there were just four Groenendaels at South wales this year - a significant drop on previous years and surely a sign of things to come as exhibitors tighten their belts and opt not to enter Champ shows without CC's for their breed. I certainly made the choice not to go as I simply could not justify the cost of the fuel from Lincolnshire to Wales for what would in effect be a glorified open show.

We had a decent breed judge and she must have been very disappointed with her entry and  I wonder what the future of our hobby is if this trend continues - perhaps the answer is to allocate CC's for all breeds scheduled ? - after all without some extra incentive the show scene will be dead in the water very soon !!!.

Interestingly the Companion shows around here are doing a roaring trade with huge  entries - they seem to satisfy the criteria of local, cheap, rewarding and FUN  but sadly Open shows seem to have almost disappeared ......time for a rethink for the Kennel Club on the whole show scene perhaps ?

Yvonne

Hi T
I went to S wales (Friday) too but in my case there were 17 in MPD compared to the weekend/more centrally placed Windsor with 12 and OB 11 versus 9 so although I've seen a slight decrease throughout the year it's not all doom 'n' gloom with my breed yet.
The last open show I attended was Guildford and we had an entry of 86! Plenty of absentees but it was chucking it down with rain and it was outdoors.

Must say we entered but opted out of both Southern Counties and Windsor.  My boy had some 'war wounds' (just a little fur missing - hardly noticeable) from the boys fighting (as some of you may have read other boy now rehomed :( or is it :) as he is very happy).  But I couldn't justify the cost of petrol when I knew my lad wasn't looking his best and I am sure that is the same with many people.  We are really cutting back and yes, going back to local companion shows more this summer as it is a cheap afternoon out and we can take all the dogs.  And a little brag as we have got RBIS twice over the last 3 weekends.  Luckily we have a few opens close by and Richmond is not too far.

Think this is a problem that is going to escalate particularly for open shows. In the breeds where numbers are low one feels it unfair to invite a breed judge to come many miles across country for a handful of dogs to go over.

In fairness to the judges it is not that they don't want to travel to judge but can't warrant using family money to pay for their travelling expenses. This in turn means that breeds will get a breed judge less often and with that less classes and than in turn will lead to less entries which will eventually lead to the breeds classes being dropped.

Really wish I could see a way around this problem as it is not just Open shows that suffer in the end the judges who would wish to judge Championship shows will find they are unable to get the necessary experience, if this continues there will only be the elderly judges available to judge Championship shows, as they can only judge each breed once every 18 months or so they will be fast tracked to other breeds and then we will all become very bored with seeing the same people week after week either in the group rings or judging yet another breed, that, petrol apart, we will, as said above, be looking for another outlet for a day out with our dogs.

Surely though you are just making matters worse for your breed?  Why should they bother giving CC's if a breed has such low numbers?  We were on the import register for years and years and always had good numbers.  Now that we have breed classes there are entries in the 20's and 30's.  We will have a long wait of course before CC's are ever given to us.

Champ shows without CC's for their breed. I certainly made the choice not to go as I simply could not justify the cost of the fuel from Lincolnshire to Wales for what would in effect be a glorified open show.

I took it that this show had no CCs on offer. Although in some breeds with CCs the entries are so low, that they do share out the 4 green cards between the handful who turn up.

> Surely though you are just making matters worse for your breed?

Don't think it is a matter of choice for most people, it is a matter of their share of the families budget. It can't be fair if one person in the family uses all available resources on their hobby leaving nothing for the rest. Like it or not we do have to consider others and for a lot of people there is no longer enough to go round.

It is true that in the past Import register breeds are supportive of the classes they have I think because they really wish their breed to become known and are working hard to establish it in this country but even most of them will have to live by the constraints felt by the rest of us.