From The CC Vault: Awards and Rewards

by Peter Baynes

Originally published December 2011

When I started writing for this magazine, I introduced myself as being the awardless Peter Baynes. I am still in the same position six years later, and with no future expectations, I have given up on the prospect of ever receiving any kind of decoration. Several of our own dogs have, however, had championships awarded to them in the distant past, but even they have seen their glory reduced by the introduction of a “Grand Champions Award.” Unless they introduce posthumous awards, it will remain the same into the distant future.

In my humble opinion the Grand Champions title has diminished the title of Champion. Maybe I have a sour impression of the situation because of my age – I celebrated a birthday milestone recently – I think I’m too old to invest a small fortune in  campaigning another dog, just to grab some of those new medals, and to be selfish it would go to the dog and not to me.

In contrast, rewards are more personal, they are less formal and a mere “thank you” or “congratulations” can mean a lot of encouragement to some individuals. Personally, despite my lack of awards in my career, I have received numerous sincere rewards, of which I count my blessings. Most of the encouragement has come from many individuals and organizations, in the doggy community, of which I can relate here:

Our first big surprise was from the Northern Boxer (one of the largest Specialty Clubs in England) where, as the youngest (obnoxious know-it-all) member, I had served on the committee for several years. I thought the only reason why I was asked to serve was because they thought I was wealthy — I owned a ballroom where they held a couple of shows. When I told them that I was getting married and leaving the area, I thought they would be pleased to see me go. However, Helga and I were surprised to see that many of the members attended our wedding, and the club gave us a wonderful gift of a cut-class lamp. Although our doggy trophies are hidden somewhere else, the lamp still takes pride of place in our home. But best of all, it was accompanied by a note thanking us for all the wonderful work we had done for the club.

Award ceremonies on television are sometimes referred to as snoozefests unless of course the presenter has a sense of humor. Similarly doggy awards events can sometimes fall into the same category, especially when they keep adding categories to try and please everyone. We used to enjoy being invited to the Quaker Oats Awards, which we attended every year until I stopped writing for a British magazine and the invites stopped coming. Since then we have attended only a few of the new awards ceremonies, maybe because we still don’t get invited.

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