Well, this was the first weekend, I noticed the true game of dog showing.  I usually go in for fun, and not care whether my dog places or not, and would never do anything dirty to make another dog look bad. Sadly this isnt the case for some other handlers.

I got pinned in the shade (with a black dog) while beautiful reds got to stay in the sun.  Also, got pinned behind a post a couple times.  And had dogs run up behind me.  All from the same handler! 

I know dog shows can be dirty pool, but whats the point in playing dirty?  I would never try to hide another dog, or make it so it doesnt show proper.  The way I look at it is that if my dog is going to take placement, then it will, if it wont it wont.  Doesnt matter what the other dogs are doing.  Chance you take when you enter.  But some handlers play downright dirty. 

So not knowing all the tricks, wondering what ones are out there, so I dont get caught again.  They say the tricks are done, when the person is scared of your dog winning, so its a complement, but it is so frustrating to know just after it happens that you have been played. 

They do it to everyone new or old, good or bad dogs.  What you probably fail to recognise is that they are trying to make their dog stand out any way they can over all the others.  Some judges who have big classes can be swayed by such silly behaviour, others dont and usually get the steward to make sure no dog stands behind a post or in a particularly muddy patch, etc.
You would be amazed at how many dogs have been over looked by people doing just what you say happened to you.

When I am in the ring, I have had dogs standing to close, backing their dogs into me, running up behind me, putting brakes on in front of me, standing there dog to face mine very close instead of facing it the normal way round, trying to make noises when my dog is on the table or troting up, and I have even had people trying to squeeze a place ahead of me in the final line up to try and take a better placing in the class.

I have learnt tricks to stop all of this.  I now leave a gap around me by hanging back from the dog in front waiting for them to setup their dogs and then doing mine at the last minute right where i want them to be.  I also leave a gap before trotting around in a circle and my dogs have a tendancy to pull slightly ahead of me to stop people running up on me. Training them to ignore nosies.  As for the squeezing in to take a place I just tell the steward as they go to right down the numbers and get them to ask for a judge to double check if they dont notice that the placings are different to what she placed.

Most of the people I see do these kind of things are has-beens in the breed and are doing everything they can to make up a dog that probably stands no chance.

Emma

On my first champ show i mentioned to the lady benched next to me that it was my first champ show. Little did i realise that she was in the same class as me.
I never thought anything of it as i've never experienced bad play before and everyone i have met in the breed has always been more than helpful.

Well once i got in the ring and we had to run the dogs around a couple of times the lady next to me on the bench was behind me in the ring, she kept running her dog up the back of mine. In the end i stopped and glared at her and then went on, she never did that again.
Further to this i was placed higher than her in the ring, so goes to show that sometimes people do this when they  are concerned by the competition.

I have been told if you get blocked into a corner instead of showing your dog sideways on move your dog so that he is facing inwards into the ring so the judge can see the dogs face and this way your still being seen.
Also if someone moves out into the ring and blocks the view of your dog, do the same and move out as well or bring it to the attention of the steward.
Its not nice when handlers behave in this way and i think if you truly believe that your dog is good enough then you wouldn't need to do this.
I am new to showing and i have to say that if i did anything like this by mistake i'm know that others would soon point out my errors to me, as i would never intentionally do what i call foul play in the ring.

I think some people do things like that by accident too, being nervous and maybe not looking where they are... I know I have once nearly run on somebody elses back and I'm not nervous in the ring. I think I was looking how my own dog runs and didn't see the judge signed everybody to stop, oops.
I have now learned that my dog will run even if I face forward :) and I now like to keep nice distance to the person in front of me.

Saying that I have seen the purposeful nastiness too...
In one best dog ring one of the owners was standing their dog so that the one behind could not even fit in their place.
The owner asked the other exhibitor to move forwards(plenty of room there) and got totally igored...
Luckily she was an experienced person so she swiftly moved her dog off the line in her place covering the bum half of the other dog, needless to say they moved forward pretty quickly :).
The dog that they were trying to "hide" won the CC and the other one went for reserve.
In the ring of honour, the owner of the dog that lost "accidently" stamped on the rosette they got and was stamping on it while standing their dog for pictures before carelessly throwing in out of the way... NICE!
This was at Crufts too!
I was cobsmacked by the behaviour of the owner of the reserve dog!

Unfortunately there are quite a few 'haters' in the dog showing world and cannot stand the fact that you may have a better dog than them. Even if you may be inexperienced they look down on you. in the case of having a better dog than them they consider you to be a threat and will try anything they can to make their dogs look better than yours even if their not! I think each and every one of us exhibitors have experienced the 'bitchiness' in the showing and also the corruption too, especially with popular breeds such as cavaliers, labradors etc The best thing to do is to rise above it and not let their comments or actions affect you because at the end of the day if you have the better dog they know it too! I have really seen some poor quality cavaliers qualify for Crufts and have really wondered "why the hell did that qualify" and i think we all know why it did (cough cough, corruption lol) so don't let some of these people put you down. i only hang around only the genuine showing people and some successful ones too but I don't hang around with them because they are succesful I only keep friends that I believe are good people.so it goes to show that there are many nice people in the showing world you just have to meet them and make yourself known in the showing world because the sad reality is in dog showing if they dont know you they dont like you (well i do find that in my breed anyway) So my advice is not to take it to heart, you get people like that everywhere (not just in dog showing).

I find what works best is to say quite politely to the people on the opposite side to the bullying crowder, and in a voice loud enough for people at the ringside to hear, 'Would you all mind moving along a bit, It seems that Mr So and So is being crowded from further up the line'. Whenever I'm stewarding, I'm always on the lookout for such tactics, I can't abide bullying. On one occasion I was in the ring and I had a small squeaky toy in my bait bag. The lady next to me asked if I would very kindly not squeak the toy whilst the judge was looking over her dog and she was moving it. I was absolutely mortified when somebody sitting behind me, who must have heard the conversation, immediately started squeaking a toy as soon as the woman presented her dog to the judge, and continued to squeak it until the woman was nearly back next to me in the line. If looks could kill......Luckily, the man the other side of me leaned round and explained that I wasn't the culprit.

I always thought, that when the CKC rules stated that one had to be of proper showmanship, that people would be.  The toy group here, for a most part anyways, seems to be quite nice.  There have been a couple handlers, who I have learned to watch out for, as they like to play the game.  But the person who did it to me this weekend, was a total shock.  I would have never expected it from him.  Thats what caught me off guard.

Maybe this person thought, that since my dog and I took Best in Match the night before, he had something to worry about?  (Cos my dog did look amazing at the match! And the handler for the other dog stayed to watch). 

And even though I think his dog has some very good qualities, that outshine mine, I would never - NEVER do anything to make his dog look bad.  I am not that type of person.  (my luck, if I tried, it would hide the other dogs faults, lol and make it look really good)

I have heard of handlers scrunching bags around the ring, or dropping something really loudly on the floor when a dog is going round that they dont want to win.  I have also heard of dirty double handling from outside the ring, where people at ringside will do whatever they can to make the dog in the ring mess up.  What happened to dog shows just being fun???????