So I'm thinking of doing a charity dog show...

PucciNPoni

PucciNPoni

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We held a tack swap/car boot type sale back in October in aid of WHW, and raised about £350 for a day's activity. I'm thinking of doing a companion/fun dog show to raise money for a pet charity or rescue - perhaps more than one.

So I was wondering if you all could recommend one or two good charities (I was thinking of Cayla's thing, and perhaps Many Tears).

Also, what sort of classes to make it fun?

I was thinking of the obvious ie prettiest bitch, handsomest dog, a fancy dress class, best party piece, a veteran's class. Was also thinking of doing some "performance" classes (could run it in conjunction with a local agility club that holds their training days at our yard) like a chase-me-charlie.

Does anyone have any ideas or recommendations?

Cheers :D
 
I helped man the dog show at my local charity Open Day (NAWT Berkshire). As well as the regular novelty classes we had some obedience/game style ones such as musical sits/downs, fastest sausage/bonio eater, etc.
 
We did one last year and the classes were :

1. Prettiest Bitch
2. Handsome Dog
3. Dog most like it's owner
4. Best 6 legs
5. Best child handler
6. Best Trick
7. Best Rescue
8. Dog the Judge would most like to take home

And a best in show for all first places.
Rossetts up to 4th place and donated bag of dog food from our local feed merchant to the best in show.

We raised over £400 doing a horse and dog show. It was actually very easy to organise, we made sure we advertised everywhere and it was very popular! At least 15 in each class so we were very pleased with the turn out. We asked a local Lurcher expert to judge (we a very rural area so lots of terriers and lurchers in the show) and I was his glamarous assistant!!:D
 
The funniest class I ever tok part in was a sausage race. It was like an egg and spoon race - you put the sausage on a paper plate (we'ren't allowed to fold the plate) and holding your dog's lead in the other hand had to run to the finishing line without dropping teh sausage or letting your dog eat it. It was so funny the spectators were all rolling on the floor laughing watching everyone fall over :D
 
AHHH yes I remember doing a retrieve the sausage one that was fun!!! You had to throw it and the dog retrieve without eating it, dog who bought back and dropped the most sausage won!! Ashamed to say my highly trained and well thought of agility dog shamed me that day and scoffed the thing down whole!! :o
 
I had a Many Tears dog and think they are an excellent charity, in fact I help with collections at motorway services and that sort of thing for them.

Did once go to a charity dog show and entered a class called 'The Best Wee'er'. This involved the dogs going in one at a time into the ring and peeing against a variety of objects, ie cones, tin cans etc. I should have won this based on my dog's performance at home in the house, but sadly the lack of sofas, chair legs, bookcases and perhaps the odd antique rendered him totally weeless!
 
OH's dog went in best biscuit catcher at a show last year :D Judge chucked dog a biscuit, if it missed it was out, if it caught the biscuit it was through to next round. Next round judge was further away from the dog...and so it went on...for ages :o There must have been 20 or 25 dogs in the class, most of whom were rather good at it. OH's dog came 3rd though :cool: the judge was practically on the opposite side of the ring by the time it got down to the last 3 :eek:

Also you could have best matched pair or oddest pair, my jrt came 1st in oddest pair with my cousin's gsd at a show last summer :)

And if you have access to agility equipment you could do have a go at agility, I have seen that done at a show before and there was a queue of dogs waiting to go in, it was like clear round showjumping really, put the jumps etc down quite small, I think it was a clear round rosette to the clears and everyone else got a special :)
 
Eak :o what a lovely gesture, you know I feel bad people wanting to raise money for adopt a dog, *Pix will lamp me for this* so I wonuld not be put out if u just chose many tears, I know I will get wrong but I just feel bad.
Whatever u decide though what a lovely thing to do in your own time, you could offer a FREE groom to the winner of the biggest show:D:D just make sure a j.r.t wins and not a tatty sheep dog LMAO:D
 
CAYLA said:
Eak :o what a lovely gesture, you know I feel bad people wanting to raise money for adopt a dog, *Pix will lamp me for this* so I wonuld not be put out if u just chose many tears, I know I will get wrong but I just feel bad.
Whatever u decide though what a lovely thing to do in your own time, you could offer a FREE groom to the winner of the biggest show:D:D just make sure a j.r.t wins and not a tatty sheep dog LMAO:D
Click to expand...

*I* might lamp you for feeling guilty. Sheesh...

I'll speak to my co-organisers (I'd like to make this a fairly biggish event) and see if we can even split it among a few charities. I'd like to set a goal of raising £1000 for charity (nothign like a goal, eh?). As for offering a free groom - I'll offer it as long as YOU'LL be doing the grooming! hehehehe

Speaking of grooming, Im going to try to drum up the support of the local groomers. It may actually work out to give them some extra business as they may end up prettying up contestants in the week before the show. Also, I could run a wee side competition on the groomer who has the most clients competing. As it is, there are three groomers involved in the organisation of this show, plus the "judge" that I've asked is our groomign mentor (who also happens to be a KC judge and all round doggy expert, Agnes Murphy).

She also told me that in order for her to judge that we have to buy a license from teh KC (so off to research that just the now).
 
Well done for doing this, whichever charity/charities you decide to give to in the end. If it is not too far away I will try and get a carfull (with pooches) to support you (so pick a nice warm sunny day please!)
 
My trainer had a fine line in races this Christmas, the best one involved two teams, a tennis ball, a traffic cone and a hoop. The cone was at the other end of the area to the teams, the hoop was on the floor in the middle.

Person one gets ball, holds it under their armpit, runs to the cone (this is all accompanied by dog of course!), balances the ball on the cone without the dog nicking it (!), runs back, stops at the hoop, gets the dog to sit and stay, stands in the hoop and lifts it up over their heads, collects dog and goes back. Next team member runs to hoop, does the same, lifting it over their head, runs to the cone, sticks the ball under their armpit and runs back - it's like a relay:D

We also did a similar race, but you had to hold the ball between your knees and we didn't use the hoop:D

Also - musical sits! Everyone walks around with their dogs while the music plays, then when it stops all dogs have to sit. The last one to sit is eliminated, until there's only one left (Henry won this one!):D
 
Our Bull Terrier Welfare events always include the sausage race. This involves each owner being given a sausage,which they then throw a fair distance of about thirty feet..dog has to retrieve said sausage UN EATEN to the start point.The dogs are on lead so the owner can manipulate as much as they can to stop the sausage disappearing,but most of them do get eaten. The "remains" are compared to decide the winner. It is THE event on every Welfare Fun Day :D
 
Dog in Best Condition is always a good class to have, you need to have classes that everyone thinks their dog will win so you get more entries. I went to one exemptions show years ago and there was a class for the dog with the longest tail. As there were a couple of big dogs with long sweeping tails wandering around no-one else bothered entering, bit of a mistake by whoever thought of the classes.:p

And Cayla, I will lamp you too!
 
I'd say have a go agility would be good if you can get your agility club to help out, they might like to run their own bit or perhaps a mini agility show. If they're going to have a display/demonstration please make sure they are informative - I went to a dog show with my agility dog and watched a "display" really it was a bunch of dogs running the courses and knocking things down, jumping the wrong jumps etc which is fun if you're just having a bit of fun and none of the fault system etc was explained at all, and the aim of a display is to get people interested in the sport. I really would try and get them involved though, i only go to shows if there's going to be agility there so I can take my dog along to participate, although I do enter the other classes as well, there might be loads of people like me.

ALSO make sure you are well organised. I went to a show before where the registration opened at 10.30 and the judging for prettiest bitch opened at 11. The queue for registering was still massive at 11 due to the fact they only had 2 people on the stall and they were both processing the same entry, 1 at a time. The judging had to start 20 minutes late, cause rather than walk down the queue asking for the entrants for the first class to come to the front so the show could get going, they struggled on. I went and offered my help to them but they didnt want it.

Perhaps have a few pedigree classes too - I love those people know my TT isn't a bloody labradoodle or cockerpoo if I'm in the pedigree class! :P
 
My Riding Club runs dogs shows along sidethe horsey one. We do the standard pretty dog, bitch, veteran, puppy under 6 months etc, plus we have a chase-me-charlie. At one of the other shows, where we hold clear round, we stop in the middle of the day and put the jumps down and have the equivalant of a dog 'scurry' class.

Dogs can enter more than once to beat the time. That class made us over £50 alone last year, at £2 a shot.
 
what a lovely idea,these events always seem v popular & the have a go agility would make alot of money,the rspca ran one last year & it was busy allday with people trying to better their times! just wondering though do you need insurance for an event like this? good luck:)
 
Yes, insurance and a license to hold show can be obtained thru the KC website. So for the £10 for the license and the £10 for the insurance for the day, it will be easy enough to cover.

Cayla, I'm going to speak to my YO to see if we can hold it at the yard (near Edinburgh). They already have dog agility club run their sunday training sessions there every week, so can't imagine that it'd be a problem. She quite likes having these wee one off events anyway. If we run in the spring we can hopefully hold most of teh classes outdoors, but with the option of running in the indoor arena if the weather is nasty.

Think April is probably not a bad time -- Crufts is done and SKC isn't til May, I think...and first grooming comps aren't til May either. So could work timewise (and who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and not have any snow!).

Have started speaking to some trade stands as well...maybe get a holistic food rep there that I know. Our tack swap did well to have a homebaked goodies table...any other ideas?
 
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