I agree entirely. There's also the additional cost of qualifying your dog at a prior show at £25 a time plus petrol.

At Yorkshire Gamefair we had a fab time paid a quid to enter and got a big trophy, 15k bag of food super rosette and framed photo for going best gundog. Then for going Supadog we got all the same again except the trophy was huge and we got champers as well.
I judged it this year and the overall winner also got a kennel system worth over £400

Sorry about the quality their of photo's taken off wall


Roscoe's Trophies



Yorkshire GameFair Supadog


Royal Berkshire Supdog

Who's making so much money out of their champion stud dogs btw?? We have used Champion studs, and also just nicely bred studs (that have a proven working ability which is what we wanted) and the stud fees were exactly the same. We also have an imported champion dog who is not far off his UK title already and we certainly wont be putting his stud fee above the breed average. And trust me when I say no amount of people using him could come close to covering what he cost us But, infact, we are limiting his use to maybe 2 or 3 a year and being very strict about what bitches will be allowed as its the future of the breed that is important, not making money

I have found its usually the bloke down the road with an entire dog he wants to make a bit of money from who puts the stud fee high. Usually the dog hasnt set foot in a show ring and is of no great quality.

Also, with my breeds at least, the show breeders often have their puppies priced lower than the pet breeders and puppy farmers who are doing it purely for profit. The local puppy farm sell their labrador pups for about £800, they lure people in with a flashy website Thats £300 more than we sold our last pups for

wow. just wow.

I must admit, I am tempted by a welsh springer

Thank you , I should have put up the piece of card I got for winning post grad at Blackpool and Driffield and paying £22 for the privelidge.....oh wait I binned them
Eta I'd swap them all for three CC's with him but we're getting there made the cut twice and just missed out on a RCC

Thats your opinion and you are most welcome to air it As a showgoer I beg to differ, I love showing and, having bred litters of English Setters, all KC registered, parents health tested at great expense, I am also a breeder.

I can assure you, from my experience anyway, that showing is just for fun, I have done a fair bit of winning over the years, and again recently, but have never won any money...obviously going to the wrong shows. I never charged any more stud fee for my dog that was shown than anyone else, my pups were the same price as those from breeders that didn't show and weren't health tested, although I know which one of us I would rather buy from!

At the end of the day, the thread is going round in circles again, some non showers imagining all sorts of bad scenarios and calling all dog showers the same bad names. I don't know anyone on Dogsey that shows their dogs but doesn't care about them and would put their own interests before the welfare of their pet.

One final thing though, how can you differentiate between the fun shows and the open/champ shows?...surely you have the same goals....to win if possible whilst having a lovely day with your dog(s) and friends

It seems there will always be this divide

The "big" gamefairs are what many people aim for. If not, the smaller ones wouldnt advertise that they were "qualifiers" they would just be a terrier and Lurcher show. I appreciate you may not like the commercialisation, but at the end of the day, each to their own.

Me too, I was so delighted, I didnt even know about the £10 let alone forgetting to collect it!

Those are great.

I’m going to be honest, and I might be shot down in flames for the beginning bit but…

A few years ago, I hated showing… I hated everything about it. I used to watch Crufts every year, and although agility was my favourite part, I watched the showing too. The only reason for that though, was to see the different dogs. I thought it was a great way to see different breeds, and learn a little about them. I didn’t really like the whole running dogs round a ring to see who is the best. Now, I really can’t remember where my opinions from showing came from (it was a good few years ago!) but I always saw showers as being (for the majority) from big kennels, where the dogs weren’t treated like dogs (as in being allowed to romp around the woods getting muddy), were kept in kennels for much of the day, and we used for showing and/or breeding until they are no longer useful, then they just get rehomed. So, basically just used and not really thought a great deal of.

It wasn’t until I joined Dogsey that I began to learn, and realise, that a lot of showers are just normal pet owners who like to do a bit of showing. I have seen loads of photos of show dogs getting dirty and having fun looking a mess (in a good way )… and being allowed to act like dogs should! I like that There probably are quite a few show kennels who behave in the way I used to think of many showers behaving, but I am glad it is less than I thought. My opinions on showers has certainly changed, and showing isn’t as much of a big deal to showers as what I thought. By that, I mean that most showers look to put their dogs first, it isn’t just all about showing and winning, but more about the dogs being happy and enjoying what they do.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that I have no problem with showing. Provided, the dogs are always put first. I know people always say that a dog has to enjoy showing to do well, but some dogs may not like the full day but still perform well in the ring coz they are with their owners. If they don’t like the whole experience, then I don’t think it is right for that dog to be shown. I still haven’t seen (unless I have missed it) an answer for why dogs enjoying showing, the actual showing part, not the meeting people and dogs, and spending time with their owners. I think show dogs should always be treated as dog, and I hate to think of some dogs not getting walking in case it messes their fur. I also hate this whole mentality of getting rid of a dog coz it is no longer able to show, or a pup coz it doesn’t grow up to be of ‘show quality’. I think it is shocking that anyone could actually consider that to be ok. There are definitely issues in showing that could be addressed but I guess that could be said for almost everything!

I know that some of the issues with showing could also apply to other hobbies, but I think with showing being as big as it is, and the most well-known, it is most known and publicised with showing. Although, I think it is wrong no matter who is doing it whether it be in showing, agility, HTM etc.

Showing isn’t my kind of thing, if I am totally honest, I would find it unbelievably boring… but hey, that’s just me I also don’t like putting on dog against another based on looks, but maybe that’s a bit hypocritical of me since I also think only top show and working dogs (depends on the breed which one) should be bred from so the dogs are the best of the breed, and aren’t being bred willy nilly (which they are). I also think some health issues in certain breeds should seriously be addressed, and the breed changed a wee bit.

Ok, that was a bit longer than I was planning, and also probably just shows how mixed up my feelings are however, no matter what my views are (or however confused they are ) I certainly wont criticise all people who show, and if people on here are showing I will always wish them the best of luck! I also just noticed how I have said ‘showers’… maybe I should have put a – so it doesn’t look like showers that you wash in oops…

Also, I still have seen any answers to why some breeds have working and showing lines?

Don’t be too hard on me please Everything is just my personal opinion!