Very often the advice on this forum when looking for a breeder is to go to a few dog shows .
So as someone who has never been to a show , here are some questions .
Are all shows open to the public ?
Is there an entrance fee ?  Does this include the price of a catalogue ?
Should you not speak to exhibitors and contact them at a later date ?
Any other pearls of wisdom welcomed !

In my experience, there is no "entrance fee" for the general public at Open shows (exhibitors do of course have to pay to enter and show their dogs!).   You will have to buy a catalogue though.    Shows are advertised in the weekly doggie papers - although often weeks in advance in order to allow exhibitors to enter.

At Champ shows, things are different.   You do have to pay for entry here, and also pay for a catalogue.   Again, these are advertised in the weekly doggie papers (don't go looking for the adverts in the magazine Dogs Today, because you won't find any there!)

Non-entered dogs are not allowed at Champ Shows - they shouldn't be allowed at the Open shows, but things are more relaxed there.

The catalogue will give you details of the dogs entered and owners - some owners do not have addresses and telephone nos printed for security reasons - but if you approach them (not just as they are about to enter the ring) they are - generally - delighted to talk about their dogs and give you details if they think you are genuine.

Hope this helps.

> Are all shows open to the public ?
>YES

> Is there an entrance fee ?

NO, ALTHOUGH SOME BIG CHAMP SHOWS DO (IM SURE BLACKPOOL BEING ONE OF THEM)

> Does this include the price of a catalogue ?

NO

> Should you not speak to exhibitors and contact them at a later date

i would say if they have a few dogs and look busy ask if they have a few minutes to chat if they dont im sure they will contact you when they do.
you will find most people with dogs wether they show or not can spend hours talking about their breed.

> Any other pearls of wisdom welcomed

speak to as many as possible and research their websites if they have one.

Some Championship shows do charge for entry but most these days only charge for the Car park. You will have to buy a catalogue separately at Open shows usually between £2 & £3 and at championship shows between £4 & £5.50. It is fine to approach people at the show, sit beside someone and ask questions, if you see dogs you like then ask the handler about the dog and the breeder. Only thing to watch do not approach as they are going in or coming out of the ring and always say, I would like to ask some questions about your dogs is it convenient to ask now.

I would add: if you see a few people in the breed you are interested in having a chat together don't be embarrassed to walk up to them :-) You will not be intruding. A few people together will talk all day if you let them :-D Different if they are having a 'discussion' that appears to be getting heated

I would much rather someone talked to me at a show, with possible follow ups, than have someone tell me in a phone call that they were too shy to come and say hi. We don't bite, well not all the time ;-)

If you are going to speak to someone at the show, a poodle exhibitor for example, best to speak to them when they are not prepping their dog before going into the class.  Wait until an interval or after the breed class.  Then people will have more time for you and will be happy to let you meet their dogs.

Actually I think at open shows there is an entry fee but it usually isn't adhered to as most of the time no-ones sat at the door enquiring whether you've got a dog or not.  If they ever do it's only a small fee to help Club funds.

Today i went to a dog show , a breed Championship show.
There wasn't as many dogs there as i expected , but i didn't have enough courage to speak to anyone so i watched for half an hour then left.
I hoped to get a catalogue and look at the dogs to get an idea of who i may contact in the future but they were giving catalogues to the exhibitors and didn't think they would have any spare .
I realised one thing thou , i am 99% sure that i want a toy size so it wasn't a total waste of a journey. I was desperate to have lots of cuddles - i could have taken them all home !
I felt like a duck out of water , but i will go to another show in the future and try again ! 

Hi St. Domingo

The show world is a strange place :) I understand how you felt, not being able to face just going over to talk to people. Although I've been showing RRs for over 25 years (now I feel OLD!) I'm newer to the Aussie world and there aren't many people that I know. I hope you feel able to approach the exhibitors next time. If you see some dogs that you like and approach the owners, I'm sure that they will be delighted to talk about their dogs :)

Can I be nosey and ask what breed you are interested in?

Poodles !

Hi St. Domingo,

I was in the same position as you several years ago when I was just starting out in my breed. I went to Discover Dogs first and chatted to the lady there about shows etc - she told me that there was a champ show in a few weeks and I'd be able to see lots of dogs there. She gave me a leaflet and I phoned the secretary of the society and asked if it was ok for me to come and watch the champ show. They said of course, and make yourself known when you turn up. So I did, and it was lovely and they couldn't have been more welcoming :-) I'm now on the committee of the said society and although I haven't got my dog yet (due to varying reasons!) I know exactly what lines I like, and I've become good friends with the breeder that I'll be getting my pup from.

Could you check out a few Poodle breed clubs and have a look on their websites to see when their next shows are, or ring the club secretaries and just explain to them that you're interested in getting a Poodle to show and want to come and watch?

By the way - I was too scared to ask for a catalogue at the first show I went to. Catalogues are a useful tool though in many ways, I often find that I get chatting to people who ask if they can borrow my catalogue to look something up :-)

Good luck!

Thanks , i think i will ring the secretary first next time .
I have not gone into this to show , but after today it is something i might consider years from now when the children are a lot more self-sufficient .

I took my daughter along from the age of about 4 and she was junior handling by the time she was 6 years old, so it's nice for them too if they're interested. :)

Yes , i would really like to involve the kids . I think they might enjoy agility .
I might have to re-consider the size and go for a miniature on the smaller side !

I like black , they like apricot . Who's dog is it ?!!!!!!

I know how you feel, when I was looking for my dogs I felt the same.  I went to loads of shows and tried to talk to some of the breeders and show people and to be honest I found half of them too be extremely rude and unhelpful as though you were an imposter into there little "click".  I went to crufts this year again to hope to mix with some of the breeders and show people and again found them all to be really rude and unhelpful, and to be honest dont get me started on how unhelpful and unfriendly the breed club was, their stand at the discover dogs was being run by three people who never made as much as a smile.  I asked them a question about the breed etc to see if they would open up and I was given a leaflet about the breed and told to contact the secretary if I had any further questions.  I belive this is well known in our breed.  However on the other hand I thoughly enjoyed myself in the collie section of crufts, the breeders and show people where really frinedly, they all had good luck cards and letters everywhere and when you walked through the isles people where talking to you and letting you stroke their dogs and talking about the breed and they wehre wonderful.  I personaly was put off showing for this reason but hopefully I will give it one last bash this year going to shome shows and seeing if it is any different.  fingers crossed

And they wonder why people go to BYB .

Thompson 1 can I ask what breed you have? You can pm me if its too embarrassing ;o)

Sometimes trying to talk to people at shows is hard as it can be stressful, expecially at crufts, to prepare and look after the dogs etc.

At most shows i don't have much time for anyone except friends etc and so many people seem to want to talk to me while I'm trying to prepare a dog or jut about to go iinto the ring.  Luckily I can pass them onto my Mum who is master of chatting :-D.  However meet me on the street and I will be a different person.

Re DD, this is poor however where the people experinced and confident in answering your questions?  Where you asking temprement/health related questions which at crufts where being passed on to secretaries due to rumors of certain reporters...

> I went to crufts this year again to hope to mix with some of the breeders and show people and again found them all to be really rude and unhelpful

I went to Crufts for the first time too, and although I didn't go specifically to look for a breed i'd like, i did talk to a lot of the breeders, those in the petting stands really and i thought all of the ones i spoke to were lovely. The odd one was a bit quieter,but on the whole they were happy to talk about ther dogs, if they weren't, we moved on.
I tried to find Gwen but unfortunately I kept missing her, and i didn't really want to put the exhibitors off their strides so didn't really talk to any around the show rings. I can only comment on my experience of it tho, Good luck. :)

We encourage people to come along to both Shows and Rallies to see the breed and meet people, however many of them let themselves down (in my opinion) by just asking immediately they get there, 'who has puppies' etc

Not suggesting the OP did this <grin>, just pointing out why some people at shows etc possibly don't seem very helpful

Hi, yeah its the newfoundland breed.  I was wanting some specific breed related information and also, information on clubs etc in my area as they seem to think st helens is northern lol (people seem to forget about the northeast lol)  I must stress though that some other breed people were fantastic even though I wasnt interested in their breed personally.

hi Thompson1.
I have newfs and i was at Crufts so its a shame i didnt know you were going as i can chat for hours about my boys.
Soory to hear of your bad expearance at the DD booth too.
I wonder sometimes why people volitear to do these things if they cant be bothered to be helpful and polite.

> Not suggesting the OP did this <grin>, just pointing out why some people at shows etc possibly don't seem very helpful <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif">[url=http://www.champdogs.co.uk/"><IMG][/url]

I wasn't looking for a pup , just having a look at the dogs to find a breeder .

It is no excuse fro rudeness, but to be fair Crufts is one of the worst shows to approach exhibitors at.  It is super crowded and stressful and there are simply loads of the general public often prodding and poking the poor dogs incessantly when they are being rested on their benches so exhibitors are frazzled etc.

I cannot understand why anyone who is of a taciturn nature would do Discover Dogs, I have done it all but two years at Crufts since it started, but it too is absolutely exhausting, for the people and dogs.

A few people gave me a funny look but i wondered if this was because , i assume , you generally know everyone at a single breed show and i was a stranger , or wheather people are more wary following ' that programme'.

> I went to loads of shows and tried to talk to some of the breeders and show people and to be honest I found half of them too be extremely rude and unhelpful as though you were an imposter into there little "click".  I went to crufts this year again to hope to mix with some of the breeders and show people and again found them all to be really rude and unhelpful,

It's a shame you had this experience

It was my first Crufts showing this year and I can tell you I felt pretty sick for much of the day!!  We had one couple that came to talk to our dog and my OH fended their questions as I was definitely getting more queasy by the minute..  Another man asked if he could talk to me as I was just about to go in the ring so I had to ask him to hang on a bit.  He did, and it was certainly easier to talk afterward.

I notice that some breeders at Crufts had queues of people to talk to, and in addition to managing their own dogs they were mostly able to help.  It can be quite challenging though when they have a lot of people to see and I know that even the most experienced handlers still need a bit of peace and quiet to prepare.  Discover Dogs is a different matter though, those people are there to help you and they shouldn't spend ages talking to their cronies if it can be avoided.

You may find that some shows are generally less stressful or crowded and some of the summer championship shows are more sociable affairs.  It's always going to be easier to speak to people after they've been in the ring so just watch for a while and observe when might be best or tell them you'd love to talk and ask when it will be convenient - you can always make arrangements to call them instead.

> yeah its the newfoundland breed

I know people in the breed and have found most people very accommodating. I have to admit Crufts was very stressful prior to going in the ring. I personally wouldn't of been a good person to talk to prior going in.
We were benched near to the Newf's at Crufts and most people appeared to be very quiet down that end, i personally found it to be trying to keep oneself calm and also the dog/s.

As for DD that is shocking to hear about how unfriendly they were. Why do this if you have no intention of actually wanting to speak to people about the breed which you own and love??

I would suggest going to some breed club shows and also like someone else mentioned summer champ shows.
Why not PM some of the Newf owners here and see if you can arrange to meet them at a show and get the info you are looking for, they may even be able to point you in the right direction now.

Good luck

I agree about DD, why would you choose to participate if you didn't like talking to people about your breed?! I have seen this at Crufts though, it was another working breed and the representatives were having a cigarette and chatting to one another (this was back in the day when you could smoke inside so it was a while ago), I really wanted to ask them about the dogs but I felt like I was interrupting their conversation.

On the positive side though, I did a day going round DD last year and all the breed stalls I went to were wonderfully friendly.

> On the positive side though, I did a day going round DD last year and all the breed stalls I went to were wonderfully friendly.

i found a couple of people difficult to talk to at dd but they were rare and genuinely seemed nervous rather than rude. most folk were lovely and very open and chatty- one woman immediately dumped her gorgeous dachs in my arms for a cuddle (now i'm a law abiding person but i did consider legging it with my prize :D sooooooo cute!), i had about a 20 min chat with the guys on the bulldog stand and their lovely sooky dogs, ditto the mastiff people... interestingly the only people i found not terribly chatty in a faintly rude way were those on my breeds booth!