The dark side of Dog Shows

Crufts is on this weekend and I struggle to watch. I have a negative history with taking my own dogs to dog shows so watching any animals be judged makes me very emotional. So here is the brief history of my time in the Best in Show world.

First up was beloved Wilson. Looked liked a monkey, acted like a King. Truly a legendary dog. His show was in aid of a local dog rescue – one that I’ve not heard of apart from this dog show, but I suspect it’s not a scam as it would seem a rather labour intensive way to make money.

Wilson in his sports buggy

Proud mum

In years past I have taken both Wilson and Hollie to this dog show. My first brush with the unpleasant side of the show ring was with Wilson. He was entered in Golden Oldies and it was a big class – mainly because they felt age six and up was a golden oldie!

We sat and waited to be judged, Wilson had a little nap and all seemed well.

The judge was taking forever with each dog and the crowd soon grew restless. This resulted in a member of the small crowd shouting out “hurry up and judge that one before he dies” (a comment aimed squarely at Wilson and I).

Miss Hollie, refusing to acknowledge her second place

Second Prettiest bitch

As a proud dog mom I was appalled, but Wilson didn’t care and strutted his bald butt for the judge. We didn’t even get placed. The judge seemed to ignore the oldie part of the equation and the winner was a six-year-old dog. We were ROBBED! Several years later Hollie managed a second place in prettiest bitch, but, for Hollie, second place was nothing. Again, ROBBED!

Joy for Joey?

So, this year, could Joey finally break the curse of the dog show and come first?

Well, we didn’t get placed in either of the first two classes… FIX!

But the fancy dress class let me unleash my secret weapon… his jockey costume! Joey strutted his stuff with his little pink clad jockey on his back. There was meant to be a Jubilee theme to the event so he was the Royal Ascot race horse. The judges made their way around the ring and…

Sigh… second place! But still a rosette and treats for my boy. Maybe next year we just hang out in our dinosaur pyjamas and see what the judges think of that? The curse not broken, but still room for improvement.

Beloved Joey (plus jockey)