Great Britain - Should they hold a SIEGER SHOW? - Page 1

I have always looked forward to a British Sieger Show, however I have now come to the conclusion that the vast majority of GSD enthusiasts here in Britain DO NOT WANT IT. They appear to like the shrinking Show scene, "LESS COMPETITORS - MORE WINS" and the almost total lack of rules governing "BREEDING GSD" Britain has NOT adopted the WUSV rules & regulations, and is behind the rest of Europe, and even behind, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Japan, China, etc. etc. I cannot think of a Country we may be AHEAD OF. The question arises: Where is the GSD heading, in Great Britain?

Just wondering - Can't a membership make a proposal to hold a Sieger Show? I'm not familiar with the situation in the UK, but it must be very frustrating if they're too entrenched and narrow in their thinking to expand their horizons. Seems to me -if enough pressure was put upon the parent club, they'd feel compelled to make changes. What are the stumbling blocks?

IMO Great Britain should hold a Sieger show, I know Solo has been trying to encourage interest with the British GSD folk for a while. The major clubs and/or Breed Council should get together to discuss this, maybe they have, I dont know, I do not get involved in the political side anymore, but if we want to progress then we must start somewhere and this would be a good start, but maybe the vast majority do not want to progress, I dont know the answers, but I would certainly help/support such a show.

I'm confused. I thought that no titling (i.e. protection work) was done in the UK. How can you have a Sieger show without testing the bitework? JDN - US

As far as I know, bitework is not a prerequiste for holding a Sieger Show. The regulations are developed by the hosting country. There are many countries, who hold Sieger Shows without bitework to name a few Sweden, the PI, and Japan. There has been talk that Italy may prohibit bitework, too. Prior to 1967, the SV didn't have bitework either.

There are sport clubs in the UK, yes they do bitework. They are very grey dog oriented and it's my understanding most refuse membership-participation to show dogs.

Yes there are a few sports dog clubs in G. Britain, they are somewhat few and far between, some are only interested in 'working line' dogs but there are some that are more than happy to help train 'show line' dogs. I am lucky I have a club only 30 minutes car ride and they have been brilliant helping to train my show dogs and spent much time preparing my female for the bite work at the Sieger show. If we are to hold a British Sieger show, we could not include bitework straight away, this is something that will take several years to introduce but we need to start somewhere. There seems to be a lack of response from British contributors to this thread, so maybe they are not interested as Solo has said, come on you British, give us a comment, even if it is just yes or no.

Hi Carol/Solo, Definitely Yes, Yes, Yes from me and I would also do my utmost to help & support it. As an avid supporter of the German systems, and someone who has also shown their dogs in Germany, I'm sure you will know my thoughts on this. A British Sieger show would be fantastic! However, we have to consider the needs of all UK exhibitors and take it from there or it will never succeed. If we ever have one, I'll certainly be there:-)

Carol Here is a "yes" from bmk (www.bmk.org.uk). I think if more of the "established" breeders did more to encourage the newcomers then you would see show attendance improving. Sarah

Sarah I quite agree with you, I think our system should revolve around our GSD training clubs, as they seem to do in Germany, all club members seem to help each other as a team, with training, handling, encouragement etc, judges must also encourage, maybe now we can do verbal critiques in the UK this will help with all judges critiqueing constructively and encouragingly. To improve entries and attendances we must encourage and help each other, a bit less back-biteing will make shows much more fun.