Crufts - More4 18:30

[SteBrown91]

Just a reminder, I've got it on record

[kinabalu]

Almost as cruel & distasteful as Chinese football playing elephants, this event should have been banned way before 2015.

[Wheat]

kinabalu said:

Almost as cruel & distasteful as Chinese football playing elephants, this event should have been banned way before 2015.

Hi, Ive never watched crafts, find it really pompous and pointless. But I've never considered it cruel, I always assumed the dogs were spoilt rotten. Am I wrong?

[Kateg28]

I love to watch the agility bit as the dogs look like they are having so much fun.

I tend to ignore the rest as not that bothered by showing dogs, not my cup of tea but don't consider it cruel....

Why is it cruel?

[Granville]

I used to do agility with my old dog, sooooo much fun and good exercise (on both sides). He'd go bonkers in the car once he knew where we were going.

My cousin has been showing their dogs on Thursday but didn't do so well this year.

[bazza white]

I didn't particularly like the show but once I watched a programme about pets and a woman who "adored and loved" her dog so much putting the dog through the show then deciding as the dog didn't place first getting rid of the dog I decided I hated such shows.

[poing]

I'm watching it tonight on CH4 and the dogs all look pretty happy to me.

I figured tonights is going to be the best bits with all the boring official bits cut out.

I want a Leonburger! I seem to like big animals, I already have 2 large cats and need a dog like I need a hole in the head but they are so cute.

[Jasandjules]

bazza white said:

I didn't particularly like the show but once I watched a programme about pets and a woman who "adored and loved" her dog so much putting the dog through the show then deciding as the dog didn't place first getting rid of the dog I decided I hated such shows.

Don't blame the shows, blame the people who take it too seriously.

[Turn7]

kinabalu said:

Almost as cruel & distasteful as Chinese football playing elephants, this event should have been banned way before 2015.

Whilst certain breed standards are in vogue, somehtings happen that maybe shouldnt, however, please do NOT compare Crufts with the type of race that thinks Bear bile farming is acceptable.

[y2blade]

Irish setter was poisoned at the show, died in 9yo childs arms.

[FiF]

Absolutely staggering and be interesting to see the toxicology.

In happier news Charley's dad, of whom Charley is the spitting image, got a 3rd in class.

[RB Will]

Jasandjules said:

Don't blame the shows, blame the people who take it too seriously.

Very much this.
I feel sorry for the dogs who are treated as a commodity and shipped from place to place just to show like the one that took best in show.
I have numerous friends that have been showing there this week and their dogs are part of the family, out running around in mud and much loved but just get spruced up on certain weekends.
I expect most of the dogs there are like this and its just the few who take it too seriously that give it a bad name.

[s2kjock]

I imagine the show dogs are used to the travelling and are not too bothered by it - they are effectively bred for it. A dog that gets agitated and upset will not do well in the ring.

I've been to a few shows and wandered around benches etc - don't recall ever seeing dogs looking stressed - bored yes, and sometimes a bit grumpy, but not stressed.

[bakerstreet]

We will have had our dog for a year in a few weeks, so for the first time I watched it as a dog owner.

I watched a show when a black retriever called Dublin won her class. Claire Baldwin was interviewing and going through the motions and the owner said that Dublin was a descendant of another best in show winning dog and claire acted all surprised!! The owner probably only bought the dog because it had good blood lines.

Its so far removed from our dog ownership, its untrue. I wouldn't mind going one day just to buy stuff for our hound. Buying jackets online is difficult because you don't know what you are getting. I'd also like to go and meet people from the retired greyhound trust.

They also did a feature on dog puzzles and we liked that, we bought one online

As someone else said, the agility is amazing, but I don't get people dancing with dogs. That just looks daft to me.

[FiF]

Removed from normal dog ownership? It all depends. Surely.

Mentioned Charley's dad, yes he's a looker, and brushes up well, but actually is a working gundog. Chasing about on the moors at a shoot getting filthy, wet and muddy but with a happy smile and a really waggy tail. His son loves it, any walk on the rough heathland is join the dots using puddles and ponds. Not sure if he's going to make the grade working yet, bit young and too keen to hang onto whatever he's retrieved unfortunately. So he may just stay as a family pet and isn't going to be shown.

[moorx]

bakerstreet said:

We will have had our dog for a year in a few weeks, so for the first time I watched it as a dog owner.

I watched a show when a black retriever called Dublin won her class. Claire Baldwin was interviewing and going through the motions and the owner said that Dublin was a descendant of another best in show winning dog and claire acted all surprised!! The owner probably only bought the dog because it had good blood lines.

Its so far removed from our dog ownership, its untrue. I wouldn't mind going one day just to buy stuff for our hound. Buying jackets online is difficult because you don't know what you are getting. I'd also like to go and meet people from the retired greyhound trust.

They also did a feature on dog puzzles and we liked that, we bought one online

As someone else said, the agility is amazing, but I don't get people dancing with dogs. That just looks daft to me.

Certainly the Best in Group owners I saw interviewed said that they had obtained their dog 'because they bred/knew its parent' or bred the dogs themselves, which suggests they planned to show.

WRT greyhounds at Crufts - it makes me laugh - they had a parade of 'endangered breeds' a year or two ago, and the greyhound was one. That, when you consider the massive numbers of greyhounds bred (and killed or discarded) by the greyhound racing industry each year! It's all to do with the fact that there are two 'strains' of the greyhound breed - showing and racing. The 'showing' strain is endangered. Ridiculous!

I know of at least one breed rescue who said that their breed winning Best in Show was a disaster as far as they were concerned, because it meant that lots of people went out and bought puppies of that breed, whether they were suitable for them or not (the '101 Dalmations effect').

I watched a couple of the Crufts programmes, but I would never go. Much as I love dogs, it's too much like a pointless beauty contest to me.

[Granville]

My cousin and aunty both breed and show Hungarian Vizsla. First and foremost they are pets, live in the house, sleep on the sofa and are also worked and regularly go beating as they're gun dogs. Pretty much your average dogs, they just get a bit more pampering and baths.

[pikeyboy]

Did anyone else notice the winner lift her dog up using its tail?

[pikeyboy]

I

Granville said:

My cousin and aunty both breed and show Hungarian Vizsla. First and foremost they are pets, live in the house, sleep on the sofa and are also worked and regularly go beating as they're gun dogs. Pretty much your average dogs, they just get a bit more pampering and baths.

It's quite common for hpr breeds to be show and working dogs that also earn their keep. Less so for spaniels and labs which are more prevelant on the beating line or picking up team.

I think this is why you don't tend to get a split between working hprs and those that show where as its common to have show and working types of other breeds is labs

Edited by boy on Monday 9th March 20:53

[RB Will]

boy said:

Did anyone else notice the winner lift her dog up using its tail?

yeah its caused quite a bit of fuss. The Kennel Club facebook page has about 1000 comments about it and seen afew petitions to have the title taken off them and given to Dublin.

Seems she had been warned about lifting it like that numerous times. It says in your entry info not to do it but although its discouraged and not approved of it is still legal and apparently hot things are done in the US where the handler is from.