Some Special Dog Showing and Dog Performance

Events which can loosely be described as dog shows have taken place for thousands of years, but in essence these were merely shows which involved dogs as some sore of side attraction. They did not in any way resemble modern shows. However, by the eighteenth century, there were some shows that might have been remotely familiar to us today.

The first of the hound shows took place in 1776, and these were held in the summer months mainly as a way of fellow huntsmen keeping together out of season. Later that century some of the agricultural shows had dog sections too and, by then, dogs were also becoming popular with townsfolk. It was believed that as many as 25 per cent of households owned a dog and there was an increasing change in attitude toward some of the more brutal sports involving dogs.

In 1834 a show was held for '9 lb spaniels’, and the prize for the winner was a silver cream jug, so the! more delicate side of the dog game was beginning to show its face. This show was in a public house because it was m places like this that dog showing:' began in earnest. Such shows were a natural progression from events which had taken place around the dog-pit so, although the sport had changed, the venue had not.

Dog clubs were formed and there was sometimes a rule that anyone attending must take along a dog either for show or for sale, thereby ensuring a good 'show night'. Participants were always me" but they had now begun to represent different classes of society.

Dog shows increase in popularity
Dog shows took place in public houses b m urban and rural areas, but until the advent of railway, people were unable to travel any distance to shows. A famous early dog show, often misreported as being the very first, was held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne's New Corn Exchange on 28 and 29 June 1859. Incredibly, one of the judges had traveled from as far away as London. Held as part of a well-established poultry show, breed competition was restricted to Pointers and Setters, although other breeds of dog were also exhibited. There was much praise for the organization of the show, the dogs being chained and protected by barriers so that they could neither injure nor alarm visitors. The 26 pointers and 36 setters competed for the major prize of one of Pape's celebrated double-barreled shotguns, worth between, £15 and £20. Such an important competition caused exhibitors to travel good distances, from Manchester, Huddersfield and Lancaster.

Mr. J H Walsh, editor of The Field, was one of the show's judges and became one of the organizers of the next show which took place in Birmingham later that year. This show led to the formation of the Birmingham Dog Show Society. Birmingham was a great stronghold of the dog fancy, so great that it was doubted that any other town in the entire world could match its record of consistency, as by 1902 an annual show had been held there for 43 years.

Lady competitors for the dog shows
As dog showing moved into the nineteenth century the numbers of exhibits at shows increased that by 1862 a show in Islington attracted an try of 803. It was in that same year that two lady exhibitors actually appeared amongst the prize winners. Times were indeed moving on. It was in 1867 that the custom of women exhibiting at shows really began to meet with approval as the Princess of Pales, later to become Queen Alexandra, exhibited at a show, us setting an example to others. Although the Princess's Mastiff ' Obtained only a second place it was described as 'the best ever exhibited'. Ladies had now most certainly become noticed at shows and just three years later there was a special prize awarded to the best dog owned by a lady.

‘First great international dog show’
A show grandly entitled the 'First Great International Dog Low' was supported with an entry of 1,678 in 1863, though it was believed there may have been 2,000 dogs in the hall. That same year a smaller show was held in Chelsea but the organizer was sadly described as 'overwhelmed by the difficulties of the task he had undertaken'. He had believed it would be a simple task to collect together a number of dogs to be viewed by a mass of spectators, but had overlooked many important points. Water was not available for the dogs which were in the most dreadfully overcrowded conditions, with no proper divisions between them, just an open wire fence, and although the hall was officially able to accommodate 600 dogs there were actually 1,214.Toys and pet dogs were exhibited in a new wing which had a glass roof, making the temperature inside either too hot or too cold and, on the first day of the show, it was said to be hot enough to cause dehydration, especially with the absence of water.