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My First Dog Show


Brandiandwe
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So after my thread on dog show etiquette I wanted to report back. Husband and I headed out to the Hound Club Show today. We had an absolutely wonderful time, met some fantastic people, saw some magnificent dogs and have fallen in love. Unfortunately with different breeds!

I had this very great pleasure of meeting Alyosha's gorgeous borzoi. Sadly I was unable to distract her for long enough to get Andy to my car. But meeting these dogs fulfilled a long held dream of mine and has confirmed my determination to add one to my pack at some stage.

We also met the beautiful Nelungaloo Rhys who unfortunately confirmed hubby's love of deerhounds. He wants one.

I also met in person a beautiful basest hound, two gorgeous adult greys and one exceedingly cute puppy, a whippet and several wolfhounds.

Other things I learned:

  • Basenjis make really strange noises
  • My admiration for people owning and showing Afghans is hugely increased
  • Harriers and foxhounds are bigger in real life than in pictures beside horses
  • Dogs with very short legs take much longer to show than ones with long legs but most are capable of moving those short legs at a very creditable speed

I had a really wonderful afternoon, spent a lot of time learning about sighthounds in general, and really appreciate the time people put into educating a newcomer to the whole world.

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PML about you observations of Basenji's... So, so true :laugh:. I live with 6...

If you really want to hear them in 'full cry' go to a show, or even better a specialty, when they are all in season, (yes boys go in season as well as the girls), now that's an experience, lol :rofl:...

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Yep Senjis may not bark but they'll yodel and make all sorts of great noises :) afghans geeze where to start, there's a reason I keep mine short I grew her out once with minimal success as it was taking me 4-6 hrs to de knot her lol! Oh and the washing and drying suck ;)

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Yep Senjis may not bark but they'll yodel and make all sorts of great noises :) afghans geeze where to start, there's a reason I keep mine short I grew her out once with minimal success as it was taking me 4-6 hrs to de knot her lol! Oh and the washing and drying suck ;)

Given I sometimes forget to brush my own hair in the morning (thankfully it's short!), I cannot imagine coping with the grooming involved there. Absolutely magnificent dogs, graceful, elegant, gorgeous but, as my husband said, 'they just scream high maintenance!'. I really think the only way for me to keep them would be to be able to afford an army of servants to take care of the grooming. Hence my admiration.

Basenji, yeah. Glorious looking dogs. They reminded me a bit of the strut and spark you see in terriers (I hope I'm not being insulting here). But when they all got going, I had no idea what the noise was or whether I was supposed to take cover or run to help. They're my next breed to meet close up at some stage. However, I doubt I'd ever own one. They look a little bit too intelligent for me - I suspect I'd be outsmarted very quickly. :rofl:

So, next question: if I wanted to become more involved in shows, what would be the way to do it? I don't mean in terms of showing my dogs (obviously,given how fantastic my dogs are I don't want to show anyone else up..... Yeah. Right.) But in terms of stewarding or whatever, would I be best just getting in touch with a relevant breed or group club and asking?

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:laugh: After Andie's pre-dawn antics (escaping into the paddocks, running amok, jumping in the river, needing another bath...) I almost could have given her away!! If I'd met you at 6am I might have put her in your car myself! :D

For show involvement, first step is to join Dogs NSW (if you haven't already). Everything else goes from there. http://www.dogsnsw.org.au/about-dogs-nsw/join-dogs-nsw.html

You can also join breed clubs even if you don't own one of that breed. For example through the Borzoi Club we are planning less formal events like Picnic Days. In cooler months these might (hopefully!) include some fun things like lure coursing as well. You'd be welcome to come, and even bring your greys if you were happy to. For your OH - Deerhound people will be invited as well as they don't have their own club in NSW... Extra incentive??

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Maybe at some stage we could organise a swap. I'll take Andie with the taking off in the dark, and you can take my Paige with her cheerful destruction of a dog bed, stripping the covers off me to get me up, and her burping and farting in my face....... :D

I think I'll be speaking to hubby about joining both the deerhound club and the borzoi club and I'd love to come out for the day. Paige especially would love lure coursing, Brandi might enjoy it, and Hermon would probably see it an as unwelcome interruption to his extremely full programme of eating, lying on the sofa and the occasional gentle amble to scare the neighbourhood cats.

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PML about you observations of Basenji's... So, so true

Wait...? rajacodoo, don't you have experience with shibas somewhere down the traps? Or am I imagining it somehow?

(when we talk about weird noises and all...."

Cannibalgoldfish, no I don't have anything to do with Shiba's, except adoring them from afar :)...

When looking for my 'old-age' retirement breed to show, I stupidly was deciding between the Shiba and the Basenji... (I say stupidly, cos I didn't realise that you move as fast as, if not faster, in the showring, with the B's as you do the ACDs, lol :rofl:...). So to cut a long story short, having had/have ACD's with their double coats, and being sick of 'naked' dogs through summer, and not being able to show them much cos or this, in the end the Basenji's won, becausebof their nice short single coats... Then along came Java with his problem coat, but thats a whole 'nuther story :laugh:

Edited by rajacadoo
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Afghans are not high maintenance if you're willing to put in the work. Xanthes (smischs bitch who I used to co own) has a very thick coat and does take a lot of work but my boy had a patterned coat and took next to no time to wash/dry. And the reward of owning one outweighs any drama while grooming :)

Edited by Whateverr
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This is what I love about dogs! There truly is one for everyone! Afghans truly look spectacular and are obviously worth the effort. I guess my feeling is that to own one you need to put in the work of grooming because, after all, in addition to temperament, part of the attraction is how they look when well presented. But I just don't have the personality to want put in the time needed to get that dog looking amazing, so the coat would be a constant source or irritation.

Also, after greyhounds, everything requiring a bath and grooming more than once every three to six months is high maintenance! :laugh:

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What about Podengos? They are next on my list <3

And I agree about the high maintenance thing! My dog needs to be bathed often as she rolls in poop at every opportunity... But at least it only takes 10 minutes to bath and dry her :D

Edited by DiscoDobe
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Afghans are not high maintenance if you're willing to put in the work. Xanthes (smischs bitch who I used to co own) has a very thick coat and does take a lot of work but my boy had a patterned coat and took next to no time to wash/dry. And the reward of owning one outweighs any drama while grooming :)

Oh a patterned coat!! Drool! :love:

I had afghans for years and didn't show. They were normally in coat, but I suppose you would call it pet/working coat. They still looked fantastic (I might have been biased...), and really weren't a huge amount of work. Coat texture plays a lot more of a part in maintenance issues than quantity.

I always used to to say to people who asked - don't be put off owning one if you really love the breed, by the coat. You can clip it off, you can cut it short etc. It's only one part of having an affie, not everything. If you love who they are, you find ways to live with the coat and not be a slave to it. :)

The great thing about borzoi coats though, is that they are pretty slow to develop. So you just get used to it slowly and hardly notice... :cool:

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