I love dogs and I don't doubt Ashleigh loves Pudsey and Pudsey loves Ashleigh but their winning BGT sends out a very dangerous message to impressionable people.

First it suggests that animals may be used in entertainment which is a very disturbing point of view. This could lead to exploitation of animals and their mistreatment.

Surely walking on their back legs can't be good for a dog. How many times will Pudsey have to do this for paying audiences?

Also how many stupid people are going to be trying to get their own animals to walk upright without the careful, loving training that Ashleigh has carried out?

I fear this win will have dire consequences for the welfare of animals.

The Kennel Club is chuffed, though. There's been a Freestyle Heelwork to Music demo before Best in Show at Crufts is judged for years. Why send the flack to BGT when it's the Kennel Club that supports the hobby and Ashleigh's part in promoting it?

Which is why the dog's tail was curled upwards? This shows that the dog's happy.

Edit: What about Kate and Gin? There's been no reports on increase in dog mistreatment since their appearance on the show back in 2008.

Ashleigh and Pudsey are amazing - you are barking up the wrong tree.

What a ridiculous thread

What Ashleigh & Pudsey showed was the love between an owner and its dog. How many people are going to have the time and patience required to train their dog?

Not everybody wants a performing dog. Most of us want the love, companionship, humour etc that having a dog brings

I'm not having a go at Ashleigh & Pudsey, I don't think there's anything wrong with it in itself. I just fear it encourages the wrong kind of attitude towards animals in entertainment. And that it might encourage non-professional copycats.

It's a fair point though that Gin and human didn't seem to do much harm though.

Do what?
Are you for real?
I've never read so much garbage in my life.
There's always one who has to worry about things that we know will never happen.

Don't worry OP, we don't live in China. I doubt such acts will become freak circus acts that somehow become a national obsession.

They didn't win though.

Look what happened after Diversity and George Sampson won.
It seems like the show is overrun by street dance acts nowadays.

I wouldn't know if there's any 'dangerous message' or not but I wouldn't be that surprised if many inexperienced trainers think that the best way to make dogs do things is to beat them if they get frustrated because the dog doesn't do do what they want them to do.

But I suppose it's like most things, you can get negative side effects out of the most seemingly innocuous things.
In America it appears that a culture of child beauty pageants has arisen. To them it seems normal. To us British it often seems to be a bit creepy and just plain wrong.
Somewhere along the line parents saw that a degree of success could be achieved after watching earlier winners and encouraged their children to aspire to be prettified dolls.

Even if a singer or dance act won there would be pushy parents trying to get their children to do this stuff.

So I wouldn't say that a performing dog act would be any more harmful than any other type of act winning. You'd still get a degree of negative consequence from the many things we use as a barometer of success.

I think that's kind of the OP's point. In that everyone wouldn't have the patience.

I think some people are being overly aggressive to the OP.
I think it's a fair point.
I don't necessarily share the same level of concern as the OP but I think it's naive to think that nobody would try to copy what they see thinking it an easy route to getting on TV but resort to certain methods if they don't achieve the desired results fast enough.

I can't say that I think it will be a big problem, but I'm of the view that a small minority would try to copy what they've seen and resort to less acceptable methods. I would have thought that to be inevitable.
Many people neglect and abuse animals anyway. This would just be another means for some of that minority to do that.

Many people copy what they see on television. It affects people. Even if you don't necessarily agree with the OP's main point I still think it's a worthy topic for discussion.

For the uninitiated...History records that Trained animals have been entertaining humans this way throughout the world for centuries..so please don't blame Ashleigh for your fears

But is it right? Should it be encouraged? People used to bait bears and fight with cocks. Now, as I have said more than once, I believe Ashleigh has nothing but LOVE for Pudsey, cares for him VERY well and he is not being mistreated in ANY way. BUT should dancing dogs as a form of entertainment be encouraged? I wouldn't be in the least surprised if there was a case of an animal being harmed as a result of idiotic copycat behaviour, and this is what I'm concerned about.

You do realise this sort of thing has been going on for years, dog agility heel work to music etc

But the Kennel Club also promotes the in breeding of dogs and that's why many animal charities don't what to be associated with the Club, and why their shows no longer appear on the BBC.

I am far more worried that it won't get to that stage - people buying dogs and then getting with them after a few feeble attempts at "training",

I'm against animal exploitation and I won't see films like Marley and Me for that reason - I don't know if the dog/s in those films were happy to do what they were made to or if they were exploited. But with Ashleigh it was so obvious that if Pudsey didn't follow her commands or do what she wanted, she would love him just the same and never punish him or even feel disappointed in him. The love was so obvious.

I do understand the OP's point but I don't think Ashleigh or the show can be held responsible if some people go out, buy dogs to train as "dancers" and then beat them for doing it wrong or get bored and put them in kennels. Finding Nemo caused so many parents to buy their kids clown fish and then flush them away when they were bored or them or when the fish died through neglect, and the whole story of Finding Nemo was that this fish family was destroyed when Nemo was caught to be put into a tank where all the inhabitants were desperate to be free. It's wrong to say Finding Nemo sent a dangerous message and shouldn't have been released because they didn't intend to cause death to thousands of clown fish. Ashleigh and BGT definitely don't want people to mistreat or dump dogs.

Yes, there was a national dog association that had a bit of PR trouble a few years ago wasn't there? I can't remember if it was The Kennel Club or Crufts itself. But there were things on TV like news reports that undermined the whole PR image of training dogs for purposes such as dog shows.

I know that some will say that they've been training dogs to entertain humans for hundreds of years, but just because society has conditioned itself to believe that something is okay, doesn't necessarily make it so. History has a habit of looking back in retrospect at things that seemed like a good idea at the time but now look completely unacceptable.

Maybe on occasion it might be a healthy thing to not be uninitiated. That way you may have the ability to see things with less bias and more objectivity than you otherwise would.

And if it's the BBC presenting the performance this year to the audience at home, the logical step for Ashleigh, as a member of the Kennel Club, would be to ask for her performance to be excised from the broadcast in support of the KC's stance.

I doubt that will happen, somehow.

IMO Ashleigh really loves Pudsey (and he her) and their act shows the strong bond between dog/owner, thats all. I cant stand people who mistreat animals but if a pet owner treated them badly or beat them they shouldnt be allowed to own any animals I dont think Ashleigh can, or indeed should, be held responsible for that.
Good point about Finding Nemo,
I remember also when Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles was first on air (the cartoon and movie) and it seemed every kid wanted turtles as pets.
I kinda understand the point the OP is making though in that not everyone would be so patient or have so much time to train if thats what they wanted.

As I said in the other thread, my concern being someone that has run a rescue for many many years is now we'll get the discriminate breeding of 'Pudsey' type dogs for the idiots that want to teach their lovely scruffy dog to 'dance.

2 years time we'll have an influx of dogs that don't dance, do have behavioural problems because of moron owners, do have health problems due to backyard breeding, and are difficult to rehome.

Don't think I'm being over dramatic, in my years I've seen many many '101 dalmations' and 'Marleys' come through my kennel doors and some I've rehomed. Some I've sat holding their heads while a needle was pushed into their veins because they have been so badly damaged by the previous owner I cannot rehome them.

That's MY fear...but don't you lot worry it's not anything you'll have to deal with and I'm sure Ashley and her dog breeding parents will make a lovely profit without having to worry about the disgusting horrific reality of the dog situation in this country.

You can't blame an act on Britain's Got Talent or a film for the behaviour of the morons in our society.

Absolutely my friend.

So who do I blame? Idiotic parents who buy 'Pudsey' for their kids, back yard breeders who churn out 'Pudsey' lookalikes for the masses without regard of breeding genetic defects or the companies who've all jumped on the 'Dancing doggie' bandwagon and are thrusting the girl and her dog in our faces?

Would be nice to see alongside the shameless promotions a little reference to the thousands of 'Pudsey' potentials who die every year in our pounds. Little dogs that I'm sure would dance and prance for their owner given half the chance, but sadly will be overlooked cos they don't look like the dog on the telly.

Yeah of course it's not the Tv companies fault (even Simon Cowell who I thought was a supporter of rescues stupidly comments 'I'd love to have a Pudsey' which of course got the morons with pound signs off to breed the same said cross) and it's not the movie companies fault but the blame lays equally with all concerned.

But as I said it's not anyone elses problem, others will deal with the fall out.

Good to see someone talking sense.