ellz

Pssst....My current site is template based and hosting and domain cost me less than $90 per year. But yes, I agree that for somebody who doesn't want to go it alone, the DOL sites are cheap and easy. Is there a limit on page numbers? A few I saw were cheaper, but you were limited a bit. Nope. You add pages as required. My site is quite large, has been larger. You just create extra pages accordingly. I pay for megs not pages.

A kind of light hearted thread. Poke fun at your own dog show fashion disasters! Newbies can probably learn from this!! Colour is fine, "girls" could do with a tad more uplift!! Make sure nothing gapes.... And don't kneel directly behind a black dog if you're wearing black pants......

Pssst....My current site is template based and hosting and domain cost me less than $90 per year. But yes, I agree that for somebody who doesn't want to go it alone, the DOL sites are cheap and easy.

I prefer email contact initially and I don't reply to mobile numbers because I can't. If somebody contacts me via my website, doesn't leave an email address or landline number and only leaves a mobile, they don't get a return call.

Should add here that I do my own website and have done for the past 12 years or so. I really just wanted to throw the question out there so that others who don't have their own site can perhaps get some ideas about how to maximise the potential of their sites.

So I've asked what prospective puppy people would like to receive in your puppy packs. This time, it is websites. Now we all know that a schmick website is sometimes just smoke and mirrors. Not everybody has the knowledge, time or money to have a really flash, fancy, professional website. So....as somebody who might be looking to purchase a particular breed of puppy, what kinds of things would you like to see on a breeder's website? What would turn you off a breeder immediately? What would make you feel you have found "the one"? Over to you.......

I can't really help you much, but just want to suggest that you look at it from his perspective....... He's only a little dot and you come swooping down on him to pick him up from great heights, he may not be expecting it or he might be looking elsewhere....you'd probably cower too.

I'm trying to convince Karen that she doesn't need to be able to bend over, or run her out because one of us can help but she's a bit "funny" about others with her girl which is understandable. Not being as much a part of the scene, she doesn't understand how "one in all in" it can be! Bad Alice has other fish to fry at this stage. Not confirmed but looking pretty definite at the moment.

I'd say that you could contest the fines for being unregistered provided you have proper supporting documentation, but the rest you'll just have to cop sweet.

Well...it'll be one less dog because at this stage, there'll be no more Bad Alice in the show team. So that'll lighten the load a bit. And I'm still working on Karen to convince her to show Roo again. She's due to whelp herself in July but I've told her that if she enters Roo SOMEBODY can handle her!

It's more when judges wear INSANELY dark glasses and then LOOM over dogs and frighten the bejesus out of them. I couldn't give a toss if other exhibitors wear dark glasses, they don't immediately impact upon my dogs.

If they're the same address, provided you have put in separate cheques and SSAEs, then they should be ok in the one envelope. BUT...always, if in doubt about anything to do with the show it doesn't hurt to ring the secretary and hear from them personally what they would prefer. I try to fold my entries for multiple day shows inside the appropriate SSAE so that they are clearly entries for different shows IYKWIM.

Oooh yeah!! Especially after lunch at a country Aggie show! Oh and I'd rather not find out secondhand that a judge had garlic for dinner the night before either....and neither would my dog!

If it doesn't say what it is in the schedule, just write 3 - 6 S/S in the place for class on the entry form.

I'm a cynic too. I'm always being approached by people because they "know I'm in dogs" about the best place to get an "oodle". Depending upon my mood and their frame of mind, I will usually try and educate them but there are a few repeat offenders and I confess that I don't waste my breath any more with those. On the other hand, a girl in Cairns who has a puppy that I bred was at the vets for puppy needles and she was approached by some bogan with a male Stafford (and yes, it WAS blue) asking if she would be interested in his dog siring a litter for her!

Judging is like exhibiting....you do what does best for you IMO. And in addition to hats, dark glasses and flapping coats......dangly earrings and bracelets, strong perfumes and nicotine fingers!!!!!!!

I think you'd probably find what you are looking for under individual council zones.

Could be the supercoat if they are feeding it. I used to feed Supercoat exlusively until a few years back when they changed the formulation and it just wasn't the food that it had been prior. One of mine gets very itchy and smelly on anything that isn't meat based. Her ears get really skanky, her eyes get mucky and she just stinks.

It can get pretty interesting when it comes to clothing, especially if you're showing more than one dog and they're all different colours! I must confess that I do break my own rules and tend to stick to a black bottom half, either skirt or tailored pants. But I ALWAYS wear something light coloured on top. I find when I'm handing the Americans that having a little bit of black below them when they're stacked on the ground can help to fill in their outline a bit, especially when they're at the awful gangly, legs n wings stage and having something light on top shows off their topline and this is especially the case when they're on the table. And on the move, unless they're a leg-hugger, generally they move out so the black behind them isn't always so bad. And for the Staffords, the only time they are near my legs is occasionally on the move and when stacked I'm never usually directly behind them anyway...Staffords are stacked 3/4 on to the judge and I find I have better control if I'm at the dog's shoulder which puts me to the side of it anyway. But again, the light coloure top applies. For example.....light dog...dark suit Dark dog....light suit And THIS one was a real challenge......I was 7 months pregnant at the time and showing a light dog AND a dark dog!!

Yes, Minor is 6 - 9 months and Puppy is 6 - 12 months. I'm going to find it useful when my two Terrorists are older to be able to put one in Minor at some shows and the other in Puppy, but under normal circumstances I'd follow my own advice and stick to the appropriate age classes. And of course, one of the main reasons for these classes is to give dogs at a similar age and possibly stage of development a more level playing field. This doesn't always apply...some mature more quickly than others and some of the coated breeds are at a disadvantage under some judges but it is helpful for the judge if the Steward can say "and this is your Minor Puppy In Group lineup" to the judge and the judge then knows that each puppy is aged between the 6 - 9 month bracket. Whereas, a State Bred, Aust Bred or Open can contain dogs of ANY age from 6 months upwards so can be a bit more competitive and difficult for a younger dog to crack. It CAN be done, HAS been done, but is more difficult, especially if you're not a seasoned exhibitor and cannot get the best from your dog IYKWIM.

Fran, my advice would be that whilst you are only showing one dog, show it in the age class that it is eligible for. I would advise any newbie starting out to do this. It can get confusing if you start chopping and changing classes and it is a lot of fun to trace a youngster from the first time in Baby, thru Minor, Puppy, Junior etc.

If a topical treatment isn't working then the next important question is....what are they feeding him? Quite often yeast infections are directly attributed to food allergies.

Absolutely nothing! Once everybody is ready, then you don't worry about what they are doing, you show your own dog at the pace at which he moves the best, even if that means leaving the others behind. This is especially the case when you are the first dog in the lineup. You want the judge to see your dog moving at his best from the "get-go" because this will probably be one of your best opportunities to impress, especially in the class in group judging where you may not get another opportunity to move your dog out. May I make one small suggestion? Don't wear dark pants behind Lincoln, especially at night. You do tend to lose the dog a bit. Also, try to keep his attention from the minute you are in the ring entrance. When they drop their heads at the very last minute, you tend to then spend a few valuable steps trying to get their attention back and rearrange leads, necks, ears etc which can put you at a disadvantage when the judge is looking at you first as you come into the ring.

Perhaps he already has a back/hip/knee complaint and they had told him not to stand like that so as not to aggravate it? I personally don't like some VERY tall judges because they tend to kind of loom over smaller dogs, especially in Specials lineups where the dog doesn't get the chance to see the judge from the table first. And it can be even worse if they are wearing a hat which can throw some pretty amazing looking shadows on the ground for dogs to freak at! In these cases, I do wish judges would be a little more considerate. But each to their own style and you just mark in your little black book what the individual judge does or if there is anything you need to be concerned about for next time.

No you don't have to enter the property classes. Usually these classes are things like best head, best brace, best movement etc. Also usually they are listed out somewhere on the schedule so you know which property classes are available to enter. I'm guessing with a baby there wouldn't be any property classes for you to enter - unless of course they have cutest face. Good luckk at the specialty and remember to have fun. Thanks, hopefully there will be a few more long hairs there then just Willow. Yeah, that's the other thing, I wasn't sure if baby puppy's could enter the property classes... guess it would make sense if they couldn't. I don't think anything under 6 months can be entered into any of the property classes except for Sire or Dam's Progeny classes.