Junior Showmanship – What Juniors Want…the Research Shows

by Dr. Carmen Battaglia

Children’s handling classes at dog events developed in a variety of ways depending on the country and the local circumstances. For most of the major show-giving bodies throughout the world, Junior Showmanship is an apprenticeship program in dog handling and a mechanism for preparing young people for careers in dog handling, breeding and training. In the US, dog handling classes for children did not begin until the late 1920s when dog showing at AKC events was considered a “wealthy-man’s sport” and the owners arrived at shows in chauffeur-driven limousines. At that time there were no children’s programs and it was not until owners’ children became bored and restless and began to cause problems at the show grounds did something have to be done. In an effort to keep the show environment orderly and not to offend the wealthy owners or their breeders, Mr. Brumby Sr. of the AKC introduced a special class of competition for children. Its purpose was to provide something of interest and amusement for the children and to keep them out of the way. By 1933, children’s handling classes had become popular at AKC shows and prizes were established in the names of the early promoters.

The early AKC children’s program at dog shows did not develop in an orderly way because there were no judges. Local celebrities, public officials and movie stars were asked to serve as judges. When the use of “celebrity judges” did not work, Foley and Brumby decided to use professional handlers, but this also created other problems. The handlers had their own entries to manage and when conflicts occurred they simply left the ring. By 1951, licensed judges were being used. In 1971, AKC changed the name of the event and recognized Junior Showmanship
as a dog show class1.

Today, children in the AKC Juniors program must be at least nine years old and under eighteen years old on the day of the show.

Introduction

The idea for a study to investigate the Junior Showmanship program of AKC began in 2012 at the delegate caucus in Newark, New Jersey. At that meeting I discussed the idea for a longitudinal study. I became the lead investigator and I designed the survey along with Dr. Cindy Otto of the University Of Pennsylvania Veterinary School. Two preliminary reports were published in the June and October issues of Perspectives (2014). Both papers are available at www.breedingbetterdogs.com under the tab “Articles”.

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Posted by Alex on Dec 13 2016. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.