SkySoaringMagpie

I send emails on my pups birthdays; one puppy owner took great offence to this and on the 2nd birthday replied to my email telling me to "stop harassing them" or they'd take out a restraining order and that they "wanted a dog not a new friend". So I try and respect those who don't want contact but since I like contact, I also try and pick buyers who are like that. Wow. Do they get cranky at the place they buy their cars, appliances and whatever else sending information? Maybe they do...

Perhaps send it this year, and if you get no response then next year make a donation to your animal charity of choice instead for those pups. That way you're recognising the other pups which is important to you and the other pup owners get their presents I don't think a once a year contact on the pup's birthday is excessive, providing you're not buying them all swarovski collars or something!

I am not keen on Robertson Ag, not because of the dog section which has always been fine and well run, but because of those horrible, loud, deeply unfunny announcers the Ag Show has wittering on incessantly. They were so damn loud one year I couldn't hear myself think, IIRC it was the year after the Equine Flu outbreak when the dogs were in the horse arena. We would only go if we thought the judge was awesome, and we'd bring earplugs.

Go the Sighthounds!!! :D

I saw a couple of photos posted online recently that looked pretty ratty - dirty floor, chewed up bed, dogs a bit untidy. Not on DOL, before anyone goes looking. I can remember thinking that people would draw an unfavourable impression from the photos and I worry about that because the person is a friend of mine who does look after her dogs. Now there are days when our place is not a show place lord knows. I have a bed destroyer, and the Afghans drop dirt everywhere, and let's just say Friday after work is not a good time to invite older female relatives over. However, I get up OH in a big way if any pictures are posted with even a dusty floor and I don't post photos with mess in them. I dislike Steptoe and Son type outdoor backgrounds too. Is this me being paranoid, or should people be careful what they put online? Is the answer different if you are a dog professional, a breeder, or you show than if you are "just" a pet owner?

Best answer! Depends a bit on age of dogs, breed, energy of owner - all that stuff. We are on 20 acres and have 6 medium/large dogs and 1 giant breed dog. We are definitely crazy, perhaps not in a bad way but we do something "doggie" just about every weekend and don't mind spending hours a day in addition to paid work interacting with, feeding, grooming and cleaning up after dogs. If we weren't crazy dog people on acres, 7 would be far too many. Like others, it does get crazy when the girls are in season and when you have young pups. Otherwise, the breeds tend to work in our favour as they are all 60k an hour couch potatoes. The other thing is that we have a high disposable income which we spend on the dogs. I don't think we could do it if our incomes were cut by half.

I would phone the secretary this close in to check that your entries made it - unless you did them on OzEntries I guess in which case you should be fine.

Mr Hammond is unable to fulfil his appointments at these shows for medical reasons. Mr John Lewington (SA) will take Mr Hammond's assignments. New schedules are now up on OzEntries and the DogsACT website.

No, they did all the classes IIRC? Anyway, yes, you need to come back on Sunday if you win your breed class or baby of the day in your group.

A behaviour that has or can affect a person's* health or safety - jumping up, HA, roaming the streets and roads A behaviour that has or will affect the dog's quality of life, health or safety - fence jumping, getting in the face of strange dogs, eating the carpet A behaviour that annoys me, the fix for which will not negatively affect the dog's quality of life, health or safety - eg, pulling on lead, chewing but not eating household posessions, whining There are things I allow that others would not, and things I don't allow that others would. Sorry, forgot second part of question. Training or management depends a great deal on each individual's resources in time, skill, money, energy and emotional competence. For me it's a kind of risk assessment based on the likelihood of the behaviour occurring and the consequences. I will rely purely on training for whining, my irritation is no big deal if the training fails. For roaming tho', I rely on 6 foot cyclone mesh fences, not training. *dogs and other animals also fall into this category with DA and stock chasing I think.

That's a good point Corvus. I think it is generally easier to find a good breeder of a truly rare or less common breed (not a "blue staffy" lol). They are less likely to be in it for the money and more likely to be breeding for the betterment of the breed. One thing about people after money tho', they tend to be more polite on the first contact - and some people with rare or exotic or "difficult" breeds can be snobbish and/or appear exacting, which can lead to a less than fab first encounter unless you have some kind of introduction from someone else.

:D ;)

To be honest, I never expected that I would be "shopping" with the breeders first if that makes sense. I asked friends and two co-workers who had experience with the breed or contacts with breeders for recommendations - at the time I was looking for a companion only. Their recommendations filtered out the breeders who would be disinterested in a newbie pet owner. I went with a breeder that there was consensus on from everyone - it wasn't that everyone sang her praises, the best one person said was "she'd be OK" but unlike every other name that came up, no-one I consulted had a strong reaction against her. I have now had 4 dogs from her and the relationship is now one of mentor/mentoree. We email every week at least and talk on the phone regularly. We get on really well with the breeders of OH's Afghans and Wolfhound too. In the case of the Afghans, we have also not gone elsewhere in 8 years and are still close (regular email/phone) with the breeder. I suspect that like most things, there is incentive to complain if you have had a bad experience, but not a lot of reason to post if you have had a good one.

Might be a big dog/little dog thing? If ours aren't being shown, they stay home with a dog savvy house sitter when we go away for the weekend. As we have an old companion dog, there's always someone that needs looking after so an extra dog isn't a big deal. For me it's too much hassle to take a medium sized dog away if you're not going to show it, particularly a moody Saluki bitch

Worst I ever saw in the peeing dog stakes was a dog peeing on a baby's bassinet, with the baby in it! As for the bitches in season threads, like other common topics they usually go the same way - to the point that when I saw this one come up I thought to myself that I could write a summary of the thread before it got going!! Some people will say it's rude, others will say the objectors' dogs need better training. Neither side will agree. I think some manners goes a long way, as well as some perspective about what a day away from a show ultimately means (ie, not a lot unless you're missing a once in ten years specialist God of your breed).

We assume now that no emergency treatment will occur without upfront payment at any vet, and we keep a credit card for that purpose. The difficulty is that for people who are not experienced dog people, and not bad debtors, it's a hard, hard lesson in the realities of life. Many people have no reason to think they'll be asked for full payment upfront, that is not how ordinary consults work for a start, so there's no precedent for it. I do think that if someone has a good record at the practice (ie, they pay their bills and they bring their dogs in for appropriate treatment/checkups) that it is pretty hard to insist on full payment when they are providing a good deposit in good faith.

Recently an exhibitor in NSW was banned for unsportsmanlike behaviour and it definitely made the rounds - everyone knew about it.

The Saluki Club of NSW is running a neuter class at its speciality in April. Entries available on OzEntries.

What is the answer then? I'm not trying to be funny, it's a serious question. How would you stop people being rude? I would not react, in fact I'd just set an example by being polite, friendly, congratulating them on their successes, making a point of saying hello each time I saw them, complimenting them on their lovely dogs..... Rudeness being tolerated doesn't make it right. Making uncomplimentary remarks about someones dogs only makes the person opening their mouth look really really ugly to those hearing it. Rising above it makes that person look like the better person. Hard to bite ones tongue, much harder than giving as good as you get a lot of the time, but at the end of the day at least you don't look anywhere near as ugly as those who can't play the game nicely. You've explained how you stop yourself being rude but not how you would stop others being rude. The latter is my question, prompted by your observation that we are tolerating rudeness. Some people are going to consistently behave badly no matter what anyone does and they teach their kids to do the same. Dealing with that effectively includes considerations about time, energy and how much someone is going to impose on your courtesy. For the badly behaved, you being polite is an opportunity to impose on you, not an opportunity to reflect on your shining example. I too like to be the change I want to see, but good boundaries mean not engaging with all the stuff designed to provoke, annoy or suck up your time and energy - particularly if engaging with it means you will put your dog and your own performance in the ring at a disadvantage. Some friends in another breed/group are stopping going to shows because there is an exhibitor who is so obnoxious, and so impervious to direct feedback about her obnoxious behaviour, that it is just really unpleasant being at the grounds with her. Being polite doesn't stop her, it encourages her and my armchair diagnosis is that there is BPD or NPD or something similar going on. The way to keep the new exhibitor who is feeling put off by this is to give the new exhibitor skills to deal with it, because lord knows the other person is not going to change, at least not without some very expensive and time consuming therapy. The advice I gave the newbie was to cut all communication with that person and make friends outside the group. It is more effective for the newbie to completely disengage, than to have nice conversations. EFS

The Australian Breeds and Hound Twilight Shows being run in conjunction with the Canberra Royal are still open this week on OzEntries. Both shows will run on the Saturday night of the Royal. Schedules available on OzEntries and the DogsACT website. The shows will be closed this coming weekend so if you haven't entered get your entries in this week!

OK, after a weekend away in the rain with an Afghan we're in the market for a portable dryer. Do you have one and would you recommend it? What's the brand? Do you work yours off a generator?

What is the answer then? I'm not trying to be funny, it's a serious question. How would you stop people being rude?

Reminds me of when I was new and used to patiently listen to someone witter on to me at length about how terrible it was that certain people in the breed never said hello or spoke to them at shows, how rude, etc. It was only later that I realised those rude exhibitors were smarter than me!!

I try not to talk about being hard enough or tough enough because I think newbies don't want to end up hard or tough. They certainly don't want to wind up like the humourless exhibitors who chuck their dogs in the backs of crates with faces like thunder if the judge has the temerity to award BOB to someone else. I prefer to talk about giving people skills in sports psychology, because that is really what it is about. I think teliing someone that they are copping it because they are a threat can ring a bit hollow sometimes. There are some people who will kick out any ladder they see behind them, even if the person is a long way behind them. And to be frank there are some psychopathic individuals and plenty of bullies who do it just because they get a kick out of it. I think the specifics of show ring sports psychology would fill a thread that would run to pages and pages, but I think it comes down to not allowing people to take up space in your head, and not allowing their bad behaviour to drive your reactions. A little bit of distance goes a long way. And if you don't have a life outside of showing, which helps you keep the whole thing in perspective, you are stuffed. Edited for clarity

If they are just going out or just coming in and it's important enough (international specialist) I will - making sure to toilet them well away from rings and keep them out of the way. Middle of season - no way. Probably wouldn't for points either way, there's always another show.