Kicked out of RI Dog Show
Well I managed to get kicked out of the AKC Bay Colony Show…I was invited by them to be the feature dog training educator..we put all of our resources into making the show great for us and the city of Providence. As soon as we got there I realized that it was not the venue for us…I am shocked at how these dog shows are…its almost like walking into puppy mill with dog crates piled up on top of each other. The dogs are kept in them 23 hours a day or so for the whole 4 days of the show..they are not walked and most of them just go to the bathroom in their kennels…they are put on grooming tables and then brought into the ring for 5 minutes or so to run around….it is funny how people ask me if my dogs are happy because I do not use treats for training…I cannot imagine that the dogs that are supposed to be the best in the nation are very happy being in crates all day and night…
If this was a movie set that is overseen by the ASPCA, who overlooks all animals on movie sets they would shut it down…these dog shows are all about the vanity in humans for bragging rights..most of the people that I met were extremely anti social to the point of being offensively rude….no thought is given to the dog at all..none of them are trained..
So…obviously after they heard me talk about dog training for a day..they decided to uninvite me. I quietly packed up my booth and my dogs and loaded up the vans and left….the irony is that one of the judges who is nationally known and has been judging for 40 years and was mentioned in the Providence Journal had a major problem with one of the families dogs and they were considering putting the dog down…..well…guess who they called last year to train and rehab the dog…thats right Jeff Gellman of Solid K9 Training. That dog was rehabbed and is back in their home living happily…and it is off leash trained at that..
I was appalled at what I saw from the people that were showing the dogs…dogs being hit, slapped, cages kicked and all dogs being led around on choke collars which must be very uncomfortable…when the dogs were being led from the cage to the grooming area, dogs were grabbed by their cheeks or ears…yes they were being lead around by pinching their faces…I brought this up to the AKC management and they are very aware that this goes on..but they do NOTHING about it…the dogs were left in crates all day and night…I had no idea at what the AKC Dog shows were like and even before this happened my self and my staff realized that we would never do another AKC show again…this is not was the public wants..this is not what most people want out of their dogs…
If you want to see what got me kicked out of the show you can purchase tickets to my upcoming seminar on the 30th of January 2010 by clicking on the link that is at the top right of my blog page.