What do you think of Crufts?

Whippylove said:

@haramander thank you. We've been thinking about showing him and it's something i would love to do. Hes missing around 2-3 inches off his tail but it's healed well and he's still as gorgeous too me

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If you contact your local 'ringcraft' class (dog show training and socialisation), then you'll find a really friendly bunch of people who can give you an honest opinion and help you learn how to handle your whippet in the ring If you PM me where you live I can find your local club.

Whippylove said:

Hi Biker John our vet did say we could still show Oliver but i thought his tail injury would stop him? He lost around 2inches. I would love to take up showing with him do you think theres anyway i could find out? Thank you for the help.

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Find a Whippet breed club and attend a club show, where you can talk to people who show whippets. I'm too new in whippets myself to know how much a shorter tail would affect the dogs chances. I know that the breed standard calls for a tail that reaches the hock, but it's only 1 aspect of the standard and judges should not fault judge

WHIPPET CLUB OF SCOTLAND
http://www.sywc.co.uk/

Crufts? The show the exhibitors love to hate! LOL
Its amazing to qualify and take your dogs... However its extortionately expensive to enter and to actually go on the day(s)! LOL ...And if you multi-discipline its time to take out a small mortgage! (entries, parking, fuel, hotel, dog sitter for the ones left at home, food - and that's before even thinking about shopping...)

Yet we do it year after year!

Get there for stupid o'clock in the morning, just to get a decent parking space that's closer than a shuttle bus ride away, not to mention paying £12 a day to park at NEC. Start showing the first dogs at around 8.30am and to top it off we can't leave til 4pm, no matter what time you are finished showing your dog!

Do we enjoy it? Well we wouldn't go if we didn't... have we had success there? Yes we have won classes and are usually placed with most of the dogs we take.

This March, we will be there competing in the Obreedience final as part of the Canny Cavaliers Obreedience Team on Thursday. Then in the Breeder team competition on Friday and finally on Saturday with the show team! Look us up if you are going on any of those days.

Roxycav said:

Do we enjoy it? Well we wouldn't go if we didn't...

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Roxycav, do your dogs enjoy it? How do they cope with having to be in a strange place all day, with lots of strangers milling around? This is my main main concern about Crufts and other competitive dog events - that the desires of the owners to have the 'best' dogs and to collect a rosette outweigh the best interests of the dogs, and that some dogs have a really miserable day.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that this applies to you - I'm just interested in your perspective as you'll have seen a lot of other competitors 'backstage' - do you see any practices that concern you, and dogs who would like to be anywhere else but at Crufts?

I love dog shows. I love that people are doing things with their dogs. I love training for many of the things there.

BUT, I feel a lot needs to be changed, even of the things I enjoy. Standards for some breeds need to be changed for the interest of the dogs, Flyball needs to go back to having the dog catch the ball - instead of slamming their snouts into the ball release, etc.

In my opinion; a well trained and socialized dog should have NO problem being in that type of environment.

I also question some of the people's ways of training. You can sometimes tell when a dog is maybe based on more aversive training methods....but that's not really something that is Crufts fault, and that can't be regulated, and is my own feelings.