Memories
In 1948, when I first began showing my Wire Fox Terrier, it all seemed like great fun! There were no tents or gazebos and just a few chairs. Mostly, we sat on the grass around the ring, chatting informally talking about dogs. Unusually for that time, I began exhibiting dogs in a family where my parents were not involved in the dog world. As I was only ten years old and my dog had been transferred from the breeder into my name, even entering a dog show seemed complicated. After this was finally sorted, my parents drove me to shows. When this became every weekend, it interfered with my father's passion for golf.
Around that time, we realized my Wire Fox Terrier needed to be professionally trimmed. To this end, the lady who bred my dog recommended we contact Mrs ('Aggie') and Mr (Owen) Davies. A childless couple, they mentored me, teaching me lots about showing dogs, including how to how hand strip my own dog. I particularly remember sitting between them across the front their van as we travelled to dog shows. We spent many happy hours sitting around the ring together discussing the dogs as they paraded before us. Then I began to handle Mrs Davies' Wire Fox Terriers and Mr Davies' Pointer. That was great fun!
I particularly remember one day when we were watching the judging of a particularly large class of smooth Fox Terriers. To keep his dog on its toes, one well-dressed young man, who I believe was Cam Milward, used to keep a live mouse somehow concealed in his coat pocket! One day the mouse escaped! The chaos this caused when the mouse completely disrupted the judging, will remain in my memory forever! There seemed to be excited Fox Terriers and their handlers running all over the ring! In the end, I believe the mouse outwitted all of them and escaped into no man's land!
Facebook post 18/11/24
----------------------------------------------------------
Further to my last post, did you realize that in 1864, when dog shows first began here in Australia, we were a nation which consisted of six separate Colonies. These were New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. Each had their own government. The Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory came later. The inefficiencies resulting from each State having its own laws without being co-ordinated across Australia, flowed on to the pure breed dog laws that governed each individual State. It was not until Federation in 1901, that we had a government nationally. However, at that time we did not have an Australian purebred controlling dog body!
In other words, in line with these six separate colonies, there was at least six separate purebred dog controlling dog bodies. It gets worse! Some of the colonies had multiple dog controlling bodies. For example, in 1912 Victoria had four separate dog controlling bodies, each with its own rules! This created imaginable problems. For example, if one body would not, for whatever reason register the chosen name of your dog, you could present that name to an opposition body and have its registration recorded there!
Many of us who were active before the ANKC (Australian National Kennel Council) was formed in 1956, will remember the hassles of purchasing or selling a dog interstate. The dog had to be de-registered in its resident state before it could be transferred into the purchaser's state of residence!
It was not until 1997 when there were sufficient advancements in computer technology, that our Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC) finally had a working digitized system. In other words, we had to wait for 145 years from our first dog show for Australia to have a purebred Registration system and Stud Book. Only then could our 6 States and 2 Territories be effectively co-ordinated to be in line with rest of the world's purebred dog organizations.
Facebook Post 16/11/24