Back in the early 1980s I had a girlfriend whose mother ran a major kennel (Rothick) for purebred German Shepherds. Her dogs used to win prizes all over the world and several police forces took all their dogs from her. I asked her once if she ever showed at Crufts and she told me she would never have anything to do with it as it was full of the most diabolical people who would do pretty much anything to increase their chances of winning. Some of the stories she told about the behaviour of Crufts owners were truly horrifying. That was in 1982/3. So this story doesn't surprise me at all.
As an aside, I used to visit their house in Berkshire at weekends and she often would ask me to dress up in these heavy padded suits for the younger police dogs to do their pursuit and bite training (I'm not sure they really liked me very much). Trying to run across a muddy field wearing one of these huge suits, with a snarling German Shepherd doing 30mph towards you was truly terrifying. |