THE BRITISH GSD SHOW SCENE - Page 1

THE BRITISH GSD SHOW SCENE 
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
I offer proposals
of course they can be modified and/or introduced over a period of time.
Prioritising is essential. Planning is vital. Action is imperative.
The question remains: WHAT CAN BE DONE?
and then
WHO CAN DO IT? and WHEN CAN IT BE DONE?
http://www.videxgsd.com/allocation_of_CC.htm

Is the organising of at least
ONE GSD (Germanic) BREED CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
TO BE HELD
EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR
really asking for too much?

I don't think it's a bad idea, but... if I've read it properly, some areas would be very short of shows.  I know you'll say that these clubs have the poorest entries, but shouldn't we look at helping those clubs (somehow) rather than taking away their shows / tickets? 

Are there fewer Shepherds than there were 20 years ago?  No... so maybe we need to look at how to fire peoples interest?

The whole handler thing is an issue, expense is an issue, a lack of clubs & training facilities is a huge problem in some areas.

Hi  David, merry christmas to you and Rhoda, as well as to all my friends out there in the ether, may all your hopes come to fruitition, but most of all may you all live long and prosper.

What can we do to stop our freefall into oblivion?   I would say the only way is to go back to basics. We all know what the main bone of contention is with the current GSD show scene,   Apathy, Indifference and Intolerance. Three major , but not insurmountable obstacles.  Turning  Apathy into Enthuisiasm can be hard work, but think of the feelgood factor if we can. Heather McDonald  makes a pertinant point in her excellent piece re. her observations at the Sieger Show printed in the Our Dogs Sieger Supplement, regarding the Partisanship of the Italian spectators when they cheered the Italian dogs, irrespective of who owned the animal. Would it not be a great thing for us to have that same kind of camradre at our shows, put the dogs before our ego's. Embrace our competitors efforts for what they are, after all nobody sets out to breed bad dogs. Let us send our Breed Council Reps with fixed objectives to the meetings, give them names of Judges you would like to enter your animals under, the venues you feel would attract the best entries, the classifications of the shows, if the Breed Council have this  information ( and i'm sure you must have many more  salient points)  they can go forward with every one singing from the same hymn sheet.

Regards  Paul Rattigan.

When i look at this idea i tend to think "Oh great here we go again", this was already proposed 1-2 years ago and it is 1 sided as usual. It suits the majority of english show people.

Take a look at hos it works:

We propose the top 11 GSD Breed  Clubs are allocated CC’s on an annual basis – TABLE B

You will notice it is only the Nation clubs from Scotland, Wales & Ireland that are in that list, so as usual anyone form those countries would have to travel to england to for the other champs shows. Sound like a great idea.......NOT!!!

I think that you forget that those english clubs in the top 11 are supported by a lot of people from scotland, wales and ireland and this is how  some of those clubs get there higher entries, it's a shame a lot of english people won't reciprecate.

We propose the bottom 5  General CH. Shows have their CC allocation for GSD removed – TABLE C

Working & Pastoral Breeds Association of Scotland

Scottish Kennel Club (1st)

Border Unio

Watcher, very good point. liz

"We Propose" I assume these are the words of the LEAGUE. Remember the sets of C.C.s are K.C. property and were allocated to clubs who had demonstrated over a long period of time they had the skills and people to run a club  to the K.C.s satisfaction and not the League's. I know a lot of these clubs are finding it difficult to manage in todays climate and the lack of committee members is a big issue. There are some Ch show clubs with as little as 1 or 2 committee members, How do you think a team like that can, or wants to run a show. I have talked to many club committee members who say the same, "can't get people to come on the committee". So maybe the Apathy starts there. I think the league proposals have been set out for selfish reasons and sod the rest! The Cambridge satalite demonstrates this. I agree they put on a great show, so let them go through the same pains, that all other clubs had to go to get theire C.C.s. The Leagues attitude is if you can't make it you have to go! a bit like saying, "Granny is past it"lets put her in a home. You can make statistics look what ever you want them to, You end up with accountants running your company! A bit like asset stripping. The so called top group clubs should be helping the lower group clubs with advice, guidance, and anything else to make them better. If people think its bad now, wait till next year when unemployment may reach 3-4 million and a lot more people will be SKINT. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!! Bill Owen.

What should be the lowest acceptable level of entries for a Breed Championship Show, below which, they forfeit the right to hold on to their CC's? – Another relevant question to join the ignored list!
This fundamental question is very relevant, and needs an answer. Entries continue to fall; very soon some of these low entry CH. shows will be attracting less than 30 or even less than 20 entries.
The proposals, which I wrote, were not written for any selfish reasons, they were done for the breed to recognise some actual facts about the GSD CH. Show scene over an eleven year period as held by the Kennel Club. The proposals emanating from those facts are of course open to interpretation and options. I chose the most obvious options, to stimulate debate and from that I hoped more realistic and more acceptable proposals would emerge though dialogue at and through the GSD breed Council. I forgot, that just does not happen. Of course there are many other facts and issues affecting our show scene, which needed to be brought into the dialogue on these proposals, they are "talked" about “ad nauseam”, with little or nothing actually done. The clubs that may lose their CC status could hold Open Shows, that's about what their level of entries justify, and even then, many clubs would be disappointed with an Open show entry that LOW. Could you imagine a Breed Club holding an annual open show attracting a total entry of around 50 and applying for CC status, no matter what it geographical position? Our breed is very good at one thing, burying its head, and doing very little or nothing at all regarding major issues that need decisive action. If action means some tough decisions, walk away from it. This has become the norm. Our breed Club Championship Shows are heading towards dire entries and this is self perpetuating to even lower entries, can you all see that? During the second half of 2008 GSD exhibitors had the worst gap in Championship Shows I can recall. We are simply making things worse. Our very serious problem of low entries is worsening, and it will not be resolved by ignoring it, or by avoiding it! Decisive action is urgently required, and our breed clubs are found lacking!

the proposals you have put forward david will not help the british show scene it most certainly will help the english show scene please remember that it is the british show scene we are talking about here if the scots welsh and irish travel to the champ shows in england surely the english can travel to support the other shows not in england if you take your stats over the last 11years and look at where the entries come from then you will see that it is because people will not travel it has nothing to do with the quality of these shows and in the present climate things will get worse before they get better.

jim h

David, I think the route cause is where we have to look, it can't be reasonable to remove shows / tickets from clubs because of poor entries, there's already a shortage of clubs in some areas, removing their shows could close them down completely... would that be a benefit?