Had a right royal nightmare tonight.

Not long since got in from work and took Geoff the puppy outside for his five minutes of daily standing practice as he has his first show on the 7th of November, and to my horror I noticed that he has got a big scratch under his eye which has removed all of the fur, this happened to my other Setter before her first show, I'm cursed! I have just managed to get rid of one little bald patch from his eye. They do it to each other playing and I know for a fact that it wasn't there yesterday. Short of seperate them which I am not willing to do there doesn't seem to be much I can do to prevent it from happening though.

Can anyone tell me, would a judge mark a dog down for this?

Thanks.

Nicki xx

Dont worry.

I wouldn't have thought that setters are a 'head breed' and their overall outline, type and quality will be the deciding factors.
A scratch shouldn't hold back a good one.

Eeeek, I hope not, I have just spoken to his breeder, who has now become a good friend and mentor, and she has told me not to worry and just to keep wacking the aloe vera gel on!

Nicki xx

A good judge shouldn't put you down for a small amount of missing hair if its clearly not because of a health problem.  (Skin irritations/mange etc.)  I would only take it into account if I was really splitting hairs between dogs.  I have a breed that is frequently shown abroad so we often have dogs in the ring with shaved legs for their blood tests.
I can imagine how fustrating it is, but I woldn't panic.  If they play so rough scars start appearing I would imagine it would be held against my breed though.

Thanks for the reassurance guys, previous marks have not scarred so fingers crossed this one won't. It is definately through rough play and not a skin complaint of any kind.

Hopefully the judge will see past that and notice only what a fine specimin of a Setter he is! :-) lol

Nicki xx

I don't think it would be a problem for his first show but in the meantime you can try calendula or hypercal cream. 

My Rottie had nibbled a patch on his foot and it looked pink then started to go leathery, within 3 days of applying Hypercal cream 2 to 3 times per day the hair was growing back.

Oh really? I shall look that up on the internet now and get some! Thanks for that! I really don't want anything to spoil his debut! Although with a hyperactive 5 1/2 month puppy its not always a given that everything will go smoothly, especially if they are as naughty as Geoff is being at the moment!!

Nicki xx