French Bulldog"Caged!"

Showing dogs is a huge participant sport, with some 30,000 exhibitors being involved on a regular basis and a further 20,000 taking part more infrequently. Included in the latter, are the newcomers who sometimes get addicted and those who do not taste success and exit quite quickly, never to return.
Among the regulars are the dedicated breeders. At the top of this pile are the truly respected ones who have been breeding for a long time and have consistently produced top stock. These are the people who are admired. The next layer down are the ones who have been in the dog game for about ten years, have made their mark and are in the process of ascendancy-eventually to take the place of the top people in their respective breeds.
Also among these and usually among the middle echelon are the exhibitors who strive to became “someone” in the sport and who decide that the more they breed the bigger their chance of producing winners. This of course is a complete fallacy, because in the long run, it has been proved that providing you breed from the very best stock available, you are more likely to produce a top winner than by breeding in bulk from nondescript animals in the hope of breeding one good one out of 20 or more.
Many people start their careers in the sport with just one or two dogs. They are usually persuaded by an established exhibitor or the breeder of their dog, that the dog is a high quality specimen and could easily win high honours at shows. As I said earlier, some are disillusioned when they don´t win after a few shows and decide that showing dogs is not for them.
However, some do reasonably well and realise that dog exhibiting is a likeable hobby, they are the ones that are described as being “hooked”. Dog showing, in my opinion, is an ego trip for many people and winning, unfortunately, becomes an absolute life or death issue.
Exhibiting dogs at championship shows is expensive and how some people can attend shows week after weeek, year after year with the entry fees of around 20 pounds per dog, with several exhibits is beyond me! Being involved with a few championship shows, I am amazed that when opening entries, there are quite a number of regular exhibitors spending up to 160 pounds per show. Yes, they have large kennels, but here I am coming to the real point of this article. To offset the cost of their entries some obviously not all exhibitors have to breed and sell puppies. Some live in small and relatively small houses, some have a large gardens some have small ones. Of course just the size of a house can be immaterial, it´s the attention and care given to the animals that counts. Many keep far too many dogs for the size of their dwelling and this leads me to query the environment that their dogs are kept in. Over the long period I have been involved in show world, I have visited numerous kennels and have been appalled at how some dogs have to live out their lives. Dogs are supposedly man´s best friend and should be treated as such. They should not be treated like rabbits or guinea pigs. They should not be caged all-day and every day. At one stage I though that only top dogs were treated this way, but nowadays it seems that it is common for breeds in all seven groups, to spend their lives in this way. Large hounds and gundogs, terriers, utility, pastoral and working no breeds appear to be exempt. I have witnessed of heard of cases where owners are out at work all day and have as many as 20 dogs in cages in garages and sheds (kept in the dark to keep them quiet). They are only let out once, early morning and again in the evening no love or affection for these unfortunates! No wonder they are happy to go to shows at the weekends, as it is the only time they get relief and freedom from their life of utter boredom. As a judge it is easy to tell which dogs are treated in this way. Not one muscle anywhere in their body and usually peculiar movement because of the lack of muscle tone. Many smallish breeds spend their entire life in cages, often stacked two or three high to save space. The owners use cages far too small for comfort, some even without proper bedding. Caging dogs seem to have become a fashion over the past 10 years or so. Just look at the amount of dogs pouring in through the gates of a showground in a cage on a trolley not being able to use their own four feet. Even going back some 25 years I can recollect reading about some RSPCA cases, including one dreadful one of object cruelty involving an American Cocker Spaniel, when a bitch with five puppies in a cage hardly big enough for herself still had her pups with her at nine week of age. Can you imagine the state of this particular so called kennel. With another 47 dogs of various breeds in similar cages. How about the dogs that are presented in the ring so thin that the owners could be done for criminal neglect? In some breeds where the breed standard ask for a lean dog, exhibits confuse this with thin or extremely thin. In quite a number of dogs every bone in their body is apparent. Often these poor animals who have such a hopeless look in their eyes are shown by very well bodied exhibitors. I just wish that some of these people would actually realise that if their animals were muscled, in gleaming coat and correct body weight, how much better they would do in the ring and how much better off physically their poor dogs would be.
I know some exhibitors leave home in the early hours and leave numerous dogs caged, without any attention until they return home late in the evening when if they are lucky they have a quick five minutes out and then it´s good night!
Talking to an exhibitor a couple of years ago who was showing on the first day of a three-day show and remaining to steward for the other two days, I asked her how many dogs she had at home? She replied that she had a further six dogs of the same large breed that she was showing. I enquired who looked after them while she was away for the three days. The answer was “they have to look after themselves, I leave enough complete food down for them and they can eat it when they want”. It was no good arguing the point with her as she said she had been doing it for years with no detrimental effects.
What a life these dogs must have! Imagine the state of the kennels on her return and as she is a regular show goer this must be the situation almost every weekend, especially through the summer. Can people like this really be proud of themselves in their quest for pieces of coloured cardboard awards?
Returned to my bugbear of cages at shows there seems to be a trend to travel with dogs in cages far too small for them, with not even enough room for the unfortunate inhabitants to stand up or turn around. When they eventually get to the venue, sometimes after many hours journey, they have to remain in these cages for most of the day, instead of being secured on the bench and exercised in accordance with Kennel Club regulations. I think it is a horrible sight to see such breeds as Afghans, Siberian huskies, Poodles and many other large breeds being transported in this way.
Going back to the state of some showgoers´kennels, it often amazes me as a judge, to go over some dogs that are in an appalling state smelling to high heaven. The coats are unkempt and dirty underneath with just a quick top brush and this is what they call grooming. The dogs absolutely stink of urine or dirty straw which gives an indication of how they are kept at home. When putting my hands on these poor unfortunates, I always think of the ones who are left behind. If these are the show dogs, what must the others be like
I have long since given up on the RSPCA and now refuse to donate to this charity, which appears to be more interested in paying fat sums to its executive staff than to putting money to good use in preventing the cruelty that abounds in the canine world. Its PR department do well in promoting the charity with programmes on TV extolling its virtues, but try and get them to investigate suspect kennels and you´ll come up against a brick wall when it comes to the large puppy farms especially in South and West Wales, where there can be between 100 to 200 breeding bitches, how often do we hear of investigations into the welfare of these poor creatures?- hardly ever. The local vet usually gives them a clean bill of health, but we all know that puppies leave these premises en bloc, even in orange boxes and crates. They are sometimes in very poor health and are passed on to dealers either destined for the Far East or the domestic market.
It is unfortunate that the current laws ban “restriction of trade” and the Kennel Club is legally bound to accept registrations from these people, providing their paperwork is in order. However if you study the KC Breed Records Supplement you will find that in certain popular breeds there are families with wives, sister, brother and aunts etc. who make up a large proportion of registrations within a breed. Usually only one or two sires are used and these are dogs with unrecognisable names and prefixes and are of non-descript breeding. For years now many responsible breed clubs have been fighting an ever losing battle to get the authorities to investigate these kennels without success. It appears to me that no one wants to know. The local vets want to keep the business and the councils adhere to the current government policy which is to encourage such commercial ventures.
Back to the show scene, and wouldn´t it be nice if judges who have dogs in a really bad condition shown under them, could pass on the names of the exhibitors to an organisation who would take a real interest and carry out an investigation.
But I suppose that is just wishful thinking!