What Did You Say? – Dog Show as a Second Language – DSSL
Click here to read the complete article
By Wayne Cavanaugh
My childhood friend, Robert, always had a wild imagination. As a youngster, he dreamed of having a Pointer, but his family wouldn’t allow it. So he made one up. An imaginary dog named Shadow. Everyone in the village knew Robert and his imaginary Shadow.
Robert grew up to use his wild imagination in the creative arts. Last night, four decades after Shadow, he phoned to tell me he’d made up another Pointer. Not an easy feat where he lived. He drove a tired old shooting brake, so it wasn’t easy getting three tickets. Driving on the other side of the road didn’t even get Bobbies’ attention. But he persevered. After many years of trying, he finally collected his third ticket and made up his Pointer.
Some of you already figured out that Robert is from England. When a dog has been “made up” there he is deemed a champion. Sounds a lot nicer than here where after a dog earns 15 points and two majors they are “finished.” What did the poor dog do to be considered finished? It sounds a bit like “washed up” which in some cases may be fairly accurate. Anyway, to be made up in the UK a dog must win three tickets, or Challenge Certificates (CCs), under three different judges, while shooting brakes and estate cars are still station wagons. At least we can all agree what boots, bonnets, and jumpers are, right? (car trunks, car hoods, and sweaters). Just one more reason why England and America are two nations divided by the same language.
Of course, geography isn’t the only thing that creates unique vocabularies – sports do, too. All sports have their own secret language. Ours, in particular, is one big old bowl of alphabet soup that smells like a wet Otterhound but is not quite as pretty. How important is a sport’s special language? Well, you can buy a dog, and a minivan full of gas, but you aren’t going anywhere until you learn the dog show lingo. What follows may, or may not, help. Welcome to DSSL: Dog Show as a Second Language.
Click here to read the complete article
Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=195061
Posted by AnthonyA
on Jan 8 2021. 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.
Comments are closed
