Good Dog (People) – Part two
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By Sarah Montague
PART 2: Stand up and Be Counted
Sioux Forsyth-Green Starts a Judges Pool
Green is a former handler and current AKC judge based in Pinehurst, North Carolina, which her mother called “God’s country,” and she describes as “a little bit of New England nestled into the sand hills.” Like many I’ve spoken with, dogs are bred in the bone—she’s the daughter of two judges, started with Pointers and Boxers as a junior, but says she pretty much likes all breeds, whether she’s handling or judging. The current canine household is certainly a mixed bag—a German Shepherd, a whippet, and a toy Manchester Terrier.
When I spoke to her, she was on her way to judge a show in Lima, Ohio, a sign of the slow improvement around the country.
Green realized early on in the pandemic that if shows were going to operate—depending on the mandates of individual states—they were going to need judges. “And the big question for everyone was ‘what judges are ready to judge?’ Because many of our judges are elderly and very up there in age. And of course, those are the people that are most strongly hit by this virus.”
The burden of reaching out to this large pool and trying to identify those willing to travel would have been really taxing to already overburdened show superintendents. “And it really is all volunteer. I mean, your show committees, nobody gets paid to do that. And it’s not easy work,” Sioux says. Especially with shows having to come together with much shorter time windows as states shifted their COVID-19 protocols.
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Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=195111
Posted by AnthonyA
on Dec 31 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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