Oxhey Dog Show 10th April 2004

Oxhey is the first dog show of the season for many people in the South of the UK. Northerners seem a lot more hardy than us Southerners and there are shows pretty much all year round.

I admit to being a bit of a fair-weather dog show person. Last year's Oxhey show was freezing cold with a biting wind which didn't suit many handlers but seemed to suit a lot of dogs!

I had only entered one class as Darcy won out of Novice last season and I don't really feel ready to work classes A & B. I was glad that I had only booked one class as Darcy has been very poorly lately. I didn't know if he would be well enough to work and, in any case, I had done no training with him for several weeks.

The weather turned out to be drizzly but not particularly cold. Oxhey show is held in Watford, which is only half an hours drive from Aylesbury so we had a reasonably leisurely start to the day.

As it is the first main show a lot of socialising seems to take place. When I walked over to the rings, I think it took me half an hour to walk 200 yards. I kept bumping into people that I hadn't seen since last seasons shows ended. A lot of chatting later, I managed to book into my class and find the toilets. As usual the ladies loos were queuing out of the door so I gave up and went back later!

Ellie had never been to a dog show before and I spent quite a bit of time getting her used to the environment which can be very overwealming for puppies. Some puppies seem to "shrink" with the atmosphere whilst some seem to "blow their mind". Ellie was the latter! Read more about Ellie's first visit to a show in Ellie's diary.

Darcy did some nice work near the car and seemed very keen and enthusiastic so I decided to put him in the A class - but train the round so that I didn't put too much pressure on him.

We bumbed into Karen, Darcy's breeder, who has been very concerned about his health problems. She wanted to watch his round so we went in just after lunch. Darcy does love his work and, as usual he put his all into the round. Unfortunately, the lack of training, and the chilly weather, meant that it was not very controlled. The training round was quite constructive and I took a toy in to reward him so I was pleased, especially as, a week ago, I couldn't even imagine him being well enough to go in the ring.

We did our Stays right after working our round but this turned out to be a mistake. Darcy had put so much effort into his round that he was very tired (this is a side effect of his increased medication) and he found it difficult to do a solid sit stay. He didn't actually break the sit but he looked as though he might. I think, next time, I will have to give him a rest before bringing him out for stays...

All in all, we had a good day. Ellie had a positive experience and Darcy had a good time too. I've got plenty to work on before the next show I've entered in May!

This page was updated on 11th April 2004