SkySoaringMagpie

Friday BIS was a GSD - don't know any more.

That was before he found out I had duck treats and was offering hugs He fell in love with Wolfsong, as did a visiting Tibetan Terrier. It was very cute.

I'm also up for a mercy dash if you need it ssm. Or if you want company pf. Thanks to a combo of NRMA Premium Care and good friends locally we're OK. Our friends are taking us and towing the trailer back to Yass tomorrow and our car is being towed to our mechanic in Yass on Monday. No-one locally was interested in looking at it before next week. Nice to know that the CSM would have helped out tho',

Yesterday was a complete soaking - Wolfsong has pix when she gets back. It rained and rained. The judge in our ring (Mrs Watson from WA) was an incredibly good sport about the whole thing. Big props to her for making a difficult situation a good humoured one. Unfortunately this morning we are waiting to hear from a mechanic in Narooma about our car which broke down on the way back to where we are staying - in the middle of a thunderstorm, going up a hill, towing a trailer with 4 dogs in it, in an area with no mobile coverage. Fortunately the NRMA and police stopped when they saw us there. Also, a big thank you to the two nice Cavalier ladies who stopped - sorry, I did not get your names. I understand at least one of the roads into Bermie is closed too today.

I'm so sorry, it's a truly horrible disease. Fellow was fortunate to have you taking care of him. It sounds like you did all you could for him, including making the hardest decision when it needed to be made. :D Run free Fellow.

Unfortunately the window from 2-4 years is the risk point for this disease. It's a terrible shame because it seems like their life has just begun. What breed is he? Don't feel you have to answer here, but from what I understand, smaller breeds have a better chance of recovery. However, even smaller breeds often don't make old bones because the steroid/chemo treatment is pretty hard on them. A number of people said to me after our boy passed that in some ways it was a mercy that he passed because if they survive the treatment can be rough on them and you can get other stuff like Cushings down the track. OTOH, if they go into remission you can get many more years together. If it helps, our boy fought hard but when the vet rang us saying she felt it was necessary to PTS she indicated she felt he had given up. In your position I would try and work out if my dog was still fighting or if he had given up. If the latter, I would speed him to relief. If the former, I would keep fighting. I know it's hard, you're in a terrible position. :D

This happened with our boy. I hope like crazy your boy pulls through, but one lesson I learned from my experience was that we should have more seriously considered the possibility that our boy would die, and how we would like him to go. The vets dropped hints I realise in retrospect (eg "he's a very sick boy") but we didn't realise that was code for "there is a more than even chance your dog will die" He went at 4am, away from us in an emergency overnight clinic. Not what I ever would have wanted. If I were faced with the same situation again with this disease, I would probably either ask for him to be PTS once his PCV hit 15 or take him home with us to pass. I struggled a bit about whether to post this as I don't want to be a downer at this difficult time. However, it's something I would discuss with your OH. Would your vet allow you to come in overnight if he became critical and needed to be PTS (or take him home with you overnight so that you can be with him?) I have heard of dogs with PCVs of 5 surviving so there is definitely hope. It's times like this you wish for that magical book that would tell you exactly what to do Hang in there.

We're going and thanks to your post I just checked the weather. TG we are only showing a Baby Afghan and staying with friends so we can dunk the little bugger in a bath if we have to (and stay back at their place and have prawns and white wine if it all looks too dire...). Will pack extra towels and rain gear. What is it about that weekend? I remember one year it rained so much the obedience field was under 3 inches of water and they had to cancel the trial

Yes it is, tho it sounds like he is holding steady so that is good news. from all of us who have been through it before.

I have had a dog with this and unfortunately he died 5 days after onset despite the best available medical care. There is a lot of information on the web, but it is a very serious illness and unfortunately the survival rate is not encouraging. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst Please let us know how he gets on.

Ooh good idea. Consider it stolen

BIS Akita RUBIS Borzoi

FB says Paula Batten's Afghan was Puppy in Show. Can't help with anything else, sorry!

I agree that it is far from an exact science, especially if you are new. However, I think you eventually develop multiple sources you can trust and putting all those perspectives together with your own experience you can get a fair picture. When you make an error of judgment (as everyone does) you just pick yourself up and learn from it. One thing anyone can do is avoid the really obvious "no go" stuff, I mean, I see repeat appointments with local judges with awful entries and wonder why on earth the committees do it. I'd say more but our baby puppy who is having his first show today has just decided to take a bath in the water bowl. Gotta run!

I think form guide judging is a problem but it's not just an advertising thing. In fact, I think a lot of money gets wasted on ads. I agree about the pointscores tho'. I've been told that because I don't enter pointscores I put myself at a disadvantage because my dogs won't be "recognisable" as competitive. The thing is, what about the exhibitors that were mentioned in the other thread who enter and scratch 17 dogs to boost their pointscore? I've also seen some pretty big guns travel many more hours than your average newbie is prepared to travel to attend teeny tiny rural shows towards the end of the year to battle it out for the pointscore. If a newbie did that to score a 6 point challenge they'd be ridiculed. Pointscores are clearly fun and rewarding for people who do them but turning yourself inside out to win one and using them as a form guide is not in the best interests of the sport. There are some very lovely dogs in my breed who are shown sparingly and are not entered in the pointscore. I'd expect a good judge to find them in a line up. Speaking as a show secretary, nothing pulls in the entries like a judge that is known for "doing their own thing". If people want to be part of fixing things I think a good place to start is to volunteer on a club committee and be part of appointing judges that are a) competent, b) honest and c) don't give a rodent's rear end about whether people think they are "silly". Especially if the peanut gallery is largely made up of those who are a little more corrupt and a little less competent . Sometimes being part of the solution means speaking against suggestions people make and risking being unpopular. If you think a system you are participating in is corrupt, you need to be part of fixing it.

I probably wouldn't give a Saluki a name like Vladimir any more than I would give Borzoi a name like Jamila. I think your own heritage makes sense tho'. My first Saluki had a Western registered name and I also went for a Western call name (Lucy). That was partly because I felt I didn't have the expertise to know whether I was calling her "Ladies Toilets" in Arabic, if you know what I mean. The litter my second Saluki was from was named by someone from the COO and his registered name didn't have any difficult back of the throat style pronunciation so I kept it for his call name as well (Jadir, means "worthy"). My third Saluki was bred by someone in the COO and he offered us a list of names to pick from. I picked Rabha for her registered name (she who always prevails) but it's quite hard to yell off the back of the porch with the appropriate pronunciation and Rab didn't seem very feminine so I went for Mab. Of course, that's now become Mabby, Mabbins, Mabbits who chases Rabbits, etc etc. This is probably a long way of saying I would use either my heritage or my dogs heritage but would be very unlikely to pick something obviously from another heritage. Edit, speaking of my heritage I do love PF's Howard for a dog's name and I once ran into a Schnauzer called Trevor which I thought was an awesome name. I'm not sure I'll ever call a Saluki by the kind of name you'd find in the public service gazette but if I get another breed watch out

Staffords are on Saturday. There is also a twilight Stafford Speciality on Saturday as well - not before 3pm. Exhibitors usually get a "not before" time with their numbers. Until that is out it's hard to say exactly when they will start at the Royal but if you're there on Saturday mid afternoon to early evening you should see plenty of Stafford judging either at the Royal or at the Speciality.

Actually many breed shows dont have specialist judges. True, but in the scenario I described the judge was an international specialist.

I like it this way. Me too, and it's how I catalogue. Also, if you have a chronic bum-runner (or slow-poke) in your breed then at least people have an even chance of not ending up in front of them (or behind depending). While there are things you can do to manage those kinds of exhibitors it is nice to know you won't ALWAYS be stuck in a certain position with them.

I don't think there is any way of knowing the answer to your second question. As you point out, if the judge had let them go then it's a different situation than an exhibitor just deciding to leave because they don't like the decision and/or don't want the critique. Unless you're in the ring with them, you'd not know.

3 of 3.

In this case that wasn't a consideration as they didn't have a dog in the next class.

So is that the only reason why someone would do it? Doesn't that skate a bit close to the rules most states have about respecting the judge's decision?

First, for the armchair sleuths, this is NOT my breed I am talking about. However, I was watching a speciality recently and the (international specialist) judge placed the dogs and the breeder/owner of the one who placed third exited the ring and didn't stay for the judge to do a critique. If you're a judge and someone did this would you be offended? Or relieved that that was one less critique to write? Would it make a difference if the person who did it was "senior" or "junior" to you as far as time in the breed is concerned?

I was stewarding toys about 6 months ago and a friend who is also a steward wandered up and said "who did you piss off to wind up with this ring?" Terriers can also suffer from the "a bazillion little dogs in crates" syndrome tho'. JRTs especially.