Tuesday 28 August 2018

Thoughts

As the GSD's where being judged yesterday there was blood curdling scream from another ring. Judging stopped in all rings as everyone was shocked to see a Great Dane holding another by the side of his head and his ear. The screaming chilled me to my bones and was truly a sound I will never forget. The owners emotional screams of "get it off him, get it off him" will haunt me too. I've no idea what happened, who started what, who was to blame and I'm not here to point the finger as at the end of the day dogs will be dogs and we are all entitled to have a bad day. 
Generally as show people we should all be proud, all our dogs behave amazingly. We ask so much of our show dogs and they are more than happy to oblige, but even the dogs are just not in the mood for it some days. You know we sit in crowded rooms with hundreds of dogs, rarely a cross word, well between the dogs anyway. We take them in a ring where a stranger pokes and prods and stick their fingers in their mouths, we move them in circles in groups and expect them to stand still for minutes at a time ... and my god they do it to please us, most of them with great enthusiasm. I have had dogs who hated it, Kiri to a point and of course Ziva. If they hate it they simply don't have to go!
Sometimes, just sometimes I wish owners where just a little more careful. Not everyone wants to be flattened by an over exuberant GSD, teaching Ross that not everyone and/or their dog wants to speak to him has been hard and I always tell anyone who speaks to him, Kaiah or Sammi that they may jump up .. and that Loki will ignore them ..lol Seriously though,  I believe it's bad manners to allow dogs to launch themselves at other people and their dogs, maybe the other dog is having a bad day! My dogs are noisy, exuberant and happy at shows but where other people and their dogs are concerned I do try and give them their space, all I can hope is that other people in my breed and other grant us the same courtesy ...