My dog has had a couple of cysts as of late, one on his back that thankfully was hard to feel so went unnoticed by judges. However his latest one has developed on his side more and is noticeable. Is a judge likely to penalise against this?

In my breed not (unless they are open and messy), as they are so common.

Here are details of minimal excision technique for their removal which should mean with a co-operative vet no shaving and done under Local Anaesthetic. http://www.aafp.org/afp/2002/0401/p1409.html (if a stitch is needed the vet can leave the tails longer than the coat so they can be found to remove, or they will use skin glue or dissolvable stitch.

Also the technique on video (yes people but exactly the same with dogs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMDfY15UOoQ

Wow, wish this post had gone up before Ellie had her sebaceous cyst removed (wretched Lottie kept licking it so it was getting infected, so it had to go!). Still, the hair only took a couple of weeks to grow back to the extent that it wasn't screamingly obvious, though it's taken a couple of months to get to the point where I don't notice it!

Agree, when Brainless mentioned this before asked our vet, answer was not at this practice, so rang around other vets here on the island & no one would consider doing it. Even had one vet nurse tell me that not popular as resulting wound/area takes longer to recover from a local anaesthetic than after a general!

It's simply as they are set in their ways, same as the vets who tell you, you can't have hip scores done under sedation.