EVENTS

Southern Golden Retriever Society Display Team

For over twenty years the Southern Golden Retriever Society Display Team have delighted audiences at venues large and small, mainly throughout the South of England,. The Team consists of 23 Golden Retrievers and their owners performing obedience routines to music although only 16 perform at any one time. They came into being in 2000 when eight handlers who had enjoyed their training at the Society’s classes at Wrotham in Kent decided to stick together and do small routines to music for fun. After performing at local village fetes in Kent the Team grew to 12 then finally to 16 and the routines became more complicated. After being noticed by a Kennel Club member the Team were invited to perform at The Kennel Club’s Discover Dogs in 2003 – the Team’s  first big event.

In addition to performing at community events such as village fetes and country fairs across the south east the Team have performed every year since 2003 at  “Discover Dogs”, a two day event  now held at The Excel in London, and since 2004 at the world’s largest dog show, “Crufts”, held over four days at the NEC in Birmingham.   At Crufts 2018 the Crufts organisers asked Radzi Chinyanganya from Blue Peter  to borrow one of the dogs and have a go with the Team in front of 6000 people.  He clearly enjoyed  himself.  Crufts went ahead in 2020 just before lockdown began.  The Team were delighted to be asked to add  two extra  performances  to their Main Arena  schedule  – before the Gundog Group judging and on the last day before Best in Show.  In  three days they did four performances in the Good Citizen Arena and four in the Main Arena.    For the first time they performed off lead.   This proved very successful and they will continue to  perform  without leads in the future.

From 2012 to 2017 the Team performed  at “The London Pet Show”  (now “The National Pet Show”) when it had its venue in London.   The dogs have helped present a science lesson for young children on YouTube (Pets Teach Science) which has had over 412,847 views. They have appeared live twice on Blue Peter when all the dogs received the coveted Blue Peter badge! They also appeared at Buckham Fair in 2014, 2015 and 2017 which actor Martin Clunes runs on his farm in Dorset, raising thousands of pounds for charity. The Team have also performed three times for Pup Aid at Primrose Hill, London, which is run by TV vet Marc Abraham to draw attention to the evils of puppy farming.   Pup Aid was attended by many celebrities and in 2015 Strictly Come Dancing star Pasha Kovalev and his partner Rachel Riley had a go at performing with the Team and were pretty good.   In 2019 the Team were invited to perform at two new big events.   The   two day Cotswold Show and Food Festival,  which is held on the estate of the Earl Bathurst in Cirencester,  was much enjoyed by the Team.   Before they left they were invited back to perform  in 2020 on 11^th and 12^th July.  When this was inevitably cancelled they were invited back for 2021.  The second new big event was The Cromer Carnival in Norfolk, a week-long event, where they appeared for two days.   This lovely venue was on Cromer cliffs overlooking the sea.

Unfortunately, due to coronavirus,  after Crufts 2020 all  the Team’s summer engagements were cancelled or postponed to 2021.   They are hoping that life will have returned to  normal in 2021 and that they can get back to training, performing and talking to the public about responsible dog ownership.

The dogs are all much loved family pets who live at home with their owners. Team dogs  all  have  the Kennel Club Good Citizen Gold award which means they have a high level of social obedience. They love being in the Team and think they belong to a doggy youth club! The Display Team is managed by original Team member Karen Menter who, with help from Team member Louise Cooke, choreographs the routines.  Karen also  liaises with event organisers and works her own dog.

If you would like more information on the Team contact Karen at karenmenter@yahoo.com    In order to join the Team, your golden retriever  must  have the Kennel Club Good Citizen Gold award or equivalent.  The handler needs to be able to walk in time to music, to have the commitment to turn up every week to train in all weathers at Culverstone in Kent and to attend the  many events throughout the year.