Went to Southern Counties on Friday and just aw we were about to leave there was an announcement saying there was a Welsh Springer Spaniel loose on the A34 with its benching chain still attached..Just wandered if they managed to catch it?

Oh What a nightmare!!  I hope they got it safely.  I could never just bench mine with a chain:(  Crates or nothing.  But stuff can happen no matter how careful you are.  I had Savannah attached to my chair a week ago at a fun show and she must have stepped on the trigger hook and undone herself as she started wandering off - luckily it was just to daddy!  My thoughts are with the owners.

Wendy

Hope this has a happy ending for all .... has anyone heard anything ?

i heard it as well and a man came round looking for it befor iyt was said the dog was on the A34 hope the dog was got back ok but i dont no anymore infomation
bye bye for now fiona

This is really worrying, we said that there was nobody taking passes at the metal fence entrance by benching tents 2 and 3 and how easy it would be for a dog to get through. The pass people were only taking exit passes at the car park exit the other side of the field. The A34 was closer to the benching tents just a short distance across the field. If they had been there they could have stopped the dog because the fence must have been at least 6ft high.

Everyone must be more careful about benching, at Bath last week two golden retrievers were found loose. Luckily these were caught before anything could go wrong.

Just heard through the Welsh Springer list I am on that the WSS that was loose was Gill Tully's Pipit, Sh Ch Highclare Energiser, and that she has thankfully been found safe and well - but not after more than 4 hours of hell for her owner trying to find her - not helped by a report (apparently from another exhibitor) that she had been seen dead on the side of the road (I hope that wasn't a deliberate hoax - that would be too cruel).

We had a similar incident at LKA a few years ago when a Maremma got loose in the car park. Sadly she was not so lucky - she was killed on the M42 nearby. It was devastating - her owners still find it difficult to go to the NEC. 

I don't know how it can be prevented - most venues are not (and can't realistically be) completely fenced - and a frightened dog can squeeze out of tiny gaps - but thankfully it is a happy ending in this case - and credit to SC committee who did all they could to help - more than can be said for LKA's 3 years ago it has to be said.

Janet

Its terrible that these dogs get lose...we always have one person sitting with our dogs...and if thats not possible someone close by in the benching is asked to keep an eye but its never for very long....I remember a dog just wandering out of a beinching tent and winsor one year...we where on our way out and theres a dog lose followed by a benching chain...luckily he was only strolling out so we mangaed to get hold of him just as the owner was comeing back to the bench....

This is why I never leave my dogs benched, maybe against the rules but sorry they are more important than rules!!

The security as SCCA was appaling. We drove in and parked up without anyone lookng at our passes and even though we were only exhibiting one dog we could have brought 60 into the show ground and no-one would have been any wiser. Having said that the security at WLKs was a bit over the top for my liking as we couldn't get back to the car without showing our passes which was the least of our worries when the heat was 25 degrees without any breeze at all

I was bemused by the Security at Brimingham (Stafford) where they kept calling for people with unentered dogs to collect exit passes!  Surely this made the whole idea of exit passes a farce, if you couldjust go in and get one!
bye
Gwen

at bath i cought a golder running up the tent it had pulled the benching ring of and was still atached to the benching chain mum took it back to the benching and waited for the owner but a friend of the owners stood with the dog unitl she came back this is happening to much and something needs to be done about it its such a shame and so sad :(
bye bye for now fiona

Is this problem a fault in the benching system ( chains etc) or fault on the behalf of the owner when attaching the dog ?
We're pretty lucky in that Staffys are crated when benched anyway

i think the champshow should take a look at the way the dogs are bench aboard,when i went to the world dog show 2002,their systrem  was on the floor not  raised like ours,and it was like a crate so you can paddlock the dogs in so no you can touch them and you could leave them without any harm,a much better way than here.

Yes I liked those too, and thought them even better than the ones in Belgium when they haosted the World show in Brussels 1995.  those were big cages with doors that swung up and over and big enough for a couple of dogs, but a bit fiddly if you had a dog that might try a runner.

Glad to hear the dog was ok. Some shows really need to think about the saftey of the dogs at southern counties anyone could have taken a dog over the bench. It does annoy me when there is to much security though.

I think that there is some suspicion that she may have been deliberately let loose. She was one of the top gundogs last year and is still regularly winning which inevitably makes some people resentful. I hope it isn't the case - but these things do happen on occasion.

Janet

If thats true its absolutely disgusting :(

I agree - it is awful to even contemplate that other exhibitors could do something like that. But knowing that a bitch in my own breed was deliberately fed poisoned meat at Crufts a few years ago I am afraid there are people out there capable of it :( (she survived but was never able to be shown again - she was the bitch record holder and had just won BOB.....)

I hope in this case it was a genuine accident.
Janet