morning all,ive been looking online at companion shows and opens shows,none of which are in my area accept one.

i know i shouldnt expect to be staying in my area i dont want to but it seems like ill be travelling a minimum of 2.half hours.
so how far would you travel to a companion show or open show.i have a feeling most some might say as far as you want to but im not sure that lincolnshire is where i want to be travelling for one class.....or is that the done thing....feeling a bit lost now.

ive seen a few actually very few and then in july august september there are loads.....is that right.dont forget im all on my own here no one i know likes dogs let alone showing so ive no help at all unless u guys push me in the right direction.......

..........i did mention id be picking your brains constantly right???

im sorry its just disheartening when ur all alone and its really confusing as well. :-(

There are many more shows in the summer than in the winter, and certainly some areas of the country have more suitable venues than others. Unless it's a judge that I really want to support, I never used to travel more than an hour for an open show. Companion shows don't need the facilities that open and champ shows need, but are often only advertised in the local area.

Are you going to a ringcraft class?  Chances are you'll meet up with some of them at shows and there may be others, like you, that would rather travel together.  Could you ask around for a show partner?  They'll also give you a steer about nice venues, easy routes etc

I don't like going on my own much but luckily my OH and/or one of the kids is willing to come with me.  I've also met some good friends through my breeder and by just turning up quite regularly.

Travel?  I rarely travel more than 2 hours for a champ show and up to 1 hour for an open show BUT I've have done greater distances and overnight stays for a nice show or a recommended judge.  Some shows lend themselves to making a holiday out of it - Bournemouth for one!  Others, I can combine journeys to see friends and show the dog which is helpful.  Presumably it also depends on whether you think you are in with a chance to qualify for Crufts as to how far you'll travel.  I know some will do all the shows irrespective of distance, particulary if CC's aren't on offer at many shows. 

Good luck :)

yes we go ring craft and the people are lovely,but all have older dogs who are all very well into showing so wont be going to shows like open ones ect.also the main breeds there are the oh god cannot spell it ddb rotties dobbermans westies salukis newfies and huskys

none of those are in my group,would they still attend the shows id be going to,its not that anyway i dont know where to go what shows are on and when ect..
a judge lady tried explaining things to me and after asking a few things saying no sorry im not with you i feared id look like a complete idiot so nodded along.

no one has a poodle or knows anything about them how they should be shown or anything BUT two girls are really nice and have said they'll help.im just at the very beggining and am having a hard time with it .sorry

When we first started showing we drew a circle in the geographia and said we would not travel further than that (about an hour and a half from Surrey) Then we found ourselves at Border Union!! :)
We will always travel to support a breed specialist and having a pup at the moment we want him to be comfortable with the environment and enjoy the experience so we are doing more open shows than we have in a while.

The problem with my breed is that many shows are dropping our classes so where can our up and coming judges get the experience? or we get someone who is doing many other terrier breeds. 

I would go to ringcraft and see if you can find a friendly face that might let you know where shows are.

Good Luck, enjoy.

We generally travel between and hour to 90mins for an open show (further if its a particular set of classes or judge), I wouldn't travel more than 30 mins to a companion show though.  There won't be many companion shows on at the moment and it seems once you find out when and where they are, they tend to be in the same spots the year after.  The first year was definately the hardest for finding where the shows are.

Where are you, maybe soemone can point you in the direction of the best places to look?  We have an excellent website that covers a lot of the companion shows for the three counties region, maybe there's something similar for your region.

I live in Bristol with good Motorway connections.

For a Companion show about half hour or 20 miles or so.

For an Open show about 50 miles, or an hours drive, unless it's the bred club Open show.

Champ shows 120 miles, rarely further for a special judge.

i live near good links of roads to get to the major motorway near me
so open show 60 miles ect for next week which is 2 hours. an doubling up in the car for the petrol coast.
champshows 2 1/2 to 3 hours.and then it depends on judging my breeds ?

Since moving to a more rural area I have roughly an hours trip to open shows, apart from 2 at the back end of the summer which are linked to Agricultural shows, one in my village and 1 2 villages further up the dale, so they are great!  It is pretty much the same for Companion shows too, although there is one club who organises a few about half an hour away from me, most of them are about an hours drive.  I have ocassionally travelled a bit further if I have been asked to support a particular charity.

As a previous poster mentioned, let us know where you are in the country and other CDers may be able to let you know of shows you have not yet heard about.

You should try living in the north of Scotland where a 2 hour drive to an open show is the norm ;-) 3 hours for a judge that is liked :-)

As we don't have many Champ shows up here I have often been collected at around midnight to go to the more southerly shows (Birmingham is very south for us :-p)

Companion shows though are very local. 1/2 hour drive at the most.

> As a previous poster mentioned, let us know where you are in the country and other CDers may be able to let you know of shows you have not yet heard about.

im in romford essex.thanks for all replys

We are in the far West of West Wales.  We have just spent the day sorting out shows for the coming year, we will combine shows with weekends away to make the most of the travelling (we now have a touring caravan). We did a few shows like this at the end of last year and it worked quite well.  We have very few shows for our breeds here in Wales and so a local show might be Malvern which is over 3 hours away.

hi tamara, I know exactly what you mean. My family and friends think I'm mad, they're not interested in dogs and even though I got my younger son to come with me today, sod's law said that today they called my puppy's class early, in a different ring, while my son had gone out to the car to see to our 'traveller' dog...I had to leave my older dog with a complete stranger (thank you complete stranger!), whizz into the ring with the puppy, come back for the older dog and abandon the puppy (thank you again complete stranger!) and by the time my son returned it was all over...phew.

This was a local show (an hour's drive away), but the puppy and I went to the Manchester champ show in January, 3 hours away. I remember thinking before I booked it that it would be local (we're not far from Manchester...), and feeling a bit unnerved to realise that it was at the Staffordshire Show Ground. I didn't have anyone I felt confident to ask, and now I realise that as a complete newcomer unless I start talking to other exhibitors I could make loads of silly and unnecessary mistakes. I always felt I'd be intruding and had no confidence in asking a remotely intelligent question, and worried I was bothering people with stupid questions...which I might well be, but everyone I've spoken to so far has been nothing other than totally generous with their time, kind and tolerant in the extreme. So persevere, tamara, I hope you find another poodle person who can hep you.

>I remember thinking before I booked it that it would be local (we're not far from Manchester...), and feeling a bit unnerved to realise that it was at the Staffordshire Show Ground.

Oh yes, dog shows have completely odd geography!  Manchester and Birmingham are in Stafford, Paignton is in Exeter, Richmond is in Guildford, Bournemouth is in Brockenhurst...

To the OP, as Jay15 has said you can often rely on the kindness of strangers.  I found that some of the most helpful people were ringside at my AVNSC classes at open shows.  They recognised I was new, pointed me in the right direction, told me when to go back in, and congratulated me when I did well.  I found that people in my own breed were sometimes less forthcoming, unless linked by breeding.  At local shows I'd often bump into people from my ringcraft classes too and they were always very helpful and encouraging. 

I would not travel to a companion show unless it was in the local (VERY local) area OR organised by people I knew -I don't like them much but occasionally go for the kids' sake or to socialise a pup. They can't be counted as shows IMO, they're just doggy days out. I'll travel for 2-3 hours for an Open show if there is a good judge or a breed show, but more common is an hour or so. We're lucky in that Newark showground is only half an hour from us and of course there are loads of open shows there. Champ.shows no limit at all -furthest we've done so far was the WDS in 2008 where it took us 3 days to get there. :)

We would travel about an hour for an Open show, but once had a very memorable summer holiday travelling round various Championship shows with the caravan, 2 dogs, 5 year old and 10 week old daughters in tow We travelled overnight from Scotland, drove to the first show in Wales, then stayed on a site in Somerset, showed at paignton and another show (might have been Three counties?). We then drove over to Peterborough, arriving well after midnight which necessitated putting pegs in awning with a teatowel over the hammer so we didn't start every dog in the place barking :-D. We then stopped in Ashbourne and put dogs in a day kennel so we could visit Alton Towers, there was a huge thunderstorm and by the time we picked up the dogs they were covered in mud and Leeds show was next day! So we washed them as well as we could in the awning, did Leeds then drove back home :-D Was it fun? You bet! Would I do it again? Never in a million years :-D :-D

>So we washed them as well as we could in the awning

lol, I used to sneak my dog down to the washing up area of campsites at night to give him a bath !!

Lol at Jay - I ended up with a clash between the breed and AV Toy Veteran last weekend. Ended up with the complete strangers next to me taking Ellie in the ring for me (thank you complete strangers!!) as the judge refused to wait the 2 minutes I would have been (veteran was nearly through when our class was called, there was only us and 1 seen dog in it) :-D

oh set a limet of.

1.30 hours for opens
2.1/2 for champs (but got him to go stafford last year 3 hours away) which is far enough i think.
comp shows 30 mins.

I wish I could set a time limit of 3hours to a champ show but I wouldn't get to many (2 I think!!)  :) we class that as local unfortunately 5, 6 or 7 hours are the norm for us.

Tamara

I'm in Colchester so just down the road from you and we practically have a show every weekend, I'm happy to let you know which ones we have lined up if this helps?  The Starprint diary is also useful as it gives you a list of all the shows and their dates.

We normally travel a maximum of 1 1/2 hours for an open show and go to most of the champ shows apart from the Scottish ones.

HTH
Miranda

oh yes please that would be lovely thank you.

Hi Tamara

I sent you an email yesterday, if you didn't get it let me know :)

Miranda