Indio Dog Show

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  Indio, California, United States
Saturday, January 5, 2008

We drove out to Palm Spring, Indio yesterday. It was a long drive but a nice one. Freeways were good most of the way (a lot of the freeways here really need some major surface work done) and even though we were in desert for a lot of the way there was still a lot to see. You pass rows and rows and rows of wind turbines set quite closely together, tall ones like we have at home, smaller ones and medium ones. Excellent way to make the most of a natural resource. Wind farms that we have at home and ones we saw out of San Francisco have the turbines widely spread, these were quite close and hundreds off them. I'm sure that they were working at full speed later that evening. You also have miles off nothing then you have rows of palm trees and then cities. Indio is a dry city but then you have areas with heaps of palms and lush green grass. The dog show was held at an equestrian park so lots of greenery there.
The show in itself was different than anything we've seen in the past. Firstly, they do their shows differently than at home. Bull Terrier colours and whites are judged seperately and some of the class ages are different. They also have a variety class/competition where dogs and bitches are mixed and some entered from previous classes, couldn't work that one out. The show was also huge with 33 show rings all in use at the one time. The dogs being showed were under a large canopy at the side where they entered and spectators were on the other side. It wasn't set up as our clubs would have set up the shows and unfortunately they had no club merchandise there for sale and nowhere we could trade of our club products. They also had a market place inside which was like the halls at our Royal Show with lots of people selling their products. We did pick up a few bully bits and pieces for ourselves and have a top on order too. Did pick up a few business cards too that we could possible use for the club later on if required.
Now, to the actual bully showing. This was quite interesting and after what we saw we should be very proud of how we handle our dogs back in Australia, how our dogs behave in the ring and also of our dogs full stop.
There was nothing that we saw that really stood out as being outstanding. First thing that really stood out was some of the temperaments of the dogs. We saw two young bitches (6-9 months) who went for the male judge, not just growled at him but he was lucky he had all his fingers left! The same bitches wouldn't allow Pat Whincop to go over them and one was growling at her. She was a bit more switched on than the male judge and didn't try to force the dogs into being showed, one she sent out and the other in another class was put to the end of the line. The handlers though responded to one of the bitches by thumping her on the nose, changed handlers and still whacked her while in the ring, talk about keeping it a negative place for the animal. Saw another white bitch that was a very spooked dog and scared of everything even the lead, think she had been mistreaten because she cowered if the lead brushed against her face and you could see she was expecting to be whacked.
There was one young white dog that wasn't too bad and he had a little bit of bone to him, most were quite fine though and the bitches finer. There was one bitch that had a nice cranked over head and breeder states that her mouth was good and that other breeders were telling her that her head was too cranked. Don't know where their bone is though, very lacking. The minis were definitely minis, very little but also very fine and a lot of the heads were snipey. Some though weren't too bad.
There were a couple of dogs who got in the ring and were focused and knew exactly what they were meant to do but the majority had no idea. The handlers too were odd. They talk to the dogs like they were real children, use sentences, no proper commands and no change to the tone of their voices, even when they tell them off. On general, people here don't treat dogs as dogs, no wonder the dogs are clueless. You have them walking in the ring and saying in a sweet voice "come on Casper we are going to go back for treats now lets go this way" and they are turning the dog back toward the judge. Someone even said to their dog "this is odd we've never walked in a triangle before have we", do they expect the dogs to answer?
We didn't take any snapshots but did video most of the bull terrier judging. By the time the mini's had finished most of the BT owners had already packed up and left. We'd be very interested though to read Pat's critique on the animals afterwards. There weren't a lot entered either, don't know if that was a normal figure for them or whether the numbers were down because it was a Friday.

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