Pug Breed Magazine - Showsight

PUG SURVEY

DORIS ALDRICH 1. What is different now about the sport from when you started? Too many professional handlers—they socialize with all the judges, making it difficult for the owner/handler. 2. What about the breed makes it a great show dog? They love being the center of whatever is going on. 3. What is your funniest experience at a dog show? The Pug is very entertaining so it is hard to pick out one thing they have done to make you laugh. JUDY BROWN 1. What is different now about the sport from when you started? The blacks have gotten so much better in the last 15 years, much more substance and big round wrinkled heads. When I first started in Pugs everyone was so friendly, we would have pitch-ins at the dog shows and there seemed to be a lot of encouragement between exhibitors. Now there are like little cliques, and so much back-stabbing. I see this everywhere I travel. I show another breed also and the people are much friendlier, welcoming and encouraging. 2. What about the breed makes it a great show dog? Pugs are pleasers and will do anything for food… well most of them will. 3. What is your funniest experience at a dog show? This happened at an outdoor show in Ohio. This was the last day of the show and the little girl I had purchased from some pugs friends had gone RWB for 3 days to a girl another friend was showing. That girl had finished the day before but my friend left her in the classes so the major wouldn’t break. This friend and her husband were both showing girls in Open Bitch along with me. The wife was showing the girl that had finished the day before, I say showing loosely as she was pretty much just wandering around the ring. When she put the girl up on the table she didn’t set her up or do anything to her. She pretty much let the bitch do whatever she wanted. The next bitch on the table was being shown by her husband. The judge says to her husband not knowing they were married, “That gal is a real ditz.” Her husband answered, “If you only knew!”

PATTI & RICHARD CALDWELL 1. What is different now about the sport from when you started? The quality of Pugs overall has improved substantially in the time we have been in the breed, although the top Pugs of time past are fully the equal of the top Pugs today. One specific point of improvement is the rear assembly. A major factor in the improvement of Pugs being bred now is due to there being more of a national breeding community, whereas breeding locally was more the style years ago. This presumably is partly due to improvements in technology--more information about dogs and exchanges between breeders on the internet, new extenders, reliable shipping of semen, etc. 2. What about the breed makes it a great show dog? We love the Pugs for their enthusiasm for life which makes them a great show dog, but also a joy to live with at home. They are so comical, love to be close and snuggle, and have a reliable, amicable personality that makes them an easy keeper. Well, except for the shedding. Pugs are more than purely a wonderful lap dog. While that is what they were bred to do and are clearly experts, they are able to be successful in many other venues, i.e. Obedience, Rally, Agility and Barn Hunt titles. 3. What is your funniest experience at a dog show? The funniest thing we have ever seen at a dog show involved the young daughter of a good friend of ours. The child was absolutely in love with our Pug. At her first dog show, a Mastiff walked by and she got so excited she could hardly talk exclaiming, “It’s a big Pug!” CHRIS DRESSER 1. What is different now about the sport from when you started? The breed has become more popular which has attracted some fanciers who seem more focused on quantity and less on quality, health, temperament and the welfare of the breed. For a natural breed, grooming of show Pugs is totally out of hand. I have watched own- ers spray up and scissor a topline on a dog. Much of the facial pigment is now supplied by permanent markers. The most outlandish grooming effort I have seen was a handler frantically back combing the hocks. I was around for the good old days and many of us who were do not think the sport is heading in the right direction. The judges often do not have the depth of knowledge about

“THEY LOVE BEING THE CENTER OF WHATEVER IS GOING ON.”

246 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , F EBRUARY 2017

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