Corrr difficult one for me to answer as there seems to be a small inexperienced faction who feel recent judging has been extremely facey which I find EXTREMELY ironic as I am not a face and have thought the judges honest and that my dog has won on merit!!!
I think Jackie is spot on in her earlier post when she mentions about being aware of your dogs failings. Its difficult in the beginning because we all love our dogs and think they are the best. I showed my first dog at champ shows and can remember comparing his photo to champions thinking he was as good!!
As an opposite thought....... I was told by a very well respected breeder that being a "face" can actually go against you and in fact if you are able to sit back and watch quite often the names dont do as well as they perhaps should because of who they are. I am not naively suggesting that there arent people who benefit from facey judging but then it is not there fault.
So.... in conclusion..... Karl you trouble maker for starting this...... enjoy your dogs, perservere and the little people can win if your dog is good enough. If you kid yourself you will only get bitter and disheartened.
'BUT you CONSTANTLY hear the 'middle grounders' moaning and bitching Often people who may have been in it ages, BUT are still producing the same very average dogs they always did from the first pet they started with. '
Exackerleeey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Di couldn't agree more (sorry, can't seem to do the 'quote' thingy!! )
And the judge who isn't interested or can't be bothered to speak politely to me or be pleasant with my dog is such a wind-up
This has been a good posting, although I don't think we've drawn any conclusions!
My OH has just come in and said that the kennels who do well often have a lot of dogs being shown and good ones at that, so given the number of dogs and number of classes they enter, then by weight of numbers they will be perceived to be doing well. How many dogs have they owned/bred which haven't made the grade?
As was commented earlier, there are people who have been in a breed for years, breeding away, buying in stock, which is never going to trouble the best. I've seen it in another breed - very enthusiastic, but no further forward than they were 20 odd years ago!!
Speaking to other "big" names in another breed when they started out - bought a dog, showed it, not good enough - move it on (sounds harsh I know, but its the only way to improve), until such time as you either breed a good dog or get a good dog. The good (or bad depending on your viewpoint) thing about the Lab classes is that dogs aren't placed all the way down the line so virtually no-one (unless there's 6 in a 5 placed class) actually ends up being "last". This also has a negative side in that you don't know, (e.g. in a 20 dog class) where in the unplaced 15 you'd figure - were you just outside top 5 or were you in the bottom 5? This happens in GSD judging - dogs are placed right the way down. It's not nice being on the end or at the bottom, but at least you know where you stand after a couple shows!!
This is just dog-showing - it's a case of either putting up and hoping for the best or turning to stamp collecting!! It's a good day out with your dogs, meeting people, seeing (and learning) by watching the winners in the ring, how they're handled etc. and studying bloodlines.
I know I felt a bit hard done by at the Open Show at Bon Accord last weekend (judge was just plain WEIRD to me), but hey ho - there's another show in a week's time!!
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