What Are You Doing?

[Keshwar]

I keep reading about how the ANKC, State CCs, Breed clubs, etc should be doing more to promote pure bred dogs and showing.

What I want to know is what are you doing to promote Showing, your breed, or help newbies?

How many people in the Show Ring Forum are active members of their breed clubs - if you have one - or of a group or all breeds club?

How many people here go out of their way to make newbies welcome?

It seems to me from a number of the complaints and comments about declining numbers etc that a lot of people are ready to complain and expect "The Club" or the ANKC to fix the problem but aren't prepared to do anything them selves.

[Trisven13]

What I do:

* When people tell me that dog shows are full of weird people I laugh and say that of course it is because I do it. I then tell them that there are actually loads of really great people and we have a blast.

* I have brochures about my breed and happily will talk to anyone about them, have them out for people to interact with and enjoy.

* I welcome newbies - I think you can probably confirm that I'm a pretty friendly kinda person *read "way too chatty"*

What I don't do (but would do):

* Not a member of my local Kennel Club but this has prompted me to become one again - I have been previously.

* Not a member of a breed club as we don't have one but will probably be instrumental in setting one up.

* Haven't yet helped a newbie to show BUT was going to with my first litter but a change in her circumstances has meant that she can't. I would LOVE to give a newbie the same opportunity that I was given and plan on it in the future. I have encouraged a local friend who is looking into getting another Great Dane to consider showing and to come along with me or let me show it for her.

Good questions because they made me think about some of the additional things I can and should do.

[Gayle.]

Member of my breed club although not as active as I'd like to be due to sheer distance. But I participate in other ways.......stories for the newsletter, phots for the annual calender, support their shows, purchase breed merchandise from them rather than from the Internet.

Welcome anyone who wants to talk about the breed and invite them to interact with my dogs so they can see just how gorgeous they are.

Talk, talk, talk up the benefits of buying from a registered breeder, buying a health tested pedigree dog. And get out and about in public with my dogs. They invariably attract attention and it's always an opportunity to talk about how fantastic pedigree dogs are.

I know my lmitations in public relations, I am great at talking to people who approach me but I am not good at approaching strangers. I am also not a good committee person although I've tried. I just don't thrive on it like other people do. I'm not good at politics so I leave that to others.

[Gayle.]

Regarding helping a newbie, I'd love to but I generally don't know the newcomers from the old hands. I offered to take a young girl who was interested in handling, to shows with me so she could learn with my dogs but it turned out she had other thin gs to do, so that fell through.

[capanash]

Show in Conformation and Obedience.

At conformation shows we often take a retired dog in pet trim to meet and greet the public, takes the emphasis off the poodle in show coat.

Member of breed Club and spent several years on committee and as Puppy information officer.

Attend pet fun days and expos to show that poodles are great pets.

VCA Pets as Therapy with 2 dogs.

Responsible Pet Education program with 3 dogs.

We do professional advertising and modelling work with the poodles.

We also remember how we were treated when first showing and go out of our way to make new exhibitors welcome and offer help with grooming.

[Austerra]

As I own a pet supplies business I always put a list of dog events that are coming up at KCC park in the window along with Dogs Vic media release flyers (at the moment these are about "Christmas" puppies).

When approached about puppies I talk about why to go registered pedigree over pet shop crossbreeds or unregistered purebreds, explaining about what regulations ANKC affiliated breeders are bound by and tests etc that are done if applicable. Also put them onto Dogs Vic and DOL websites, if I know people involved with the breed they may be interested in I direct the people to them as a starting point.

[SparkyTansy]

Promote showing:

In our breed club we offer to help anyone that may be interested in showing. We have supported at least one person all the way to the showing aspect with her two ex-show neuters. She loves it and I hope she will consider her next puppy to be a show dog.

In the last 8 years I have helped several new people into the sport - some have stuck around and some haven't. The ones that did are now heavily involved in the breed club we established and we are heading for affiliation in the next 12 months.

I have also helped people not in my breed get started in showing, supported them at the start etc.

i was a member of the Gundog Club committee but my committments became too much.I am an active committee member of the OES club (my sisters breed) and as said above, currently involved in the non-affiliated weimaraner club of WA.

Through the club, we have a website, brochures which we hand out at events, an open Facebook page. We also arrange lots of weim meets, training days and have recently organised a lecture on bloat through the veterinary university, with a few more to come.

I do go out of my way to help people but if they do not want to be helped I don't push it.

I feel that there are a lot of people that do things for their breed and for the ANKC, and there are many that don't, but I don't think that the ANKC needs to promote showing, I think it needs to promote themselves, all our sports, the fact that we are the main body in australia that is for dogs, with a big push for pedigree dogs butnot taking anything away from the members who have not got pedigrees. We should be promoting responsible pet ownership, promoting registered purebreeds and the breeders that do it correctly, and we should promote our sports.

[Sayly]

Vice President of the Junior KC of SA. For our recent shows we placed an advertisement in the paper inviting the general public down to have a look.

At shows I have invited new people into my gazebo if I have room and they don’t have one, or invite them to set up next to me. Make sure I speak to them whenever I get the chance and congratulate them on their wins. Encourage them and when they feel low about their handling I let them know how terrible I was when I started!

Whenever the subject is brought up I explain why pedigree dogs can seem expensive, why the price is worth it, what shows is about and the lengths breeders go to in order to breed the best dogs they can.

I have a friend from uni who has shown a little interest in dog showing, I have let her know that she’s welcome to come with me to shows any time, and when she’s decided on a breed I am more than happy to help her find the right breeder. Another friend has come with me to a couple of shows so she can learn about lots of different breeds and I always let her know when there’s shows on near her.

Go to the open days that Dogs SA runs with the Aussies or the Irish, or both.

[Miss Danni]

I'm a member of my breed club, have been for 20 years. Spent many, many years as Publicity Officer and even when I wasn't, I attended Pet expos and any other promo opportunity for my breed.

I am also a member of the SV in Germany, the peak body for GSDs worldwide.

We go out of our way to try to get top pups into show homes and be welcoming for novices. We provide oodles of support for people that buy our pups, including the showies.

We pay the membership for our puppy buyers to join our breed club. This gets them the quarterly magazines and hopefuly might help to interest some of them in getting more involved in the breed.

I am the webmaster for a GSD club that I am not a member of, so that I can help with breed and club promotion.

Probably lots more that I cant think of off the top of my head!

[MissMonaro]

Member of Breed Club and have always gone to Breed Club meetings and fun days etc organised by the club ....however this year became a member of the Management Committee. My daughter is the Trophy Steward.

We are also involved with our local Kennel Club - I am the Secretary and my daughter is the Vice President / Training Co-ordinator and we run show handling classes every week for new ppl to come along / and for exp ppl that have new dogs etc.

We always like to encourage the new ppl at training and will help them get on their feet at shows and to meet ppl in their own group etc.... and we always love it when the newbie comes up and tells us of their successes - always nice to hear !!

We recently took along some dogs to the Guide Dogs Open day and walked around letting ppl pat them etc and talking about the breed and buying from registered breeders etc......and are more than happy to chat to ppl on the phone or ppl that stop us out and about (probably talk wayyyy too much)

Was involved with obedience as well, but that has taken a back seat unfortunately due to all our other committments at the moment. Have also trained in agility and flyball...but again, just not enuff time.

[whiskedaway]

I'm a member of my breed club (even though the breed club is interstate).

A friend and I try and organise two picnics per year so that people of our breed can meet up and we can show people interested how wonderful our breed is.

We are planning on trying to have a stand for our breed at the Dogs SA Open Day next year - unfortunately very few people were available this year so we weren't able to do it.

I'm always happy to talk about my breed and am happy to help new exhibitors out (though I'm a new exhibitor myself!)

I'm a member of the Junior Kennel Club of SA and have recently become secretary of it.

And I always talk about the benefits of owning purebred dogs and going to a registered breeder - I have helped a cousin and an aunty to find registered breeders of their chosen breeds this year.