DALES VIEW: Dog day afternoon

It’s important to acknowledge to yourself, and others, that life isn’t always a bed of roses.

If you spent much time on social media you could be forgiven for thinking everyone is having a much better time than you. Generally, people don’t post the bad stuff, when things you’d been looking forward to are a disappointment, when people let you down, when you stub your toe on the edge of the bed and it hurts so much you think you may pass out.

But it can be cathartic to share the pain. For example, this is what happened when we went to Bedale ‘fun’ dog show the other weekend.

The youngest child had been looking forward to the event for months. We entered the pair into six classes in total. We didn’t have much hope for best small dog and waggiest tail, as the dog is, in the nicest possible way, a little bit scruffy and doesn’t have a particular waggy tail. But the third class was best trick. They’d been practising for months. It was surely a banker. Unfortunately, after two hours of warm sunshine and being fed chunks of sausage while practising, it was a challenge getting the dog just to stay awake and stand up, let along perform her high fives and spins. The girl was upset. We were furious with the dog.

Another class came and went without any success before it was our big hope, the junior handler class.

There were 30-odd competitors, but we were still quietly confident. It all started so well with a lovely loose lead for the walk and turn.

The judge then asked for the dog to sit, however we can only presume the cavapoo misheard as it was violently sick instead. A bag to clean up the mess was asked for over the Tannoy. The girl was mortified, and her chances of a rosette were gone.

There was barely time for her tears to dry before the last class, the dog the judge would most like to take home. Due to its recent behaviour, we’d have gladly given the judge the damn dog to take away by this point. Of course, nobody wants a lazy, scruffy and sickly dog, with possible bad hearing.

We went home defeated, with the daughter dejected and the dog in disgrace. We vowed never again but the girl has already started practising for next year’s show.

Of course, the show as just for fun and did raise a lot of money for the great work of local charity, Saving Yorkshire’s Dogs.