When we bought Rudy in 2015, I had a desire to try showing, just to try it out - Maybe it's a lot of fun?
I fell head over heels for the competition, earning certificates, and the feeling of showing off my darling.
Rudy was never bought as a show dog, which will also become apparent within a short time. Rudy is of the more athletic type within the breed, and with one “fault”, namely a kinked tail.
The Old English Bulldog breed has several different breed standards around the world, and even though the tail was unimportant in some standards, I could feel that it was mentioned in the ring as something negative, especially by the Danish judges.
It irritated me immensely that it was a problem, and it became an annoyance when it counted down one day but not the next. I also felt that the defect was a problem with one dog, but not with the other dog in the ring, who could easily have more than 1 tail kink.
I threw thousands of kroner at dog shows because even though we had bad days, the good days made up for it. I also loved the sport and meeting other people with the same interest who quickly became my dog friends.
After 4 years I started to lose heart. My husband was getting tired of my show life, and I could see that even though we had a fantastic dog, he wasn't the perfect show dog that was in the BIS round time and time again.
I began to feel like a miracle was needed for us to move forward, and these thoughts killed my interest more and more.
At this time, OEB was not approved by the Danish Kennel Club, so the format and size of the exhibitions are therefore completely incomparable.
I also went to dog training with Rudy, both to train and stimulate him, but also to improve our chances in the show ring.
Although I could see that Rudy loved being in the ring with me, his joy unfortunately only lasted 5-10 minutes.
The shows took up the entire weekend, and many of the hours were spent waiting for our turn, and during that time Rudy was mostly in a cage.
The whole day was incredibly boring for Rudy, so it was finally clear to me that it was because of me that we were exhibiting.
Our dog training was completely opposite.
It was 15 minutes from where we lived and we trained intensely for 60 minutes. Rudy was in full focus the whole session and then we could go home again.
Rudy had therefore had a much better experience, and he was subsequently mentally injured in a good way.
After each training session, I could feel a guilty conscience and the feeling of regret and stupidity creeping up on me.
“Just imagine that I've been exhibiting him for SO many years when we could have done this instead” plus the thought of all the money I could have saved.
Rudy was therefore retired from show on February 22, 2020, as he was not to be shown for MY sake.
People who exhibit have my deepest respect, as I know that some dogs LOVE to be involved, and in some breeds it is very important to get great results in terms of breeding. This was just not the situation with Rudy.
Rudy is now fully enjoying training, which he loves, everywhere on earth.
He's a couch potato for the big gold medal, but he's also become the world's biggest lens lice, so when we take photos, you can really see how much he shines and how much he loves it.
Bloggers of the week
This blog post is written by Mie Eriksson, who is the lucky owner of a 7-year-old Old English Bulldog named Rudy.
Together they are active on Instagram with the profile @erikssons_boys
Show dog for MY sake?
When we bought Rudy in 2015, I had a desire to try showing, just to try it out - Maybe it's a lot of fun?
I fell head over heels for the competition, earning certificates, and the feeling of showing off my darling.
Rudy was never bought as a show dog, which will also become apparent within a short time. Rudy is of the more athletic type within the breed, and with one “fault”, namely a kinked tail.
The Old English Bulldog breed has several different breed standards around the world, and even though the tail was unimportant in some standards, I could feel that it was mentioned in the ring as something negative, especially by the Danish judges.
It irritated me immensely that it was a problem, and it became an annoyance when it counted down one day but not the next. I also felt that the defect was a problem with one dog, but not with the other dog in the ring, who could easily have more than 1 tail kink.
I threw thousands of kroner at dog shows because even though we had bad days, the good days made up for it. I also loved the sport and meeting other people with the same interest who quickly became my dog friends.
After 4 years I started to lose heart. My husband was getting tired of my show life, and I could see that even though we had a fantastic dog, he wasn't the perfect show dog that was in the BIS round time and time again.
I began to feel like a miracle was needed for us to move forward, and these thoughts killed my interest more and more.
At this time, OEB was not approved by the Danish Kennel Club, so the format and size of the exhibitions are therefore completely incomparable.
I also went to dog training with Rudy, both to train and stimulate him, but also to improve our chances in the show ring.
Although I could see that Rudy loved being in the ring with me, his joy unfortunately only lasted 5-10 minutes.
The shows took up the entire weekend, and many of the hours were spent waiting for our turn, and during that time Rudy was mostly in a cage.
The whole day was incredibly boring for Rudy, so it was finally clear to me that it was because of me that we were exhibiting.
Our dog training was completely opposite.
It was 15 minutes from where we lived and we trained intensely for 60 minutes. Rudy was in full focus the whole session and then we could go home again.
Rudy had therefore had a much better experience, and he was subsequently mentally injured in a good way.
After each training session, I could feel a guilty conscience and the feeling of regret and stupidity creeping up on me.
“Just imagine that I've been exhibiting him for SO many years when we could have done this instead” plus the thought of all the money I could have saved.
Rudy was therefore retired from show on February 22, 2020, as he was not to be shown for MY sake.
People who exhibit have my deepest respect, as I know that some dogs LOVE to be involved, and in some breeds it is very important to get great results in terms of breeding. This was just not the situation with Rudy.
Rudy is now fully enjoying training, which he loves, everywhere on earth.
He's a couch potato for the big gold medal, but he's also become the world's biggest lens lice, so when we take photos, you can really see how much he shines and how much he loves it.
Bloggers of the week
This blog post is written by Mie Eriksson, who is the lucky owner of a 7-year-old Old English Bulldog named Rudy.
Together they are active on Instagram with the profile @erikssons_boys