Yesterday at Birmingham the Toy benches and rings was too far away from all the trade stands in hall C across from all the action.
And the walk from the gate to the hall with bags and cages was more of a hike!!!

But did you do well? And if so with what breed?

Karen

Have heard today that the Malamute ring was like a skating rink the concrete was so slippery :(

CONCRETE ???? are we indoors ??

Well, apart from a couple of small breeds who perhaps decided to move outside? Yes, the rings were inside. If you're benched in Hall 2, don't look for hall 2 because you won't find it. There were Mal owners all over the place trying to find hall 2 only to find that it is labelled C! Then the rings are too small to move in for anything other than small breeds and the floor is indeed like an ice rink. (And don't go looking for Sticky paw wax or spray because most of the stalls ran out on the first day) Meanwhile, the trade stalls are all nicely placed out in the sunshine on the grass.... AARGH!!!!

Many of us signed an official complaint before judging but nothing was changed and several, including me, will not be giving them our entries next year unless they can assure us of changes....

That's it.... rant over - sorry!!!

isnt it too soon to be going indoors, -what a shame, --were there tommorow, thanks for the warning re hall 2, i'll have to check where we are, i think its ring 10 !!!! anybody in ring 10 today??????

Sorry Dizzy, you're in the same hall as we were today :( We were in ring 6. Just make a note of everything above......

Joan

oh bog!!!! casey really moves out, ---doubt wed get into a stride. -----so my ring will be slippy, and very small????/ what was the weather like ,

If it's not a silly question why did they move it from Perry Barr Park in B'ham anyway. That was a good/nice well through out venue I thougt anyhow.

Karen

I think that they moved from Perry Park becauseof the locals, breaking in, stealing dogs etc. Sorry for anybody who lives around that area. Over the years they had a no. of dogs pinched, stalls broken into etc. so I think that's why they moved. Have to agree it's such a shame, especially as it's another hour at least on our journey time!!

Went up to watch today and thought the set up was strange - trade stands lots of room on the grass, large agility ring on the grass. Then there was halls 4, 5, 6, 7? in a kind of decently sized ring, and then the belgian shepherds in hall C? I think, had the most tiniest of rings. I'm glad I didn't enter my friends dog now, wouldn't have been any point because by the time the dog gets into its stride its got to go round a corner. Would have been £20 (or there abouts) gone to waste.
Plus the fact that halls 4 - 7 were on concrete, maybe not ideal but not too bad, and then hall C had a lovely jubbly slippery surface! They could have at least but a bit of carpet down.
Char123

I just couldnt understand the layout! Hall C (not 2 as on all the details) is a fairly new exhibition hall type place, interconnected to the BIS ring hall by a restaurant. The floor is that very smooth, shiny concrete. Rings for the toys were tiny, but I assumed they would move the fences for the bigger breeds - didn't pay a lot of attention to the size of the others. However, across a vast, empty yard/carpark type area, the other "Hall" are in the cow sheds! Complete with the odd whisp of hay and straw on the floor and a fairly pungent aroma - the floor is typical very rough concrete - certainly not slippy, but not an even surface. Trade stands are then through here, outside. It is the strangest way to set out a show, and some of the hounds showing in the 'sheds' were obviously a lot more interested in the aroma than paying attention!

And then the walk from the car park! Wouldnt some sort of sign indicating which direction the entrance to the show was have been a help. Together with a whole bunch of people (you just follow on dont you?) I walked right along a whole line of cars to join the road way, only to discover that the gate was in completely the wrong direction - the gate we were heading towards led into another field! So the journey was doubled!

And did anyone else try and follow the directions from M1 North? Problem was, J17 does not allow exit from the north (nor entry to the North!) So that added a good 10 miles to the journey!

certainly not my favourite venue!
bye Gwen

oh !!!!! doesnt sound too wonderful then :(

Hi dizzy

We were in ring 10 today and it was HELL !!!! Its the only way I can describe it , I was SO angry ,,, the floor was way too slippy- talk about a Health & Safety Risk ... would have liked to have seen a Risk Assesment on that floor and its hazards !

My puppy Groucho was all over the place , really hated the floor and Lorenzo well you know how he likes to move out , was more like a slug on his belly ... for the first go around I wet his feet thoroughly and by the end of the class I managed to get a half decent grip .. the rings are tiny about 3 strides and thats it ...there was lots of spcae outside that could have been utilised and wasn't ..

Tip for you Dizzy ,,, I used Anti Slip and it didn't work ... spraying the feet with plain old water was best !

Sorry to complain - You know it must be Bad I rarely complain about things am pretty laid back but today I was just so annoyed , all the aussie people signed a collective complaint form about the state of the floor and handed it to the secretary. Hopefully the committee will take on board our comments for next year.

Good luck !
Hugs
jayne

We were in hall C as well on Friday, in ring 7. I liked the hall, but the sheets of clanking metal on the floor across the ring were a bit unsettling for handlers as well as dogs!
After moving across them a couple of times, Alice decided she was going to hop over them like a little showjumper!
Don't want to put anyone off who is showing tomorrow or anything...
If it's any consolation, I've been working on the trade stand since Friday, and a lot of the standholders have complained as well- it's been a bit quiet, as with the rings and car park so far away, a lot of people just can't be bothered to trek over to do their shopping.
Good luck to everyone showing tomorrow.
Liz

Yes this was one of my points the trade stands was too far away from Hall C all the toys was in there on Friday so a lot would have not gone over to the trade stands which was though a cow shed to get there.
Has for the floor in the rings it was my puppys first day out the floor was ok has I live in London so used to the shiny floors on the tube it was the metal going though the middle of the ring that was a bit of a problem it was fitted loose so every time you went over it it rattled i was in ring 12.
Dont know why they used Hall C has there was plenty of other hall on the other side spear?
Would think twice about going there again next year?
The Schnauzers would like it but its just the long hike from car park to show ground and no signs to help you out!!!

We were there Saturday. We went with our friends who have a male Bordeaux we bred.
Firstly the plan that came with the passes said thet Import Reg was benched in the same hall as Ring 10 which was our ring. We searched and searched and they were not. On finally finding an official to ask it turns out they had been moved to one of the halls at the opposite side to their ring!!! No signs or notices to advise people of this just a matter of "sort yourselves out"
When we went to finally find our bench guess what??? No number was there for us. Again back to the officials who must have spent half an hour trying to find a spare ring card! Not one of them knew what they were doing and did not intend rushing themselves.
When it came to going in the ring the dogs were slipping everywhere!
A saying that comes to mind is they could not have organised a P up in a brewery!
Staffie rings were outside but the dogs were benched a fair way away too.

We were in the cattle sheds with the sibes, and although you could move, I felt watching that a lot of the dogs were not driving well on the surface :-(

I went to watch the Mals, which was a disaster on the shiney floor surface :-( Especially at this time of year where they would all have a lot of fur around their pads through lack of work.

The Staff & Shelties had moved outside, and I understand that this had caused a row with the Show Management :-(

I agree that the risk assessment sheet for hall C must have been 'interesting'.

Also, the Group ring had green carpet...but the Puppy Group ring was shiney again :-(

Quite early in the day (8.50 ish) I did half hear an apology for the ring surfaces.

what a place to show a dog!!!!! the floor was horrendous, -and we managed to win our first second, :D casey couldnt get into a stride, -the judge also informed me of her faults and why shed been beaten :) -so the other judges must ALL be wrong, as his faults have been praised by many as virtues,
id not show there again in those halls, they where totally unsuitable,

It was an awful show. Small slippery rings, no good whatsoever for gundogs. Hall C was too crowded, hardly any room to move between the rings. We were benched by poodles and had to fight our way through a maze of grooming tables to get back and fore to the benching.

we where around the corner to the poodles, -sick of gettting convered in sticky water smelling like laquer :D -which breed do you have, ?

I was there on Saturday and as someone says, the staffy rings were outside
but this was only after someone had complained to the show managment about it
the rings were originally in the hall with the slippery floor at the furthest point away from the benching
even with the rings outside where they were, it was too far from the benching
most of us camped out and set up the cages in the shade of some lorries rather than leave the dogs so far away from the rings

personally i thought it was very badly laid out
and unless they make radical changes to the layout next year i wont be going again
i didnt like it at Perry Barr
and i like this place even less after saturdays fiasco

Z

We were in Hall C too with the schip benching spreading right across the hall and of course the furthest away from the ring in there, plus some lovely cocker folk had set up a party so we couldn't get thru even when we asked them - Stewards came and told them to move etc but they didn't grrr!

The floors were terrible I trod on Dakota's foot as we went round, god know's I have enough trouble with my balance without having to try and show on an ice rink! We won't be going back too far and the conditions were not good at all.

OMG!! I am sooo glad I decided not to go - that would have put Savannah off showing forever - she is great and not shy about most stuff - but she's funny about 'moving metal' sounds. I wonder how they can justify their charges and then present a sham like this all sounds!

Wendy

I look forward to the dog papers this weekend to see if anyone will say anything about the state of the rings flooring

Melody

The standard poodles were benched in a cattle shed maybe it was B I don't know but the ring was 13 at the back end of maybe C. The floor was horrendous and the ring size was OK for mins or toys but 5 steps with a standard and you were across it. How can we be benched 100yards away from the INSIDE ring we were in and be expected to know what is going on. We ended up in a grooming area near the loos in C. We usually use the benching but on this occasion it would have been a joke. The ring was like a skating rink with two metal channels across it that clanked when anyone stood on them. I did not see one dog moving well (even the odd few that usually do were very cautious!!). We pay £20 for an entry and we are not even given a decent ring outside, even though there was a large concrete area outside the hall. You could have seen this from the benching and maybe some people would have used the benching instead of squeezing in with the gundogs. There was benching in C or whatever it was so why not bench the dogs being shown in there in that benching.

I did not realise until I read your post that the Standards were not benched in the hall that they were showing in. Had it rained you would have had a good 200 yards to walk the dogs open to the elements. However, when we arrived to bench our dogs our benches were taken up with bags, chairs and picnic hampers of the poodle people. As the day got on more and more poodle owners put up grooming tables and cages around our benching area. Every time we went to the ring we had to ask dozens of people to move out of the way, politely I may add. The rear fire exits were completely blocked by the same. I do not blame the poodle people, you had no choice. However, had there been an incident in Hall C then those people at the rear would have had little chance of getting out safely. More people die trapped behind blocked fire exits than actually do at the heart of an incident. Think on!

Sounds like you have all had a raw deal at the show, not so good at all. There must be a complaints procedure.

Might be worth clubbing and putting something together in writing.

Pam

Did not go as planned and it looks like I did not miss much, were all the rings inside, and were the hound rings all in cattle sheds, heaven help us how can you show a hound on a floor covered in such interesting smells.

I can enlighten the thoughts behind the layout a little. Originally the trade stands were going to be put on concrete - which is not possible as tents must be pegged down because even inside gusts of wind come through. The best solution as I heard it was that the trade had to go on the grass area so i presume this perhaps shaped the further layout but their certainly was not enough room on the grass for all the rings anyway!

I was with my whippet and I have to say that I didn't find my ring slippy so i must have been lucky but it was pretty small i couldn't have coped if I had a large breed, and I also think the numbering of the all the halls etc was really confusing! The stakes ring was nice (but 1 ring out of all of them is not a very good percentage)

The ring for the import register was great but we were benched in shed 12, the furthest away. There were people in AVNSC who had gone straight to the ring as they were first on getting worked up because they knew that it wd. take them a while to get their no's.

Didn't do brilliantly with my Spanish but we had a good day.

We have no complaints about the new venue. The floor looked like it was going to be slippery (it was quite shiny) but it wasn't. Ring size was adequate - much bigger than we usually get, and certainly a better venue than Stafford, which is dark, cramped and decidedly smelly (but having seen them "cleaning" ready for the next day when we were there last, that is hardly surprising). Bend down to stack your dog there and all you get is the smell of stale urine.
As for the toy rings being too far away from the benches, from my experiences of toy day, the complaint is that there wasn't the room around the rings for the exhibitors to set up all their cages and grooming tables like they usually do!

lucky you, which ring where you in---i was in 10, it was tiny, and very slippy, for dogs that move out it was useless,

Ring 2 - as far as you could get from the entrance gate! Organisers usually seem to think that all terriers are tiny, and it is galling to find the wheatens in a smaller ring than the westies or cairns (as often happens - must be down to the numbers entered, I think), but on Saturday the ring was a good size, with room for the dogs to move out Also the hall was light and airy, and my boy who does not like being indoors went well. The worst part was the amount of dog dirt on the pathway going to the benching areas, and I am talking about at 8 A.M.!!! I thought we are supposed to set an example. :o

I can agree with the amount of dog mess there was. When we arrived at the good citizen ring, the first job was to clean the ring. Also, as we left at about 5pm, many cars had already gone. Under or next to every other car seemed to be a full poo bag. Could the organisers not have realised that bins may have been needed in that area? People were responsible enough to pick-up after their dog, then had nowhere to put it. Maybe they should have taken it home with them? But it did make the car park a mess.

Sarah