ferret show

[flame 0]

the kids have been to their first ferret show today. 10 yr old won a 3rd in junior handler but the ferret got nothing. we thought he was a big blackeyed white but he's a big ruby eyed silver (that must make us sound a bit stupid but his colour got them all going!)and although the folk there were friendly enough you knew from the minute you walked in he never stood a chance. it was blind judging and not half as entertaining as watching them in a ring and certainly not as exciting as watching them out in the field but a fun change of scenery for us all and well worth a look!

[Guest Bigbob]

Nice one mate i thought all ferret shows where run during the summer when the hobs have dropped there nuts and are smelling and all the jill are in season or have kitts seems a better time to have a ferret show just now

[flame 0]

quote name='Bigbob' date='Feb 3 2008, 07:30 PM' post='416683']

Nice one mate i thought all ferret shows where run during the summer when the hobs have dropped there nuts and are smelling and all the jill are in season or have kitts seems a better time to have a ferret show just now

 

was embarrassed by mine - his balls are well swollen and he stunk. most of the ones shown had been done and smelt of baby wipes

[Kay 3,709]

Nice one mate i thought all ferret shows where run during the summer when the hobs have dropped there nuts and are smelling and all the jill are in season or have kitts seems a better time to have a ferret show just now

 

99% of ferrets shown are neutered

[Kay 3,709]

[='flame' date=Feb 3 2008, 07:39 PM' post='416698]

quote name='Bigbob' date='Feb 3 2008, 07:30 PM' post='416683']

Nice one mate i thought all ferret shows where run during the summer when the hobs have dropped there nuts and are smelling and all the jill are in season or have kitts seems a better time to have a ferret show just now

 

was embarrassed by mine - his balls are well swollen and he stunk. most of the ones shown had been done and smelt of baby wipes

 

 

 

 

exactly thats why i dont bother going to shows now, its full of fuzzy fluffy pink people who basically collect ferrets to show & go to the ends of the earth to win , it stinks mate not your ferret

[flame 0]

exactly thats why i dont bother going to shows now, its full of fuzzy fluffy pink people who basically collect ferrets to show & go to the ends of the earth to win , it stinks mate not your ferret

suppose its the same as in the dog game - those who breed to work and those who breed to show with very few who successfully do both!

[Kay 3,709]

I just dislike shows & what they represent , and of course some of the ''faces''

[Guest Bigbob]

Nice one mate i thought all ferret shows where run during the summer when the hobs have dropped there nuts and are smelling and all the jill are in season or have kitts seems a better time to have a ferret show just now

 

99% of ferrets shown are neutered

 

If there are neutered how can a hob win a prize surely its not shall we say complete .Guess mine shall just have to get there prizes underground

[Kay 3,709]

Nice one mate i thought all ferret shows where run during the summer when the hobs have dropped there nuts and are smelling and all the jill are in season or have kitts seems a better time to have a ferret show just now

 

99% of ferrets shown are neutered

 

If there are neutered how can a hob win a prize surely its not shall we say complete .Guess mine shall just have to get there prizes underground

 

Well untill the foot & mouth i attended shows in the summer regular and its quite incredable what lengths people will go to , example washing albinos in shampoo ment for women with blonde hair , so they looked persil white,

 

When i first started to go to them , there were 3 classes albino polecat & coloured , even a working class , then the veteran & possibly a disabled for any ferrets who were lacking a leg or something.

 

Over the years the working class was dropped & more seperate colours were introduced, this is just an example of the sort of list you can expect at the more serious shows .

 

Albino

polecat

dark polecat

coloured

sandy

copper

silver

and the above in kit classes as well, what makes me smile is the only reason there are so many classes is because people get arsey if they dont win anything, what are the chances of 20 people all turning up with copper coloured ( brown) kits , well the idea is so many seperate coloured classes generates more seperate prizes , its basically pandering to already over inflated eago's

 

I agree though Bob its like my animals were regularly not placed because they were entire , vasectomised hob anyway , so with all the politics that surrounded the show world & the backbiting for a 30p rosette i couldnt be doing with it .

 

I have even known some of the judges mark down because a ferret smelt , well like a ferret, basically i am going back a good 8 yrs now & i would like to think its improved , its not a world i would ever like to re enter

 

I am informed that if i had gone up north a bit more i would have been able to show ferrets who were entire, the middle England a ferret show hot bed, it also has more rescues , i wonder why ?

[Guest basil46]

I showed a kit once. My mrs wanted a day out one sunday, she suggested going to the ibstock country fair and taking Boots, my kit. He came second from 13.

This is him now.

http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee45/ba...current=004.jpg

http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee45/ba...rrent=004-2.jpg

I`m not sure if i`d show him again, but it was a bit of fun. basil.

[Julia 0]

Kay. That is a hole lot of classes and colors!

In Scandinavia we don't have so many on our shows.

 

I know in Germany they have almost thousands of classes. Different color, age, hairlenght, status (entire/spayed), handicap?. But they also love all colors, and try to breed many new colors also. For example, there is a new color where the ferret is as dark as possible, almost black, no mask, only a little white around the mouth.

 

But on the ferret shows I attend there is these classes:

Sable = in all colorrange from the lightest to the darkest

Sandy = same as above

White = BEW and Albino

Silver = same as Sable and Sandy

Other Colors = When ferrets is a mixture of sandy/silver or sable/silver

There is also Veteran class.

Handicap class (<-this is on it's way out i think)

And juniorclasses in all the mentionend colors.

Mostly the people who stands for the ferret shows will try to keep entire ferrets out of spayed ferretclasses.

But entire ferrets win alot!

It all comes up to the jugde. I prefer UK jugdes, because they wan't a ferret to smell like a ferret, and to act like a ferret, and look like a ferret. At may i'm gonna try German jugdes for the first time. I'm not comfortable with their standards. They like ferrets that smell of parfume, and have short gromed claws. And they love marks. That is against all I like with ferrets. So it will be an experience for me.

 

If there isen't enough ferrets signed up for 1 class, the class will be put together with other classes, but no Junior will be put together with Senior or Veteran og Handicapped.

So there is max 20 classes on ferretshows. (I haven't seen any above 17) I had a Other Color kit for a show, she was up against Sandy and Albino kits.

 

As a new thing, there is jugded for the Best Junior of All and the Best Senior of All and the Best Veteran of all..

Of course there is also Best: Sandy, Albino, Sable, Silver, Other Color, Handicap. And Best In Show and Best Oppisite Sex.

 

It may sound as a hole lot of prizes, but there is about 250 (!) ferrets competing about these prizes.

 

 

Edit: There is some pictures from Scandinavien ferretshows I have attended on my website, not translated pages, but you can see the pictures.

Edited February 6, 2008 by Julia

[Kay 3,709]

as i understand it people in the late spring summer months got to meet with old friends at gamefairs & other country shows, while the ferrets took a well earned rest & had there babys , i suppose thats how shows started up, as i said around 12 or so yrs ago any shows i atteneded were 3 colour class's for each sex & a working class , maybe a veterans class .

 

I recall these events as being friendly & gave me a chance to meet other ferret people, although i live in a village i didnt know anyone else who kept ferrets near to me , this donkeys yrs back before i had a pc .

 

People patted each other on the back if a ferret won a little prize , then in the mid 90.s it exploded, ferrets became very much more saught after as pets , so the bigger the event the more people got to see ferrets at pr events & any shows staged ,nothing wrong in promoting ferrets , i did it for yrs regularly all over the place , raising a few quid for ferret rescue along the way.

 

But what my gripe is in this whole show scene is how quick people change when you have a little ferret who regularly catches a judges eye , talk about pathetic, baring in mind i am going back over 10 yrs now, i would hope to think the shows staged these days are not as bad as some of the shows i attended.

 

I went to one of the more serious shows with a friend a few yrs back & there was that many classes on (colour) that apart from my albinos i had to ask someone what colour class each ferret had to be entered into, it was ridiculas

 

I found the whole experience tiresome & i found 99% of the folks unfriendly, stewards were constantly bringing ferrets back to owners to tell them there ferret was entered in the wrong classs, for fucks sake does it matter i was glad to go home in the end

 

If thats what you call a relaxing sunday i dred to experience a stressfull one to sum it up its about the owners not the ferrets , i have witness grown women having tantrums, fights, steal ferrets, stewards telling owners results before the deciding selections been made

 

Judge who left a litter of albino kits in a black trailer locked in the miday heat with no drink & then when it was broken into by spectators he wondered why

 

Well know face in the ferret world sell kids kits at shows in manure bags thats why i dont do shows

[Guest Bigbob]

I would never take any of my ferrets to a show in the summer ferrets dont take kindly to heat and its no worth risking them in a hot car going to and coming from a show in a hot car for a wee rossy

[Kay 3,709]

I would never take any of my ferrets to a show in the summer ferrets dont take kindly to heat and its no worth risking them in a hot car going to and coming from a show in a hot car for a wee rossy

 

 

Totally agree Bob sadly i have witnessed transit vans off loading cat carrier full of ferrets, all in a bid to win the prizes animals clambering all over each other in small inadequate carriers, pretty sad if you ask me.

 

people dont think about the traveling untill its to late

[Julia 0]

Oh my GOD!

 

That sounds horrible! If the Uk shows are like that, then I can fully understand why you don't attend them.

 

The shows I enter are not like that at all. I agree, FerretShowing is not about the ferrets. It's all for the owners, so they can get together across borders/countries, and meet likeminded people. It's is promotion of ferrets and ferretbreeders.

But everyone I know, would never harm a ferret, or make it suffer during a show. They are well taking care of, and sleep most of the day. Or play with other ferrets in a playpin.