If someone entered a show and was unable to attend.I would give them a £5 discount at the next show if they entered with the same dog.Just a thought to boost entries.
What do you think.
It must be so frustrating to have a bitch come into season when entered into a show.

A puppy I bred has just done this to her owners, has had to miss several shows, and will have to go straight to a large champ show for her first outing. 

Another week and she woudl have missed her only chance to qualify for Crufts and wasted £25 in entry fees.

Sounds a nice idea but is not very practical, there is a huge amount of work involved for those mounting the show, all this work is unpaid, if those who could not attend wanted a refund then the workload would be impossible to ask of anyone for the love of dogs.

You would have to assess if the absence was for a good reason or just because the exhibitor could not be bothered to get out of bed, groom the dog or had had a better invitation. That is before you think about the book-keeping and records required to say nothing of the expense of extra printing and postage required. If you charged the absent person for the expense already incurred on their behalf and the additional expense in order to give a refund I do not think there would be much left to refund anyway particularly for open shows, and although the amount charged at Championship shows is more so are the laid out expenses as there are benches to be ordered and build and the printers to pay because most of the work is done by the printers in the case of Champ. shows and they do not work for nothing.

Maidenhead and DCS offer this at their open show that's held in Feb.

Exhibits which are unable to attend for a valid veterinary reason (i.e. season, whelp, infectious
or contagious disease) will receive on production of veterinary confirmation, a credit equal to that
of the entry fee paid, which can be used at future MDCS shows.

I have used this once myself with season being the reason, my vet wrote a letter for me.

on production of veterinary confirmation
Wouldn't the cost of a veterinary consultation to confirm that a bitch is in season (the reason that most bitches miss a show) cost more than an Open Show entry?

It'd probably cost more than the price of a Champ show entry!

> It must be so frustrating to have a bitch come into season when entered into a show.

It might be frustrating but it isn't against the rules to bring a bitch in season to a breed show (only obedience & agility)
Therefore clubs wouldn't refund as there was nothing stopping someone coming to the show.

I am not saying people should bring their in season bitches to a show, just saying theres nothing in the rules about them not coming.

Look around you at a Ch show there are alot of bitches in season!  In fact in a group judging at SKC last year you could smell the bitch in the ring as could all the males in the group and it really affected their perfomance. 

WOW you must had a good sense of smell, I've never smelt my girls in season :)  Did used to have a nightmare with one of my males who could smell them a mile off.

> WOW you must had a good sense of smell, I've never smelt my girls in season :-)  Did used to have a nightmare with one of my males who could smell them a mile off.

One of my girls can whiff like a kipper.  Well not quite but very strong, thought something was wrong the first time it happened.

I've always been able to smell my bitches when in season, although I've only experienced 4 seasons as 2 were later spayed and one is only a year old. When I was a teenager I kept gerbils and I could always smell when they were 'ready' as well, the male confirmed this ;-)

I thought it was normal to be able to smell them?

I've always been able to smell when my bitches were in season as well.  Its only a faint smell, but must be like a foghorn to any males.

I've got a good sense of smell but never been able to sniff one out in a show ring LOL.  My girls must be strange as I've never really smelt any different odour from them in over 20 years.  Only thing is that sometimes they urinate a bit more often.

Maybe it depends on coat type (retaining the smell).  I've always had smooth silky coated breeds.

My coated breed girl smells fairly strongly in spite of keeping herself very clean, but though I can smell her if she's next to me on the sofa, I don't think I'd notice if she was at floor level (small breed). I know Henry used to be very clear on whether a bitch in season was at a show, and it was totally different from his usual 'worth a try' attitude to bitches.

I have always been able to smell them too, a more obviously female smell than usual.

Different bitches have their own smell.

Some of my girls hardly whiff at all and other smell like polecats.

Ive had the odd boxer over the years who smelt like something had crawled up and died and in recent years one Cavalier bitch smells like Billingsgate fish market.

All very natural and healthy for them.

Mine too, one was awful, she was the one that had quite a lot of discharge. Interestingly my husband didn't have a clue what I was talking about. My friend can always tell when they are ready, wouldn't have had a litter concieved on day 9 without her!