Dog shows became highly popular a number of years ago, access to cars made getting to shows easier than having to go by train, previously a popular method travel. This meant that shows could also be held at out of town venues, such as agricultural show sites, or in the cases of some societies the purchase of their own venue.

Buying your first "show puppy" and getting him ready to attend his first show, is both awesome and exciting. Many breeders who wish a puppy to be shown will be helpful and guide owners through most of the process, but there is still the planning of how to get there, what to wear and take.

For the moment, we will leave the first item and move to the latter, for it is this issue which probably laid the foundations of the show scene as it is today.

As interest grew, so did the number of shows. Finding a show to go to every weekend was not difficult, maybe not all had classes for the breed you had, but most would schedule variety classes.

Of course there are also Breed Clubs, who in turn hold shows.

As the number of shows increased so did the requirement for judges. Breed Clubs were asked by the Kennel Club to draw up lists of people they considered suitable to judge the breed. For the various levels a criteria was set, which initially made it reasonably easy to get onto a list. Even in those days to be approved to awarded the coveted Kennel Club Challenge Certificates at Championship Shows, the number of classes and dogs judged was trivial to that of today.

Eventually the peak was reached and entries began to tumble. Show societies started to blame each other, clashing dates and poaching of good venues was blamed. The Kennel Club took action, it had no other alternative but it is probably fair to say it was "too much, too late". The complexity of what happened is far and wide, for not only did it include reducing the number of local shows it also saw the introduction of a system of training for judges. The local shows for which had been a foundation for many aspiring judges, the challenge was handed over to breed clubs.

Then came another incident, which may have added changes in the show scene of today. In 2001 the Foot and Mouth outbreak resulted in the Kennel Club cancelling Crufts, which was re scheduled in the May, and other prestigious shows did not go ahead.

Over a short space of time exhibitors suddenly found they had more money to spare and more time to do other things apart from going to dog shows. They simply found other interests!

Thus entries dropped. This of course will have an ongoing effect and it will be most interesting to watch how things develop. A drop in entries mean less cash coming in for a society, whose overheads will of course continue to go up. Hence increases in fees can be expected.

Now, as people have become more choosy about the judges they show under, the increasing cost of fees and fuel, the actual travelling (who wants to be stuck on a motorway for hours going home from a show with a VHC?). Not to mention all the other bits and pieces such as catalogues, food, parking.

Then there is the lack of newcomers to a breed. But can this really be a surprise?

Again we enter a complex situation.

Obviously a show dog should be of good quality, so, to buy one you would think of going to a kennel that has been seen to do well in the show ring and produces high quality, healthy dogs.

In a numerically small breed this can be very restricting, resulting in some "top dogs" being there simply because of the small numbers being shown. Those lines then become the "in" show dogs. Breeders can be very persuasive when wanting to have a puppy shown, a new owner will easily fall for the exclamation of "isn’t your puppy lovely, you should show him".

That is all very well, but it is keeping those people interested which is the important issue.

Show Scene