all systems in the United States (both in 2023) are proudly bred and co-owned by Ina’s Fashion Greyhounds from Germany.
Ina’s Fashion Highlight is our current star, who won All Breed Best in Shows and has been lately awarded as Reserve Best in Group at the 2025 FCI World Dog Show in Finland – at not even 2 years of age.
During the last years I have been co-organizing congresses and breeders’ seminars, including the first Sighthound Congress in Germany. As a speaker of the FIWC Federation of Irish Wolfhound Clubs Congress 2022 in Czech Republic I presented the exciting topic “Breed Type and its Diversities”. The same year I have been a speaker with a subsequent workshop at the Greyhound World Congress organized by the Greyhound Club UK with the central topic on “How to promote our Breed for the Future”.
In 2024 I have been invited to run a judges’ education on behalf of the Dutch Kennel Club in front of more than 130 breed judges from the Netherlands by introducing communication theories and basics from a professional background. It has been mostly effective to put communication skills as main topic of an exchange between breed specialists – by connecting scientific principles with practical implementation in the context of dog shows.
I am also publishing articles at print and online media as well as content at specialized magazines worldwide, like the former Sighthound Review International Annual, edited by the late Bo Bengtson (USA). In 2024 we had a widely spread TV appearance on television programs in Germany sharing our passion for Greyhounds – to promote our beautiful but more and more rare breed.
For me, it is a great honor to be part of the international judges’ board of the famous “Raduno di Primavera”, organized by the Club del Levriero. I am looking very much forward to join your amazing event – well known for great quality entries of beautiful sighthounds in Italy.
