Meh! Talk about highs and lows..

Vizslak

Vizslak

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....of dog showing!
I quite honestly have never felt so disheartened and peed off by showing before :( I'm being pathetic I know and I need to toughen up but really I cannot believe our poor result today!
Normally if we do worse than expected I either know straight away where the issue is (fairly recently she had an odd growth spurt and her topline was quite shoddy for a time, although we were still never out of the placings at champ level) or I can come home and look at the photos and say 'OMG no wonder we did bad, I stacked her like sh!t' or something similar! Which is fine, we are both still learning and I can accept my mistakes and learn from them. Digital photography is a god send for this reason alone in my world! :D
But today, we were bottom of the pile (in a small class at open show) the judge obviously REALLY disliked her but I cannot for the life of me tell why :( In the pics she is stacked beautifully and perhaps the best she ever has done at any show and looks tonnes better than the other dogs (ones standing roached the other concave), her movement is never normally far off perfect anyway and the photos of today she looks phenomenal on the move, her reach and drive is amazing. SO I'M PEED OFF!!! :p :D
I'm not normally a sore looser, quite the opposite, but today has really wound me up!
Sorry! :o
 
Not that I've ever shown a dog:o but I reckon it must be just like showing horses, or dressage, or figure skating, or diving.... all down to what the judge likes and therefore subjective. Maybe they were having a bad hair day, or had a cramp of trapped wind just as they got to you - who can say?

Never mind hun, you know you have the bestest dog - and so do we:)
 
Did you ask? You're entitled to and the judge should have given their opinion and if possible shown you their notes, I've seen a long and heated discussion or two following a class.....

You're just paying for someone's opinion on the day, comes with the territory, I always think, which dog in this class do I or would I want to take home? I think we all know the answer to that one :)
 
Oh the joys of dog showing. Was she a different type to the class winners, or was it perhaps just a political decision? Agree with CC you should have asked the judge why you were placed so low, but in the end there is nothing you can do about it, you know you took the best dog home which is the main thing.:)
 
Thanks for cheering me up a tad guys, I just needed to vent! My normal vent won BOB and beat us for the first time ever so I can't really whinge at her! :D
No I didn't CC, was going to and then decided against it as he was foriegn and I couldn't understand a word anyway! :p Also, I thought it would be obvious from the pics when I got home. :confused: :rolleyes:
 
I have no idea about dog showing, no value to add, but maybe the judge was so jealous of you for having such a stunning pooch she made you last out of spite ? :confused:
 
Not really MM no, the first and second couldn't have been further apart in type, she is more somewhere in the middle of the two.
The only thing I can think is looking at the pics she looks like a dwarf!!! :eek:
The others were dogs, one was only 7 months and ENORMOUS, the largest! The other is 18 months and relative in dog-bitch size ratio to Flora if you see what I mean. ie. about an inch bigger. She is not a small bitch, but looks diddy in the ring with them. If the judge didn't know the breed, which I don't think he did, you would think she is to small. In reality, I wish she was slightly smaller and am looking for a stud a tad smaller to reduce the pups height, I prefer them a bit shorter and workmanlike.
 
Yes, this pup has to have been at the limit already! Flora is slap bang in the middle of the bitch hieght range.
Have a look on FB, I posted some pics earlier, you can see for yourselves!
 
Crikey, you know how prickly I am about other people passing uninformed comment on my own breed so I try not to pass judgement on others, but those three dogs are of completely different types and the differences in the backlines are marked. I do prefer yours!
 
Yea thanks! LOL It is a no brainer! But hey ho! Perhaps he thought I smelt funny or something!! :p

Forums posting in its own order again!!
 
I know nothing about the breed but have to say I prefer Flora from those pictures, she does look a lot smaller so maybe the judge didn't know the breed standard and thought she was too small. What breeds does he have, maybe he is used to hulking great animals, one reason why I prefer specialist judges. I won BOB at an all breeds Open show with a bitch who was I admit, quite strong in the head. I put her in for BIS for a laugh and she won BOS, to another bitch. :D The judge was and still is a very respected all rounder who judges BIS at Ch level, shame he doesn't know what bits a dog should have.;)
 
For some reason I couldn't post last evening, anyhow it is as Spudlet mentioned, the judge's personal preference and interpretation of the breed standard does matter, at least to some degree and with some judges more than others.

Many years ago, my first Buhund became best bitch in the breed at a dog show one week, two weeks later and with a different judge, though he's not an expert of the breed, he is a very well-known all-round judge, :p it just turned out he has quite bad taste, because we was sent out of the ring already after the first individual check!

But I still got a positive impression of the second judge, I didn't even have to ask, he told me directly that he preferred those with a taller centre of gravity than what she had, in the breed. So at least I didn't need to go home and wonder about why he judged the way he did.



And with Jonna that I have now, she is 1 centimetre higher than the minimum height allowed, still many judges feels that she is too small but only two or three have bothered about measuring her. :mad:
Especially when I began showing her, almost all judges favoured bitches who was as tall as the males and compared to them, Jonna does look small.


But I still like showing, perhaps it helps that I only go to a handful of shows per year.

:)
 
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