# Exciting Day Tomorrow



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

Well I am just leaving to toddle up to Leicester with little man to stay with my son tonight as he is only 15 mins away from the venue for the dog show handling course with Liz Dunhill. If it is as good as I have been told I will have loads to report tomorrow night. Wish us luck !


----------



## Meezey (Jan 29, 2013)

Emmastace said:


> Well I am just leaving to toddle up to Leicester with little man to stay with my son tonight as he is only 15 mins away from the venue for the dog show handling course with Liz Dunhill. If it is as good as I have been told I will have loads to report tomorrow night. Wish us luck !


Let me know how it goes, my friend is booking herself on the course after Christmas 

Hope you have a fantastic time, what you'll come back and get BIS in your next outing


----------



## BessieDog (May 16, 2012)

Meezey said:


> Let me know how it goes, my friend is booking herself on the course after Christmas
> 
> Hope you have a fantastic time, what you'll come back and get BIS in your next outing


If she doesn't I'd demand my money back! 

Have a great time Emma!


----------



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

Well. Did we learn anything? Apparently so, the comment was 'you have climbed a mountain today'. Do I feel any more confident about showing? Absolutely not, in fact I never want to go to a show again. Has it left a lasting effect on my relationship with Mylo? Yep, I am now doubting whether I should have dogs at all.
On the flip side -there were people there that have been before and some several times so it obviously suits them if it didn't me.


----------



## BessieDog (May 16, 2012)

Emmastace said:


> Well. Did we learn anything? Apparently so, the comment was 'you have climbed a mountain today'. Do I feel any more confident about showing? Absolutely not, in fact I never want to go to a show again. Has it left a lasting effect on my relationship with Mylo? Yep, I am now doubting whether I should have dogs at all.
> On the flip side -there were people there that have been before and some several times so it obviously suits them if it didn't me.


Oh, that's a shame. What went on? (Just being nosy as it seemed the panacea to show nerves).


----------



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

BessieDog said:


> Oh, that's a shame. What went on? (Just being nosy as it seemed the panacea to show nerves).


Didn't address what I went there for at all. In fact she only saw me stack him once when someone else was acting as judge and said she wasn't interested in how he was stacked just whether he looked at me or not.

It's a very long story that starts with having his show lead taken away and replaced with a full choke and me being told to walk round a paddock yanking the choke if he did anything other than walk perfectly at my side......went on to him being yanked and shouted at until he was a quivering wreck just pleading with me with his eyes......being told he wasn't to touch or look at me at all I was to keep him at arms length if he tried to come to me for comfort and reassurance........then he got stung by a bee on the foot, given massive antihistamine (the one good thing) but when he fell over twice because he was so drowsy that was really funny apparently.

I must say the methods worked and the desired effect was achieved but not desired by me unfortunately. So if I need to do that to have a show dog I will stick with my.....and I quote ' just a pet dog with problems' (said to the entire class while I was humiliated like never before).

Like I say, not for me but many others seemed pleased with it all so I am obviously not that interested in showing.


----------



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

I should be fair. I understand what she said and sort of why. The methods worked. But I don't want the dog I saw today, I want my Mylo. My Mylo that has achieved pretty good things without going through the stage of being a gibbering wreck. If he turns into some kind of hound of the baskervilles in two years time I will deal with it but I will wait to see if that happens and deal with it the same way I dealt with Mia, through kindness and understanding. She got there when I never thought she would.
If Mylo never gets another rosette then so be it. He is never having a choke collar put on him and frightened into total submission either.

P.S It was only the few adolescent boys treated like that. If you have a submissive, squirming girl you didn't have to choke them.


----------



## Meezey (Jan 29, 2013)

Oh crap that is really really bad  Sorry you had such a shitty experience


----------



## BessieDog (May 16, 2012)

That sounds dreadful! I'm certainly not taking Bess then. She can be a naughty madam, but if you're harsh with her she gets mega stressed. I dread to think how that woman would have dealt with her. 

So sorry it was a waste of a day - I know you were looking forward to it.


----------



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

I just think she doesn't know about GSP's. They don't respond to harsh treatment at all and you just have to be firm but fair. I admit that I am probably not firm enough with Mylo but so far I haven't had to be. 
Her breeds are Rotties, Akitas, Shibas and Wheatens which need a different approach to the sensitive Pointer.
There were lots of things I picked up watching what she was saying to other people, little tricks etc, that could be useful for a lot of people. For example, I thought handlers just held tails up but apparently they are using the tail to push the dog slightly forward to show off it's chest. They showed where to hold the dogs head to gather up slack skin, how to place feet that are not straight etc. I don't actually need to do any of that with Mylo but might be useful on a dog with faults that you want to hide. 
It didn't suit me but I wouldn't want to put people off that want something else out of it that can be offered.


----------



## Pezant (Jul 6, 2012)

Ugh oh dear, that sounds like an awful day! I know Henry wouldn't respond well to any of that either - he's the same as Mylo when it comes to firm but fair treatment. 

Don't be afraid to go back into the showring and try again EmmaStace. Just because one trainer says rude things about you certainly doesn't mean all judges and all show people think that way. I'm probably not showing Henry to his absolute best either but you know what? I've only been doing this a year and I'm learning as I go, much like he is. We'll never be Crufts champions, but we're in the cards most shows and that's fine by me.

Like another ES handler told me "There are people who've been doing this for years who have got no clue how to show." Give Mylo a massive cuddle and a treat from me and Henry. Do you have good positive-based ringcraft classes to go to?


----------



## lostbear (May 29, 2013)

She sounds HORRIBLE!

I hate choke chains, and while I think you have to be firm with a dog to teach them how to behave, it does no good to destroy their confidence. Give him lots of loves and never take him back to her. EVER!:nonod:


----------



## BessieDog (May 16, 2012)

Are you going to Gundog of Wales? Hopefully we are (Bess still hasn't come into season - think she's waiting until we book the caravan park as we're going to combine it with a few days away  ). Would love to catch up with you again if you are?

I was hoping it would be a quieter show being mid week, but there's 147 ISs and 187 or so entries! :w00t:


----------



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

BessieDog said:


> Are you going to Gundog of Wales? Hopefully we are (Bess still hasn't come into season - think she's waiting until we book the caravan park as we're going to combine it with a few days away  ). Would love to catch up with you again if you are?
> 
> I was hoping it would be a quieter show being mid week, but there's 147 ISs and 187 or so entries! :w00t:


Yes going to GofW. I booked SWKA, GofW and Midland Counties this month so I will still do them but they are the last Champs I can do this year as LKA won't let Mylo in. I might also do a few Opens in the gap between end of October and the ones when it all starts again next year and see how it goes. Would be great to catch up. We can arrange to meet somewhere nearer the time.

Where is it you get the entry info?

xxx


----------



## BessieDog (May 16, 2012)

On Fossedata. It's just up there today.


----------



## Ann Elizabeth (May 12, 2013)

Forgive me EmmaStace, my curiosity was aroused reading yours and Bessiedogs comments on the thread in dogchat, I have just read this thread and wanted to say you have my sympathy, when Max was 6 months old I took him to gundog training classes, mainly to get some hints on how to exercise him appropriately, paid a small fortune for the classes spread over a number of weeks - lasted 4! I got fed up of being told Max wasn't doing it right/pull him back (might as well have said choke him) of being singled out as if I and Max were only there for others amusement, final straw was when he told me if I didn't break Max's spirit he would be forever pi55ing up my back, the trainer was not impressed when I told him I didn't want to break his spirit! 
With hindsight Max was too young to go to those classes I was too naïve to recognise it (and the trainer too greedy to tell me to wait until he was older) but I did learn a lot of things that I did and do incorporate into my training of my dogs. Good Luck with the shows if its something you really want to do don't let this put you off.


----------



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

BessieDog said:


> On Fossedata. It's just up there today.


Great thanks - looked both the welsh ones up. First on as usual in b oth so leaving at crack of sparrows. 46 in SWKA and 64 at GSof W but seem to be a lot at both in multiple classes which is unusual.


----------



## Emmastace (Feb 11, 2011)

Ann Elizabeth said:


> Forgive me EmmaStace, my curiosity was aroused reading yours and Bessiedogs comments on the thread in dogchat, I have just read this thread and wanted to say you have my sympathy, when Max was 6 months old I took him to gundog training classes, mainly to get some hints on how to exercise him appropriately, paid a small fortune for the classes spread over a number of weeks - lasted 4! I got fed up of being told Max wasn't doing it right/pull him back (might as well have said choke him) of being singled out as if I and Max were only there for others amusement, final straw was when he told me if I didn't break Max's spirit he would be forever pi55ing up my back, the trainer was not impressed when I told him I didn't want to break his spirit!
> With hindsight Max was too young to go to those classes I was too naïve to recognise it (and the trainer too greedy to tell me to wait until he was older) but I did learn a lot of things that I did and do incorporate into my training of my dogs. Good Luck with the shows if its something you really want to do don't let this put you off.


Thank you. Live and learn but only use the useful bits. It is a bit of a shocker at the time though isn't it.


----------



## Ann Elizabeth (May 12, 2013)

It certainly is, I felt so useless and embarrassed but on the very odd occasions I think about it I want to invite him (the trainer) over to see 3 adult ESS's pi55ing up my back or like yesterday when I and my daughter walked the 3 adult and 2 puppies! 
I do think to some extent its whether or not "your face fits" when I took Max everyone else in the class arrived in 4X4 and fully outfitted in what I imagine people wear when they go shooting whereas I arrived in my little Cleo, with walking boots and a big jumper on, and then I think but he assessed Max before letting us join the class so had already met me. But neither Max nor I could do a thing right - even though some other owners had to (under trainers instruction) to throw themselves on floor to get their dogs to recall and Max came back to whistle - which apparently I blew wrong and was the wrong kind of whistle! 
I'm laughing now as I type it but at the time I was very upset. 
Stick at what you enjoying doing don't let it get you down and I look forward to seeing posts on here when your dogs are coming 1st!!!


----------



## Tigerneko (Jan 2, 2009)

Ahh I am so sorry you had a bad time... what was it you went to? Was it a show or some kind of training class?

I once went to an agility club with my mum and dads Patterdale, it was run by one woman and she was the bitchiest most patronising woman in the world... she made me feel so small! She was always picking out me and Tiger when we did something wrong, and she'd make comments in front of the whole class about us, and even made a personal comment to me about turning up slightly late (even though I told her before I started the course that I would struggle to make it on time every week because I didn't finish work until an hour before and it was about a 20 minute journey away, plus the time it'd take me to get home from work, get changed and sort the dog out before setting off) despite the fact that she knew my situation and said it wouldn't be a problem... but obviously it was! She had two horrid little toy breed dogs that she kept in plastic cat carriers for the whole evening, they were going berserk in the carriers, barking, yelping and scratching at the sides to get out  she also had a larger dog that she tried tying up with one of those stick in the ground stake thingies... but since we trained in a riding school made of sand... her large dog just pulled it straight out and she had very poor control over him!

Thankfully after the course we did, she changed the location of the class to about another 40 minutes away, so we couldn't have gone again if we wanted to... which we certainly didn't!

She did however, say that Tiger was the fastest dog she had ever seen doing agility, and she'd been competing in agility for over 20 years, so I was quite proud of that... but she was still a nasty woman 

But I know how it must make you feel - it's horrible feeling like you've been singled out and treat like an idiot... but don't give up! I now go to a different agility club with Sadie and Mabel and it is GREAT! Don't let one bad apple put you off!


----------



## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

So sorry you had a crap time  Don't let it put you off!!


----------

