Crufts 2016 (Part 1)

On Friday 11th March I made my annual pilgrimage to Crufts, this time accompanied by both daughters.  A great day out and a family reunion too, and the fact it was the Gun Dogs on show was simply the icing on the cake.  This is the first time I've visited Crufts mid-week, and it was far quieter than at the weekend.  Much more pleasant, in fact, and we even managed to get into the Arena for a while (of which more in a future post).

The first couple of pictures are actually life-sized (and very life-like) stuffed toys.

Then came the Pets as Therapy stand, with an assortment of different pooches all trained to work in hospitals, hospices, old people's homes etc.

We didn't have the space (or, to be honest, the inclination) to take advantage of this particular bargain...

As always at Crufts, everyone is incredibly friendly and perfectly willing to be photographed - especially with their dogs, on which they dote.  The following pictures are in no particular order, but many are from the Discover Dogs section of the show.  Let's face it, a pug (for example) wouldn't make an especially efficient or useful gun dog!

Wasn't it nice of the next two dogs to have their tongue and ribbon respectively matching the colour of the carpet?

We then found the "pampered pooches" section of the show, where various different animals were being groomed - and clearly loving every minute of it.

The final two for today's post go from the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of size.