Question about dog shows

[mark_chitty]

Really sorry if this has come up before but I would really appreciate some help with a couple of queries

I'm curious about what sort of rules surround taking dogs to shows that they have not been entered into?  I've been to a couple of small open shows with Snoop who was entered and have taken Honey along to one of them but kept her in her cage for most of the time - only taking her out to go outside for a walk and for her to do her business.  I was told this was the thing to do as taking puppies or non-entered dogs around the show is not allowed/frowned upon.  Not really sure how else to describe it - I'm afraid that's the best I can do

In that sort of situation I'm not too fussed as we had Snoop with us who was entered and we were fairly occupied with sorting him out.  What I'm really unsure about is what to do if I want to go to another open/championship show to look around and get some more information about showing, the do's and don'ts, etc as we are still pretty new to it all.  I don't want to go along, take a cage and chuck the two of them in there while we b***** off and then only check on them every now and then because of the amount of stuff going on, neither do I want to just leave them at home while we go off to a show for a looksy.  We did this last weekend so we could go to the North Wales Cocker show and we had enough time to drive over, have a look for 1/2 hour to an hour and then head home again so they weren't by themselves for any longer than normal.

We learnt so much last weekend just by watching a couple of classes even though we were only there for such a short period.  I would love to go along to another show soon to see even more but don't want to go if we have to leave the dogs again or if they wouldn't be allowed to walk around the show with us.

Also, does anyone know what the above situation is with Crufts?  This is another show I would love to go to but only if we could bring our dogs along for the day!

Any info would be muchly appreciated!!

EDIT: Sorry I put it on the wrong forum!!

[Jane S]

KC rules say you can't take unentered dogs to KC licenced events like Open & Championship shows. If you want to take your dogs along for the day but don't want to show them, you can normally enter them "Not For Competition" for a fee. Pups have to be over 6 months unless you're entering a show run by a breed club which allows over 4 months old pups to attend NFC (it's up to individual clubs whether they do allow this or not) You have to fill in an entry form as if you were showing so you need to get a schedule for the show well in advance of the closing date for entries. Once you've entered "NFC", you're free to bring your dogs along and stay as long as you like. The only exception to this is Crufts - you can't bring a dog into Crufts unless he/she is entered for competition or is part of a display team/Discover Dogs participant etc. There's no way round this rule and it's enforced quite strictly. If you want to spend a day at Crufts, you'll need to think about a dog sitter for your dogs - that's what I have to do every year if I want to come to Crufts as I wouldn't leave our other dogs at home all day on their own

[mark_chitty]

Hi Jane
Many thanks for the reply, it's really cleared the whole issue up and now I know where we stand   At least now we can make arrangements to go to any shows and ensure that the dogs are looked after (spoilt) by my mum for the day!
BTW, saw your puppy at the show last weekend and she's beautiful!
Thanks
Mark

[Jane S]

BTW, saw your puppy at the show last weekend and she's beautiful!

Thanks Mark