Should I take my dog to a country show? ?
Recently, I took Clover to a country show…or a country fair, whatever you want to call it. The above photo was taken whilst she was there. She looks so happy and relaxed right?!… Wrong. Turns out that it may be possible that I should perhaps have done some more research beforehand…
Clover isn’t a particularly nervous dog. In fact, she’s very confident 90% of the time. But the remaining 10% she can be a bit…well… weird. She’ll be walking along side me perfectly as normal and then suddenly cower because I’ve walked too close to her or because a car door has slammed a bit too loudly 4 miles away. I’ll cover this in another post, but my point is sometimes she gets scared for literally no reason. You know the saying ‘jump at you’re own shadow’… yeah Clover’s done that before. So, in hindsight, maybe a country show was a bit too much of a scary place for me to take her… but I was working on the basis of the 90%.
Anyway, as we all know, I love taking Clover to places with me. If I have to go somewhere without her, it genuinely can put me on edge (that’s my weird 10% I guess… we’ve all got ’em!). So, my friend mentioned she was going to a country show. I looked it up and it said “well behaved dogs on leads welcome.” Clover is a well behaved dog… mostly. So I thought to myself “brilliant, a day out for Clover to experience different sights and sniffs and meet other dogs, and also a fun afternoon out for me where I could spend time with my friend”… win win.
And I was right… mostly. We got there and there were dogs everywhere (not all of them well behaved I might add!) and Clover was excited. She practically ran through the entrance and was soon busy sniffing the stalls and getting petted by people. It was a warm day but we stayed in the shade where possible and I took her for frequent drinks at the various water bowls scattered around. We were all having a lovely time.
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Should I take my dog to a country show??
Then Clover got weird. But I think it was justified. The show got busier the longer we were there and I think it was just a bit much for her. She began cowering away from people that she had walked past with no issues moments before. The tipping point was when we began watching some of the actual shows. She enjoyed the falconry show… her little head was tilting as she watched the birds flying round the arena. She was also stood to attention watching as the horses ran around with stunt men on them. What she didn’t like (at all!) was the voice over the tannoy commentating it all. Perhaps it was the pitch of the frequency, or perhaps it was just too loud (it did my head in after approximately 5 minutes!) but either way I could see that Clover was becoming unhappy. She began to cower so I sat on the floor with her and she climbed onto my lap… which she never does. Her little ears went back and she just seemed uncomfortable. So, we moved away. I took her back to the next field where it was quieter and took her for another drink and she seemed ok again. After a while we edged closer to the arena again and still she seemed to have her confidence back. So, we stood for a while longer watching the show and Clover watched intently at the animals parading around. And then… low and behold… suddenly scared again. So, we left and went home.
We still had a lovely afternoon and I think on the whole Clover enjoyed it. It just got a bit too much for her at times, which is reasonable when you’re very small with sensitive hearing in a crowded, noisy place. I have since looked into taking dogs to country shows. The advice is to ‘practice’ by taking your dog to busier locations, such as garden centres or other busy places. We do that anyway. As I mentioned, Clover comes with me to anywhere that will allow dogs, so she’s been in busy pubs, garden centres and busy parks and she’s always ok. The advice also says that if your dog becomes overwhelmed to take some time out… which we also did. I think possibly, after a couple of hours, Clover was getting tired and therefore not feeling as brave as usual and this possibly made her a bit more aware of her surroundings… I don’t know.
I would definitely take Clover to a country show again, but I would perhaps go earlier when it’s less busy and bring a toy or similar to entertain her if she started feeling a bit overwhelmed. She definitely had fun, and her favourite part was meeting the sheep… photo below.
If you missed any of my previous diary updates, you can find them at ‘the diary of my ruff reality.’
Alternatively, head to ‘nobody warned me about…’ to read about the dog ownership topics that I wish someone had told me about before I got Clover.
Thinking of getting a dog? Visit my ‘top tips page’ for important things that I probably should have considered further before buying my floppy eared hound!
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*Disclaimer- I have no animal related qualifications whatsoever. Which begs the question as to exactly how much of my advice you should take. This isn’t really an advice blog- not properly. It’s more of a ‘these are my experiences- maybe we can all learn from them’ type of blog. You should probably seek actual qualified veterinary/animal behaviourist/dog dietician advice if you genuinely have any dog related concerns. I’m just here to share the things I’ve learnt in my three years of dog ownership. Some of which may be useful- some not.*
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