Just wondering what the thoughts are on this if i have a pregnant bitch at home and i want to take one of my other bitches to a show?  Would / do any of you do this ? how do you manage them do you keep them separated etc

I would wash them down when I got them home, but as my pregnant bitches contiue as normal re walks I do not go overboard.

cheers brainless, thats what i was thinking, normality will continue but dog shows are the worst places for germs aren't they :( i am able to separate them until i have managed to wash down the one who goes to the show and obviously change my clothes at the same time. Normally i wouldn't bother but its our ringcraft club open show and would like to support.

Hi claire_41, many years ago, one of my dogs picked up Kennel Cough at Bournmouth CH. Show. Unfortunately, one of my bitches was in whelp, and by the time my dog came down with it, and it had passed on to her, she had only a short time to go. Consequently, l knew within 3 or 4 days of the puppies being born, that they had it too. The upshot of this was, the Kennel Cough progressed to Pnuemonia, and most of the litter died..... a horrible death.....unable to breath, and gasping for breath. So, l guess, it is a calculated risk one has to take if one is in to Showing. 

personally never went near any shows with pregnant bitch at home ...didnt think the risk was worth it .

When we have a bitch in whelp we never take anyother dog to a show, it's just not worth the risk.

If I have had an in whelp bitch at home, I've always sprayed the shown bitch with Parvocide and changed my clothes in the garage before coming indoors. 

I've also won BCC and BOB with a bitch 5 weeks in whelp!  She loved showing and looked wonderful!  I did say that all the pups born had a CC because they were there!! :)

I have just taken what I consider to be is reasonable care and have never lost or had a sick puppy once born alive in 30 years.

I've also never had a dog with kennel cough in that time, even when I had dogs coughing in the grooming parlour and my dogs were looking in the window wondering what the noise was until the owner came to collect them! :(

Whether all that has anything to do with no vaccinating, worming flea treatment but plenty of raw food and garlic - who knows? :)  Maybe I've just been lucky. :)  I find the harder I try the luckier I become!! :) :)

I've also never had a dog with kennel cough in that time, even when I had dogs coughing in the grooming parlour and my dogs were looking in the window wondering what the noise was until the owner came to collect them!

Hi WestCoast, whenever one of my dogs has picked up Kennel Cough, it has gone around the rest of them, albeit, to a greater or lesser degree, depending on whether or not they have had the infection in the past. At shows, l always took the precaution of dosing with raw garlic every couple of hours at the Show,and standing in, and wiping down the dog with Parvocide  and changing my own clothes on returning home.

I must have been very lucky then for 30 years. :)

I've always gone to shows with my other dogs.  None of my dogs have ever had any illnesses, so again I must have been very lucky in the last 25 years! 

I do always wonder why shows always seem to get the blame as of course you can get many of the diseases when outside.

i had a bitch in whelp that came down with cc she was 6weeks she got it from 1 of my other dogs even tho id done everything i could it had pasted by the time pups were born but i was worried sick for her id say its just not worth the risk and worry...on the plus side tho the not get that strane of it now i was told by the vets!! xx

I wouldn't do it personally, not worth the risk for a bit of card, but I know of others who do it and get away with no problems.

Hi, sorry to say I haven't even bothered to read any of the other responses to your question. First things first, you take one of your dogs to a show, it picks up something, comes back to the pregnant dog, you are putting your pregnant dog at risk.

Any infection picked up at a show can then be transferred to any other dogs at home that you did not take to the show.

In my opinion it basically depends on how much you value the status of your pregnant bitch. I know from very first hand experience the catastrophic results a so called minor infection can have on breeding stock which is exactly why I did everything within my power to protect my bitch during pregnancy. That basically meant that I no longer attended competitions, going to places where god knows what had been on before, dogs from all over the place were attending. At least by keeping to my home ground I could at least be a bit more on top of what was happening.

So, it's really a case of which is more important, attending a few shows or raising a healthy litter.

Edited to say that those people who have gone to shows and not had any problems with a pregnant bitch at home, then my, they were very lucky. Wish I was so lucky, and I didn't even attend a show :-(

Wish I was so lucky, and I didn't even attend a show

Exactly.  I bet the people who say that they don't go to shows still walk their dogs?  Risks are everywhere and you're no more likely to pick up nasties at shows than anywhere else where other dogs are.  In fact the general public are much less aware about dog illness than dog people, which is why I would have owners bring their dogs to my grooming parlour with kennel cough, foul bloody dire rear and many cases of pyometra - they don't know!

So it's not a matter of chasing a bit of card.  It's more carrying on with normal life, whatever that is to each of us.

For me, the most 'at risk' place to take your dogs when you have a pregnant bitch at home is a Veterinary surgery - the place where there are more bacteria and viruses.  How many of you wouldn't take one of your other dogs, or even the pregnant bitch, to a surgery if they needed it?

Risk is everywhere.  If you think too much about it you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning or even let your dogs into the garden, after all cats and hedgehogs might have bought some nasty disease into the garden in the night!  The most important thing is to minimise that risk with efficient animal husbandry and after that, then maybe it's down to luck. :)

To me the risk is much, much higher on my local roads than going to any show.  I would think quite a few dogs haven't even had vaccinations in certain areas but I would expect a high percentage would have at any dog events. 

Not quite the same scenario but I have an elderly dog with a severe heart murmur, if he caught kennel cough it would most likely kill him. I still take my other dogs to shows most weekends.

The most important thing to me is to minimise that risk and to protect my pregnant bitch which is exactly the reason my dogs didn't go to show. As you have said, it's just as likely to pick up infection at shows as elsewhere ... which is why, for me, the elsewhere is out too :-)

I bet the people who say that they don't go to shows still walk their dogs?

I do still walk my dogs ... but I don't walk them where Joe Public and their dogs go!

thanks for the input folks :)

I do still walk my dogs ... but I don't walk them where Joe Public and their dogs go!

You are lucky to have the space to do this Trialist. I live in town and would have to trespass on farmers fields to find an area where dogs did not go as the remote areas we use though having less dog traffic still are public footpaths etc.. and have other dogs using them. My garden also borders a green space where people walk their dogs and they can walk right up to my fence and pee/poo so presumably the germs can gain access to my dogs. No where is 100% safe and infections are all around us. I still walk my in whelp bitches as I feel excersise is very important but I have no choice but to run the risk of infection. I do not spend my life in fear of it but take what action I can within livable limits. As to taking a bitch in whelp to a show, no I wouldn;'t but I do take others.
Aileen

Wow wish I could go to an area where Jo Public never go, even out of the way areas where you wouldn't think anybody would know there are people with dogs who find them Definitely couldn't say that there is any area that a dog allowed to be loose doesn't go, and in quite a good area there are three dog households that allow their dogs out all day to roam.

I don't have the space as I also live in town. However, i have an arrangement whereby I can use other people's fields :-D

> I do still walk my dogs ... but I don't walk them where Joe Public and their dogs go!

Few people have their own land, for em it is the local streets for parks outside of my won back garden.

Again dogs immune systems are regularly challenged and strengthened by constant exposure to infection so the dogs that go out everywhere including shows are less likely to pick up something that will have a severe effect.

Your dogs that maybe do not mix with all and sundry the way mine do would perhaps be more at risk than mine for example and for you your precautions are warranted.

We do mix, however, it was just when girly was pregnant (I was very protective of that very special litter if you recall :-) ). Rest of the time we're out & about doing in the same places that everyone else is doin' it! In fact thinking about it that's where all the problems started in the first place ... maybe I will stick to the fields!!

Let's face it: the "Teflon-coated" types always get away with taking risks. If WE take risks, our dogs could catch some "nasty". I don't understand why people take dogs to shows when they have unvaccinated puppies at home. If their dogs catch kennel cough/ parvo, etc and the puppies die, these people blame anyone but themselves but it was their own choice to attend a show and put the lives of their puppies at risk. Also, not everyone is aware that their dog has something infectious until it exhibits the first symptoms which could very well be at a show. When I have a litter, I do not go to shows for the entire 14 or so weeks until the puppy I kept is vaccinated as I only breed a litter to get a puppy for myself so I am not going to put her at risk. Yes I do walk the dogs normally but you can hardly justify to the others that they are not going "walkies" for 3 months or more and I only have a garden, not land. I also do not allow visitors to come and see puppies straight from a dog show. Changing the shoes will not stop parvo walking in. A lot of time and effort, not to mention money, goes into a litter. Surely the welfare of the Mum & pups must come before the need to win a bit of cardboard?

The thing is it is all a risk assessment. 

Many of us feel that a show is no more risky than any other place we may take our other dogs.

For example tehre willb e a lot of dogs at a shwo, but nto all willb e ahving direct contact with ours and in fact if the venue is nto oen frequentd by dogs in between times may be less full of canine germs than the lcoal heavily used park.

Our well socialised dogs will have been exposed to most common germs encounterd both locally and on the show circuit.

Puppies will not have had any exposure though.

Puppies will not have had any exposure though
But they have it from their dam.  It's called maternal immunity. :)  My bitch's have very good immune systems, not going to the Vet from one years end to the next.

And horror of horrors - I don't vaccinate my puppies either!  So I wouldn't wait until the puppy I kept was vaccinated.  I use nosodes which suit me although I understand other may not agree. :)

So I really must have been very lucky, having taken what I consider to be reasonable precautions, for 30 years. :)  Going to dog shows, having infectious dogs in the grooming parlour and still no visits to the Vet.  My Teflon must be thick! :):):)

The thing is i can't recall anyone i know who goes to shows having had a dog or litter with parvo and that is alot of people (unless ofcourse they keep it hush hush) the only person i know is  a pet breeder who caught it from her next door neighbour when it jumped the fence into their garden and it wiped out her whole litter and she most definatly does not go to dog shows.