So, now we can’t do a favor for a friend?
A friend with a Toy Fox Terrier was at the Topeka show and
she was coming down that crud that is going around. Her puppy was being a real puppy, and she felt so ill that she was
just going to pull him. Dave had a tight
schedule but told her not to worry, to just rest, and he would make sure that
her dog made it to the ring. Well, Dave, going above and beyond the call of duty, didn’t just make sure that her class puppy made it to the ring: 5 minutes before the ring, Dave takes the
dog, gaits him a bit, (this being the very first contact that Dave had with the
dog) and goes into the ring for the puppy class. Well, 1st
in his class, and Winners Dog came next. That led some ‘local’ people, former president
and board members of a local club, to approach our friend with an almost
threatening tone. Why would she hire a
handler? We don’t appreciate handlers in
this breed. This is an ‘owner-handled’
breed!
This is only our friend’s first or
second show dog. She still considers
herself an amateur, and she is trying to learn.
This type of behavior by ‘old-timers’ does not make anyone feel
welcome. We should be embracing new
people and helping them, not chastising them because a friend helped out in
their time of need.
No one likes to get beat, whether it is by a professional
handler, or an owner-handler, but if it is a good dog, it is a good dog. To this couple, and you know who you are: either buy or breed better dogs, or have more confidence in the ones you
exhibit, and do a better job at presenting them. It is extremely unsportsmanlike behavior to
bully people.
When you make your entry, you take your chances. We never know who is going to show up and we
all want to believe that the judges are judging the dogs. That is what keeps us coming back.
Since professional handlers do this full time they are just
better, sometimes, at getting the most out of our dogs in performance and
grooming.
Not that it is anyone’s business, but Dave did not charge her
for showing her dog. He was just helping
a friend. But the people that chastised
our friend, have inquired about hiring a handler but were too ‘cheap’ to do so,
and would rather spend more money, in the long run, on travel and entries
taking many months longer to finish a dog, than to pay a handler. That is their prerogative, but don’t put down
people who do choose to hire someone to show their dogs.
