GSD League - Tony Howson Memorial Open Show - Page 2

I thougherly enjoyed my day and must say a huge congratulations to the committee and all the people who helped make this such a sucessful show.

I was delighted to be asked to Judge the longcoat classes and must say thank you to everyone who showed thier longcoats today for the sporting manner in wich you all accepted your places.it was a pleasure to judge your dogs.

Linda Barclay

Well folks thank you very much for all your kind comments. We at the League try to work as a team and ALL members on the commitee and one or extras work as hard as we can to TRY to make an event enjoyable. After all it is a hobby and it should be fun.

Just a bit of background really. I very stupidly volunteered for the job so I thought I would give it a shot. The ideas for the extra classes were stolen really from Holland where I saw their top show on a lovely day in Tilbourg. Also Rosie made SG5 on the day, ( just a bit of self back slapping ). Anyhow I watched as the rings were altered and then the long coat classes started. There was a Protection work demo going on as well. SO I thought lets try that here. There are enough threads on the problems with shows of a negative nature on here so I really wanted to try something a bit different to try and see if we could improve things a little.
I then spoke with Mo and Zepp and they mentioned agility. This then got me going on that, as I started showing in the agility ring as I was useless at obedience, all that left turn stuff. 
I also thought that a breed survey would be appropriate for those who maybe would come to this show for the first time and find out about things in general. The puppy walk was a bit of fun to help fill the time and the junior handling was something that Tony was very keen on. 
From a personal point of view, I was bricking it on the Saturday because I really was uncertain how things would pan out. We were lucky with the weather, the grounds are very good, the football club were fantastic, the food was inexpensive and I thought that the atmosphere felt good. 
I really wanted someone else to be the MC, but I felt that things did need a bit of commentary from time to time so thats why I did it. The things we tried to achieve were a general flow to the show, if you can get that then you are on your way. You need a good sound system just for a bit of background atmosphere. Even Wham Last Christmas at one point??
We tried to stagger things a bit so that everyone could be introduced for instance the 3 extra helpings in the Agility ring, the Long Coats and the Protection. I did not know that Steve in the protection would give people a go but I think that gave you another thing to try.

The KC rep, Tony was very good and he tried to offer constructive things rather than beat us with a large stick for forgetting to add rule 18 on the schedule. He was very impressed with the extras and he was given an explanation by Terry Hannan about the Breed Survey. So although we had a few little things to address we managed to deal with that side things and come out of it the other side. I was very grateful that YOU enjoyed your day and really enjoyed meeting some people for the first time.

OK how can we progress from this? A few things that I did try were I had some flyers made to advertise the show locally, I did make contact with the local paper to try to get a bit of publicity and I tried to encourage a few different groups to get together in one place on the same day for us all to benefit. I think that possibly we as a group should maybe consider these little things as a regular must do for every show. I think that we as a collective should maybe start to pool ideas, like where are the best rossettes, which trophies are the best value, should we have all printing done at one source. All these things could maybe help to reduce costs. I think that spreading shows evenly through the year would be fantastic. It makes perfect sense to me. I think we need to try to promote our product far far better than we currently do, then that would maybe encourage a little more revenue for the council mag. I think that a little bit more joined-up thinking is the

DONT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED BUT THE POST GOT CUT OFF.
( cont ) order of the day.
Special thanks go to those who go unoticed but work or offer help on the day, Ann and Brenda for selling the lottery tickets, buggar I mean raffle, the donations for the prizes, Carole Lister is THE hardest working person I know, no matter what club or committee she is on. I know that she was putting things together on the entries for the catalogue most nights way past midnight, I also know that IF I need a widget to remove the head gasket on the Rolls Royce, then Syd Farley will have the widget AND he will help out. Chris ( the monkey hanger), not even on the committee but gave up his weekend to help out. The judges and demonstrators who gave up their own time to help make the event enjoyable.

So as I said thank you for the very kind comments that we on the League take on board. Now we have to think about the British Sieger then the 2 day next year. 
Steve Foran 

A wonderful relaxed show, of course the brilliant weather is always a blessing for any outside event, I am sure Tony had a hand in arranging it so his family could enjoy a Picnic day together in the sun with Specially Organised entertainment arranged especially for them in Tony's Memory. Well Done Steve and all the Committee for a truly fitting Memorial to Tony.
I thoroughly  enjoyed sitting with them on their picnic blanket while my pups enjoyed pinching their crisps!!

Determined to make full use of all that was going on, my thanks to the Agility Team for aiding Ch. Daira and I around the higher elements of the course!! 

Then on one journey from the car park doing a dog swap, Ch.Daira HEARD the sound of a WHIP CRACK, and from that moment on there was ONLY ONE PLACE SHE WAS HEADING !!  Yes she had found the Protection Ring tucked away in the top corner of the showground and from that point on this show was GOING TO MAKE HER DAY TOO !! So a GREAT BIG THANK YOU must go to the Protection Helper (called Steve I believe?) for allowing Daira to have a go, it certainly MADE HER DAY and for me THAT IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT, DOGS HAVING FUN, and us taking pleasure out of taking part with them or just watching them having fun, because at the end of the day if the Dogs DO NOT ENJOY DOING IT, then WE SHOULD NOT be making them. 

So glad Linda had a good entry of Long Coats and that they were judged seriously the same way as ANY OTHER CLASS on Character, Construction, Soundness and Movement, with the FUN part being only as it should be in any class, the dogs having fun struting their stuff in competing. Brilliant !! 

The puppy walk was also a lovely relaxed event where pups could enjoy an early experience of ring training with lots of other pups at the same time. Something very hard to achieve these days as very few clubs have training classes and of those that do it is often difficult to find other pups of similar ages to train together. Other Committee's please take note, I am sure this would be a great help if more Clubs could put on this type of event in the lunchbreak at their shows.  

FINALLY,  WELL DONE AGAIN TO ALL.

Best Regards
Sue b