Re: [PyrNet-L] breeding question/showing

[Kshoffman@aol.com]

In a message dated 03/11/2000 7:07:19 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
srwhitney@earthlink.net writes:

<< In general, people
 were chatting with the handlers down at our end  which also surprised me
 a bit.  I didn't think that was proper ettiquette.  It was pretty
 interesting, though :) >>

You should go to a European show, Steph. *G*

I was at an outside show in France in August 1998, a National Specialty no 
less (not Pyrs), and not only do spectators "chat" with the folks in the 
ring, exhibitors and/or spectators will walk right through the rings in the 
middle of judging to get from point A to point B!   Some dogs are even shown 
in the ring off-lead, and many dogs are allowed to mill around and mingle 
off-lead at the site when not in the ring.

At single breed specialties, the classes are huge and they last forever 
because there is often more than one judge evaluating dogs and they are doing 
written critiques on every entry.  At a large specialty, it can literally 
take hours to judge our equivalent to the open class. They also generally 
have several rings going at one time at such shows, so you have to peruse the 
catalog in advance to figure out what dogs you want to see, then you have to 
"ring hop" all day to take in everything you want to.

What we call "double handling" is not only allowed, but *encouraged*. (We 
also allow this with our UKC affiliated Belgian Shepherd Club shows in the 
U.S., but we call it "assisted animation". *G*)  When a "popular" dog is 
being evaluated, you'll have all his fans and friends and family outside of 
the ring calling his name, squeaking toys, and so on, trying to get his 
attention and get him "up" in attitude.

At the French show, one guy even handed his dog off to a friend and went to 
the back of the ring which was bordering a tree line to, um, well, relieve 
himself.  I'm not kidding!

It's a whole different culture in other parts of the world, in many different 
ways. I rather enjoyed the casual atmosphere at the dog shows, to be quite 
honest.  Was great for me because anyone who wanted to take photographs could 
walk right into the ring, and get to within feet or even inches of any dog 
they wanted to shoot photos of to get closeup shots. :-)

Kelley