Showing Results & Benefits
The Lesser Known Benefits of Conformation Showing
To many pet owners, the show ring is a foreign (and strange) place. While we acknowledge this, showing itself, and even training and conditioning a dog for showing, provides many benefits to owners, vets, and others who deal with dogs. At the very least, it should assure our families that recognised experts in breed and temperament consider our dogs worthy of the title “Champion”.
Benefits that dogs derive from showing include:
Dog shows often involve a range of people and dogs being around and interacting with the dogs. By managing these experiences so that all are positive, our dogs are encouraged to be outgoing and relaxed around a range of people and dogs.
Dog shows involve long periods of relaxing with short intervals of intense action. Our dogs are happy to sleep or sit in their crates (often playing with each other) until they are needed. This easily translates to travelling and staying in cars happily, lying peacefully during conversations, being a good patient at the vet, and many other non-show situations.
While waiting at dog shows, in a range of different locations, our dogs observe happenings around them. As long as we oversee them, exposure to different noises, sights and scents helps our dogs to relax more in the everyday world and its different environments. For the owner, shows provide the opportunity to learn from dog breeders who have had years of experience in finding practical solutions to dog situations, to share experiences with other dog owners, and possible social relationships. While social interractions for humans can be somewhat similar to the movie “Best In Show”, perseverance does enable beneficial relationships to be formed.
Show dogs need to be able to be handled by strangers and to be still while this is happening, generally standing. Their teeth are usually checked, and often their feet and nails are inspected. In Metropolis’ experience, this and consistent behavioural expectations have translated to vets being able to examine and treat our dogs easily (eg bandaging feet several times a day for long periods) and to nails being able to be checked and filed easily.
Show dogs need to be in optimum physical condition. This is achieved by good exercise adapted to developing different muscles, a good diet producing a healthy coat, avoiding excess weight, and most of all, by the dog’s happy confident mentality being reflected in its physical appearance and behavior. All of these things should be a regular part of caring for a pet. Taking care of them for showing results in you having a disciplined approach to managing your dog.
You can view some of our showing results on each of our dogs’ profiles, as well as more detail about each of them. Detailed show results are available under their profiles on dogzonline.com.au.
Photos and brief information about each of our dogs are set out on the page Our Vizslas, with each dog having its own page. All pedigrees may be viewed at http://www.vizsladatabase.com. The English breed standard may be viewed at http://www.vizsla.org.uk/ukbreed.htm.
According to the NSW Hungarian Vizsla Club’s health officer as of 2023 there are no known health issues in the breed in Australia. There have been individual dogs with health issues, but those issues are specific to those dogs/their bloodlines, not the breed generally.
From time to time publications focus on particular health issues, and can give the impression that health issues in other breeds are health issues in the vizsla. Buyers should conduct their own investigations and rely on reputable sources of health information, such as reputable vets, researchers, publications by qualified authors, and reputable breeders who provide full disclosure as to what they do and don’t know.
Although hip dysplasia is not a recognised issue in the breed, we try to ensure all vizslas used by Metropolis for breeding are hip scored. We are happy to discuss that and other general health and character information with potential puppy families.
