One of my pet peeves about watching Dog Shows is women in dresses and skirts running around in the ugliest flats I've ever seen. I get that it's practical, and that they running, but my brain is screaming for some ensemble-appropriate footwear. If some dogs have to get their tails chopped off to fit the aesthetic a short sprint in some pumps hardly seems inhumane ;) I know I'm a shallow bitch when it comes to shoes. Can't help it. I'd rather see them in jeans and sneakers than skirts and those fugly flats.
Hey! I'm ALL FOR the men wearing skirts and dresses as well, as long as they do it with the right footwear! God knows most men have better legs than I do ;-)
That would make my life! Some owners show their own dogs but most hire handlers who show dogs professionally. Kind of like the way owners of race horses hire jockeys. At the Westminster level which is pretty elite I imagine most dogs are shown by professional handlers.
There's a lot of money at stake at that level of showing because the better the dog places the more its offspring sells for. The higher the level and the more skilled/successful the handler the higher rate he/she commands. I don't know how much exactly, like Laura I have reservations about the showing world. My cocker spaniel Kiera's breeder was such an a**hole that I never even sent her CKC registration in. She would be registered as coming from them and I didn't want their name anywhere near her, I wanted total separation. Some breeders are very good and truly care about the betterment of their breed so I'm reluctant to paint them all with the same brush.
Generally most handlers and breeders that I know (which only show within the province) have other sources of income ie. dog grooming. Showing is actually pretty expensive because there is so much travel involved, entry fees, equipment, vet bills, grooming, handler etc. The people that do it are very passionate about it and generally it's not really profitable, unless you have an exceptional dog that wins championship after championship.
I should add exceptional as physical specimens, not necessarily temperament-wise. There are a lot of nasty dogs that are shown and bred because of their physical characteristics, and nasty dogs often pass on those nasty temperaments to puppies. It's pretty twisted.
And me, I just hate the whole "breed characteristics" thing and people defining what is a good specimen in any given breed. It leads to horrible physical problems, also to dogs being abandoned because they don't meet certain human-created standards. Yuck yuck yuck.
I want all the breeds to breed together, have all kinds of mixed puppies, one big mongreal mish mash. Same for people!
That's why I find breed-based rescues so discombobulating. You have to decide what breed of dog you want before you can proceed. To me, that's like deciding when you're about 15 that you want to marry a blue-eyed architect, and then conducting your private life accordingly.
I got Chelsea from an all-breed rescue in Mississauga called Take Me Home. She's an outstanding dog, we're actually a certified Pet Therapy team. And she's ridiculously healthy compared to my pure bred American Cocker Spaniel Kiera. I grew up with the breed and I love them which led to my decision to purchase a puppy. But, and this is a big but, you're absolutely right that you can't determine a good fit by physical characteristics alone. Temperament and personality are huge, especially if you have other animals. You can love a breed to death but you can't force a square peg into a round hole. Finding a good fit for your family and lifestyle is paramount when adding a furkid to your family, and when you adopt an adult dog you know exactly what your getting in terms of personality :) Toronto based Adopt a Dog Save a Life is another exceptional all-breed rescue. Both Take Me Home and Adopt a Dog Save a Life list their available dogs on petfinder.com
11 comments:
One of my pet peeves about watching Dog Shows is women in dresses and skirts running around in the ugliest flats I've ever seen. I get that it's practical, and that they running, but my brain is screaming for some ensemble-appropriate footwear. If some dogs have to get their tails chopped off to fit the aesthetic a short sprint in some pumps hardly seems inhumane ;) I know I'm a shallow bitch when it comes to shoes. Can't help it. I'd rather see them in jeans and sneakers than skirts and those fugly flats.
DS's comment cracks me up. I thought she was going to decry the sexism of making the women wear dresses! But no, she wants it even more sexist! :)
Hey! I'm ALL FOR the men wearing skirts and dresses as well, as long as they do it with the right footwear! God knows most men have better legs than I do ;-)
That would make my life! Some owners show their own dogs but most hire handlers who show dogs professionally. Kind of like the way owners of race horses hire jockeys. At the Westminster level which is pretty elite I imagine most dogs are shown by professional handlers.
What else do the handlers do besides run back and forth at dog shows in frumpy clothes? That can't possibly be their whole job.
There's a lot of money at stake at that level of showing because the better the dog places the more its offspring sells for. The higher the level and the more skilled/successful the handler the higher rate he/she commands. I don't know how much exactly, like Laura I have reservations about the showing world. My cocker spaniel Kiera's breeder was such an a**hole that I never even sent her CKC registration in. She would be registered as coming from them and I didn't want their name anywhere near her, I wanted total separation. Some breeders are very good and truly care about the betterment of their breed so I'm reluctant to paint them all with the same brush.
Generally most handlers and breeders that I know (which only show within the province) have other sources of income ie. dog grooming. Showing is actually pretty expensive because there is so much travel involved, entry fees, equipment, vet bills, grooming, handler etc. The people that do it are very passionate about it and generally it's not really profitable, unless you have an exceptional dog that wins championship after championship.
I should add exceptional as physical specimens, not necessarily temperament-wise. There are a lot of nasty dogs that are shown and bred because of their physical characteristics, and nasty dogs often pass on those nasty temperaments to puppies. It's pretty twisted.
And me, I just hate the whole "breed characteristics" thing and people defining what is a good specimen in any given breed. It leads to horrible physical problems, also to dogs being abandoned because they don't meet certain human-created standards. Yuck yuck yuck.
I want all the breeds to breed together, have all kinds of mixed puppies, one big mongreal mish mash. Same for people!
DS, I love the thought of the male handlers running around in mid-calf dresses. :)
That's why I find breed-based rescues so discombobulating. You have to decide what breed of dog you want before you can proceed. To me, that's like deciding when you're about 15 that you want to marry a blue-eyed architect, and then conducting your private life accordingly.
I got Chelsea from an all-breed rescue in Mississauga called Take Me Home. She's an outstanding dog, we're actually a certified Pet Therapy team. And she's ridiculously healthy compared to my pure bred American Cocker Spaniel Kiera. I grew up with the breed and I love them which led to my decision to purchase a puppy. But, and this is a big but, you're absolutely right that you can't determine a good fit by physical characteristics alone. Temperament and personality are huge, especially if you have other animals. You can love a breed to death but you can't force a square peg into a round hole. Finding a good fit for your family and lifestyle is paramount when adding a furkid to your family, and when you adopt an adult dog you know exactly what your getting in terms of personality :) Toronto based Adopt a Dog Save a Life is another exceptional all-breed rescue. Both Take Me Home and Adopt a Dog Save a Life list their available dogs on petfinder.com
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