Hi there

Is there anyone in the NW/NE who will be showing at Crufts this year and wouldn't mind having a short piece on their day written about them in the local paper (as part of a 'Local handlers at Crufts' article)? If so, please email me on simonmarisa@tiscali.co.uk for further details.

Many thanks

Marisa

I would avoid such newspaper stores like the plague.  I had one in my local paper and poetic license was an understatement.

they said things like my champion dogs joining in the cut and thrust of competition etc (at that time I had no champions).

They tend at best to make us sound quirky at worst downright weird and somehow cruel.

Pampered pooches and various stereotypical phrases re dog owners thrown in,a nd fact totally omitted or twisted.

The worst thing is I insisted that my location was anonymous and they then printed Barbara of such street.  Just the best way to interest dog thieves.  I had made a big deal about this to them and was ignored.

We had a good laugh at a story last year in our local paper. "Mrs X came home from Crufts with TWO NEW CHAMPIONS." Wow that sounded impressive! Turned out they had won one first each.....no tickets at all.

Remember the story about the stolen Tibetan Spaniels? When the last pup was found and returned there was a story in a newspaper -that promptly gave the address to the kennels! Thankfully it also said they had bought a guard dog, but even so....talk about open invite. I'm sure that will have been the paper.

Just interested to know - which paper covers both the North East and the North West?

I too would avoid stories like this. In effect they publicise that someone has 'valuable' dogs making them more likely to be stolen, and also that the owners will be out at Crufts, making their homes good targets for burglars.

There was an article in our local paper about a breeder in one of my breeds who had taken some of her dogs along. They gave her name and the area she lived in but not her address nor did they print anything incorrect. Was a lovely photo and story tbh.. I think it does depend on the paper and also the journalist as to what is published.

>They gave her name and the area she lived in

That's plenty to identify exactly where someone lives, especially if they have an unusual breed.

Our local paper did the same thing about us the week before Crufts, talk about giving thieves plenty of notice. I was livid. 

I guess.. We do however have a very prolific breeder in this area for said breed and as such they are seen very frequently..

I am the journalist and everything that is written comes from the handlers themselves - I co-ordinate the responses and the handlers may also forward any photos they would like to see printed. We would never publish addresses and the article will appear AFTER Crufts - as a report on how our local handlers did - so no one need worry about being burgled during Crufts because of us. I have had over 300 articles published as a journalist for the Kennel Gazette, Dog World and Our Dogs under my maiden name of Marisa Keophaithool. I have also been an editor for TFH, the world's largest publisher of pet books and had a book published called How to train your dog. So I hope this will set people's minds at rest - this is a serious piece and a chance to show the positive side of dog ownership as I am hoping to feature handlers from a variety of disciplines such as showing, flyball, obedience, agility etc.

Thanks for giving more background about the person writing the article, it makes all the difference. :)

No problem, I should probably have done that first to let people know where I was coming from. I have a website if anyone is interested.

It's nice to see a fellow journalist on here and sad to see that some people have had bad experiences with previous 'writers'! Unfortunately there are more than a handful of so called journalists who like to ruin it for others like us that just want to write an honest, non biased piece of work.

Thanks for that Victoria. Still looking for a handler from the NE if anyone is interested?