The Non-Sporting Group – The Melting Pot of the Sport of Purebred Dogs
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By Amy Fernandez
Non-Sporting may qualify as the strangest manifestation of purebred culture. And I’m never one to dis this quirky, marvelous sport. But here’s the thing. The various subdivisions that dog shows have spawned over the decades are fairly straightforward, defined primarily by function. Because lest we ever lose sight of the bottom line (although mass media does their damnedest to corrode that ideal), every breed has a function.
That was the baseline premise underlying the group format, which was initially limited to Gundogs. Gradually, the divisions were refined into upland game, water retrieving, etc. and for quite awhile everything else was simply NOT a Sporting breed. As competitive conformation gained traction, that broad definition became far too unwieldy to have any valid meaning. Really, what kind of hallucinogenic filing system puts Mastiffs and Chihuahuas under the same heading?
The problem was that most recognized breeds had been parked there long since the meter ran out. So, the big housecleaning came in 1924 when our current process of elimination became the gridwork of AKC judging. Every recognized breed was assigned somewhere and, yes, I realize that the logic guiding some of these decisions is questionable. But my point is that ninety percent of the Non-Sporting file drawer was shifted to more rational categories. Oddly, AKC resisted the next obvious step. And at the time plenty of people advocated moving everything and dropping Non-Sporting altogether.
Nonetheless, AKC remained strangely attached to this nebulous heading, which is one more example of their delightfully mysterious perception of things. (I suspect it’s also the reason why so many of us find such a perfect home in this sport) There are always a few square pegs. Anyway, I thought I would look at the rocky road that some breeds have traveled in and out of Non-Sporting over the years. Quite honestly, there are so many great examples, but I’m going with the Boxer, the Lhasa and the Xolo.
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Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=193000
Posted by AnthonyA
on Nov 14 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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