The perpetual question is whether this sport has gotten harder or easier over the decades. There is no end of opinionated discussion on both sides of that argument. However, everything is relative. Case in point, prior to 2015 there was non-stop talk about revising the Triple Crown requirements because no one had conquered that challenge since Affirmed crossed the finish line at Belmont way back in 1978.
We are sad to report the passing of the Top Winning German Wirehaired Pointer of All Time with 102 Best In Shows · #1 Dog Among All Breeds 2012 · Westminster Sporting Group Winner 2013
The economy is difficult in just about every city and state in this country. Monies are short, show entries are down for some clubs, and costs of putting together a show and paying for judges’ expenses are rising. I do not mean that judges’ fees are rising. I have NOT heard of a judge increasing the fee for judging under any circumstances! Most judges are very aware of how much it costs to put together a show and do not want to “bite the hand that (sometimes) feeds them” by pricing themselves out of judging assignments. If anything, many judges do not list all the expenses that are incurred in getting to and from a show including meals and incidentals. I hear judges discussing some of the expenses they “eat” in order to save the club money.
Those who judge know that faults and virtues vary in their degree of severity and in the frequency of their occurrence from dog to dog and from breed to breed. Because virtues and faults occur in all breeds the challenge is to recognize the average dog from the better and the best ones.
The answer is Vic Capone handling CH. Akobie Of Mardane shown going Best of Breed under Judge Dr. Martin Denio at the Susque-Nango KC show in Oneonta, NY, July 2, 1972.
I may not be out in the trenches every week like I used to be, but I still know everything that is happening in our little world. Sorry, not going to chat about anything gossipy or titillating… that’s not what I care about. What brings a smile to my face is when I look at today’s top dogs vying for their little piece of history.
The Magyars (the original name of the Hungarian people) kept sheepdogs from the end of the ninth century, but pedigree breeding and classification of dogs only started in the second half of the 19th century. Before that time, Hungarian sheepdogs were simply divided into two categories: large and small. When breeding, the small dogs were divided from the big ones (Kuvasz, Komondor), but the small ones were interbred. Therefore, the early history of the Mudi is more or less the same as those of the Pumi and the Puli.
It all began with a 10 year-old boy practicing handling techniques in his family’s yard after school. Most junior handlers probably would have focused on their own skills – taking even strides, mastering the smooth transfer of the lead from hand to hand. For Charles “Corky” Vroom, the practice sessions had a deeper purpose. He wanted to understand the dogs – their structure, how they moved, and how their minds worked.
Before the advent of four-day clusters and the widespread use of air travel as a means of moving from dog show to dog show, a quiet, even shy, manwas setting records in the Midwest. “We used to call him ‘Three-State Cooper,’ for Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin,” former assistantKen Murray recalls. “He didn’t have to chase Best in Show wins – they came to him.”
Elliott Weiss remembers when he first met Julia Gasow. It was 1967, and he was handler Ted Young, Jr.’s apprentice. Gasow, known as “Julie” to her friends, had been breeding her Salilyn English Springer Spaniels for three decades
