The Art of Handling – with George Alston

By William Given with Mr. George Alston, photos by Lisa Croft-Elliott

There have been numerous articles written on the handling of show dogs, and a good many books as well. Some of them are very good and others much less so. Still, I am hopeful that you will glean something from what follows that will prove fruitful in and out of the ring.

Owner-Handlers vs. Professionals

The sport of purebred dogs is one of the very few where amateurs compete directly with professionals. There are those who have long felt that this condition was and remains unfair, and have, for years, made their feelings known, so, in re- sponse, the American Kennel Club gave us the National Owner-Handler Series. How- ever, I have known many owner-handlers who could compete on equal terms with the most capable and accom- plished of professional handlers.

Whenever I speak on this, I am taken back to a situation I ob- served more than thirty years ago when I was younger and much more impres- sionable. At the time, there was a lady, an amateur who had built an enviable reputation as an owner-handler of Afghan Hounds. At this particular show, she won the Hound Group with a gor- geous black masked, cream colored dog. A professional handler had taken the Terrier Group with a Scottie. The judge (who, I was told, had a particular affinity for pretty women) had gone over the seven finalists and seemed to have narrowed his decision to the Scottish Terrier and the Afghan Hound. Appropriately, the judge called the two handlers to the center of the ring. The ama- teur never made a wrong move, her dog was in excellent condi- tion and immaculately groomed, two of the more important aspects of good handling.

Both handlers presented their dogs superbly, and as the moment of anticipation for the Best In Show nod approached, she confi- dently glanced at the judge with a warm, genuine smile. Now, guess who won? I could, of course, recount many similar in- stances of extreme competency displayed by amateurs and not just amongst the “fairer” sex. I know many owner-handlers of both genders who can cause the most successful professional han- dler to wish he or she was competing with someone else.

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Posted by Alex on Jul 18 2017. 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.