Having read of Dizzy's recent unpleasent experiance, I was wondering if others had been treated like this when they have a good win or success in the show ring. I don't just mean someone being a bit put out, but real unpleasentness. I could be wrong but people usually seem pleased when someone wins, is it just a front? Ja:)kie

Hi Jackie, think it could be people specific! When my bitch took the last CAC needed for her ch. not one person clapped from ringside except my hubby, and I heard later that others were drowning their sorrows saying I`d bribed the judge. I`ve had lies told about me keeping my dogs in *vari kennels* & never allowing them out, they have all kinds of health probs, and I have 30 odd dogs! All this told to breeders in the UK. Also the wrong info put out in the ( or just omitted) club magazine when my dogs have won & never rectified. The thing with liars is you can never get to the truth & my mum has a saying "you can get to the bottom of a thief, but you can never get to the bottom of a liar". I have learned to ignore them & carry on showing & trust VERY few people now.
Christine, Spain

Do you mean that it was directed at you and a win by any one else in your breed would have been greeted with pleasure. And was it a particular dog or do any of your wins get a poor response. Oh! and what breed and was it in Spain. Ja:)kie
Also well done on your win, don't know when it was but I'm sure you are still pleased about it. Ja:)kie (2)

Hi Jackie the breed is Labs & yes it was in Spain & it`s happened to a few of my wins with different dogs. No doubt at all it was directed at me, the girl who won (sweepy)has a litter sister & she came best lab.ret in Spain yr 99 & following yr sweepy came 3rd best in Spain beaten by 2 male imports, then one of my young males took best puppy in show at the monographica which translates to the champion show held only once a yr & the club magazine put another dog as winning!! I am sure any other dog winning & they woul have been whooping all round the ring with hugs & kisses.The lie about me having 30 odd dogs was told by a UK breeder to another UK breeder & at the time I only had 4labs & my mongrel. I`m English, relatively new to showing & a woman to boot!! :) But I think the green eyed monster has very far reaching tentacles
Thanks for the well done tho & it still please me, especially when I go in th ch/class & THEY have to watch cos they havn`t got one or the one they have has been bought!!(winks)

A fellow breeder who sometimes shows in Holland told me that the dutch elkhound folk were very welcoming, despite the fact that it usually meaznt they were beaten. At the World show this was indeed the case, and I think the foreign dogs took all the top placings, but we sure got clapped!

Hi Jackie, I think some folk are genuinly pleased for other exhibitors and some are just jealous, bloody minded and nasty. That must be the same in any competitive sport I guess, but the e mail thing is really horrible, and I can only hope the same thing happens to them at some time.

Hi, yes we put it down to jealousy too. The rumours which are spread about us and our dogs are incredible - we even had one loony woman saying she was assaulted her beside the ring, during judging at a show last year! It started off he was meant to have said something 'nasty' that she could hear, escalated that he had bumped into her, then it was he pushed her, and finished up she was meant to be flat on the floor being beaten up! This all at the ringside while judging went on - it was amazing no one else saw it:) This same person appears to make a habit of getting into a new breed and then making as much trouble as possible for people who befriend her - I think she has a real problem, as she geneuinely appears to believe all of her realy crazy scenarios ( one of her best was that she has recently sued the Kennel Club and been awarded £30,000 in damages for defamation of character - amazingly it did not make the papers!) However, others latch onto to the lunacy and the rumours just fly! After Dexter appeared on TV a few years back one of the dog paper columnists actually put it in print that she had it on good authority that to keep a coat like his our dogs lived in their cages all the time and never got out for excercise! She was genuinely amazed when I rang her to explain this was untrue, the person who had told her this was 'so reliable':) I invited her to come and go over the dogs, to see if this sort of muscle tone could be acheived on permeantly caged dogs!
Gwen

These people are not real dog people. There only interest is in winning and the dog is only a tool of their ego. You will find them in all walks of life unfortunatly and the only real answer is to ignore them. Trouble is, I'm not good at taking advice! (Even my own advice!!!)

Best wishes, John

I have learned over the many years that you need to push yourself forward to do well and when you do you get knocked for it,I have heard so many bitchy uncalled for remarks at the ringside it sickened me off,I have also had some very unkind treatment at shows and in show world from so called friends, especially in my breed which is numerically large and the quality good.
I now take my pleasure in rescue work and for every one I or my volunteers re home I enjoy a little smile and thats worth all the rosettes and cards in the world.

But hey watch this space cos little Ned is going on the scene LOL new breed new set of challenges :) :)
who knows :)

I know people in Cockers are thought to be terribly nasty & bitchy but compared with what I've read here lately, they are pretty angelic in comparison. I'm not saying there isn't some backbiting & rumour-spreading (inevitable in any competitive past-time) but I haven't come across anything overtly unpleasant personally. We have been lucky to have made up two Show Champions & have had a number of other good winners, but in the main, the reaction from other exhibitors has been sporting. We aren't pushy types & have a fairly small circle of true friends - you get to know who your real friends are after a time & learn to ignore the people whose opinion you don't respect. Of course I have overheard the odd catty comment about our dogs, but it's generally from those who have never had a good dog & wouldn't recognise one if it bit them on the b*m :D Anyone who shows seriously has to develop a thick skin & learn to ignore that sort of thing - you can't expect everyone to like your dogs or be pleased if they win but it's a different matter when this spills over into real nastiness - no-one should have to put up with that. I don't think it's breed specific though - it's just a few twisted individuals who would cause the same amount of unpleasantness whichever breed they owned or whichever activity they chose to be involved in :-(