Skip to main content

Putting on a dog show

Putting on a dog show is tough work - especially for a club's first show! There were ribbons to order, a show site to find, judges to contact and contract, forms to order, advertisement to do, rules to follow and tears to shed. Okay, I didn't actually cry, but at times I wanted to - even though I am obsessively organized I kept thinking something might go wrong.

What could go wrong?

Well, I don't really know. The worst case scenario is that the UKC decides we are completely incompetent as a club and doesn't let us have a show again. Right now, a week after our first show, this doesn't seem like a completely bad thing (I guess I am still a little shell shocked). Last week, however, it did.

The worst thing that happened was that on Saturday someone complained to everyone that would listen about the regulation ring size- it was too small for her hunting breed. So the next day, we made it bigger. Then she had the audicity to not use the whole ring when she was going around! Thank god for my shrink and the downers I had taken - I laughed instead of my trigger finger getting itchy.

It was fabulous seeing old friends and to make new friends, to sit and talk and get to know people better. It was awesome to hear compliments on our first show - that it was well organized and it actually started on time! We had compliments on our ribbons and our judges. Our mini-seminar was well attended by everyone and was the talk of the show the next day - we were all trying to put into practice what Nina Marie Sherrer had told us to do!

The best part of the whole experience for me, however, was that so many people pitched in and helped out! I could never in a millon years thank these people enough, but I will list them, and please know you all have my deepest gratitude and appreciation for pitching in, running errands, making me laugh, loaning us equipment, offering advice, holding dogs, telling jokes, and smiling thoughout the whole day!

A big thank you to: Tracey Kallas, Roselle Anthony, Diana Bertram, Kari Jepson, Betty McNeil-Scott, Ruth Kramer and Nina Marie Sherrer! You ladies are the BEST!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

High Toes

Sometimes I get into discussions with people about dog structure and really, really, it makes me want to beat my head against a wall. However, those always make me publish those words and pictures that have been rattling around in my head for a while. Case in point – someone posted on a board that they thought that a high toe on a dog was a “cosmetic fault.” My opinion on this is fairly solid – NO! A high toe is a STRUCTUAL fault. Someone then posted that they wanted “proof.” Ah, here we go. The boondoggle of proof! Studies! Someone, somewhere, somehow agreeing or disagreeing with my point! The unfortunate thing is that it really isn’t to be found. Our Proof wanter found a website in which a couple had a Staffordshire Terrier with a high toe, and they readily admitted that the high toe caused issues with her gait, but then concluded that it was just a cosmetic issue. Hmm, really? The document can be found here , you can look at the pictures and read it for yourself. (Don't use the
6 comments
Read more

All Positive - All BS

I, in my infinate inability to keep my mouth shut, offered someone training advice on a public forum for their resource guarding Rat Terrier. I told them that when he does the growling bit, calmly walk over, pick him up by the scruff of the neck, and put him in his kennel for a few hours. In my own experience with Ratties, this works pretty well because the dog learns that if you attempt to guard something, you will be corrected and then removed from your treasure and the rest of the pack. I didn't think that this was in any way controversial. Oh, how wrong I was! I found out that I might as well have told her to punt the dog like a football across the room, because that is what "scruffing" is to the "All Positive" fanatics. Of course, their suggestions would lead to reinforcement of the behavior or out and out terror. There were two camps - the first camp said to "redirect the dog's behavior by offering it a treat to give up it's treasure
Post a Comment
Read more

Brindle and the Rat Terrier

It seems like every once in a while the topic of brindle comes up in the Rat Terrier world. Teeth are gnashed and garments are rendered because brindle is not an acceptable pattern in our breed, and the standard says that brindle is a disqualification. The standard probably won’t change any time soon, and I certainly hope that it will NEVER include brindle! Why? The UKC standard says, in the very beginning, that “These terriers probably included crosses between the Smooth Fox Terrier, the Manchester Terrier and the now extinct white English Terrier… Some of these dogs were crossed with Whippets or Italian Greyhounds (for speed) and Beagles (for hunting ability).” Let’s take a look at the ancestors of the Rat Terrier and how their standards treat brindle: Smooth Fox Terrier UKC : Serious Fault AKC: Objectionable Manchester Terrier: UKC: Disqualification AKC: Disqualification Whippet: UKC: Any color/pattern accepted. AKC: Any color/pattern accepted. Italian Greyhounds: UKC: Disqualif
5 comments
Read more