Monday, July 30, 2012

The Indian Dog's Day out!

Open Breed Event, National College Grounds, Basavangudi
TGIDPA was invited to hold a stall at the Annual Dog Show 2012-13, National College grounds, Basavangudi on the 29th July,2012. At the stall, we had 4 indian pups and 1 abandoned old pom, the very beautiful Pushpa, for adoption. To represent the Indian dog, we brought along Manu, the gentle giant, who is also blind owing to a territorial fight before he was rescued. When we got there, we had no plans of registering him for the show, as we had to manage so many things. But after we saw that there was no Indian dog registered for the show even though it was an open breed event, we decided that Manu simply had to participate.
Our Stall
So out we went into the ring, among mastiffs, collies, retrievers & so on, and stood our ground with The Indian Dog. People clapped & cheered the loudest for Manu who won the 3rd prize in the biggest dog category. We took him for a second round for the Junior Handler Category with our youngest volunteer 15 year old Rushith Reddy. It was an overwhelming, victorious moment for all of us there, to see him stand tall with all the other breeds, win a prize, walk back to the stall & go to sleep. :)
Im as good as the rest, Maybe better too. :) 
Manu, the Winner!


Our stall generated a lot of interest as we were the only stall that had pups. A lot of people dropped in and asked "which breed?" to which the answer was "Indian" to which the response was a bewildered look. Some of them asked if they were for sale, and we answered, no, they are not for sale, they are up for adoption to which again there was a bewildered look. We had information on 7 reasons why you should adopt an Indian dog that we compiled from Rajashree Khalap's Indog Project. A lot of people expressed interest and requested for a copy which we promptly gave. We also had a huge banner that shouted "Don't Shop. Adopt!"





We also had a bunch of boys advise us about getting 'nice' breeds next time. But to counter all that we had a lovely response from the crowd, the organisers, the judges & the chief guests. The Indian Dog was mentioned time & again by the hosts of the event.
2 pups got adopted into loving homes, one by the chief guest herself, Mrs Sheela Yogeshwar, an ardent animal lover who also has a score of Indian dogs as companion pets.

Amrut, dog behaviorist & trainer and a judge at the event, a very fine gentleman, who helped us rehabilitate Germy, was also there helping the Indian Dog get its due. We, the entire TGIDPA team thank him for his support wholeheartedly.

We believe that we made an impact by not shying away from participating with our Indian dogs in an open breed event and we stuck to our motto - "Don't Shop! Adopt!"

A good job done! 






3 comments:

  1. Great going. A great way to spread the message (on the importance of Indian dogs) to people. Wish I had the time and energy to volunteer myself for such meaningful events. Alas! All the very best!

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