Looking Around With Lee – The Downside of Social Media

By Lee Canalizo

This month I deviate from my usual State of the Breed column. It has come to my attention that we have a situation in our sport that, contrary to popular belief, is extremely detrimental to our well-being! (at least in my humble opinion)

Facebook and other forms of social media are in some ways damaging our sport! The people that are connected to our dog show world through social media are in many cases so misinformed. I, unfortunately, have the time of late to spend reading much of what is spewed about the state of our sport, and all of its participants! AND, MUCH OF IT IS HORRIFYING! Between the lack of knowledge, incorrect information, mean spiritedness, and just plain viciousness, the gossip monster is taking over the dog show world! And, frankly, this monster is stupid.

Not only do new participants not prepare with knowledge and practice to enter the ring with their charges, they rely on those with a minimum of background in the sport to provide inaccurate information on judges they may be interested in entering under. It is literally the ignorant lead- ing the more ignorant. No longer do most people do any homework or investigation about the judges that will have their animal’s future in their hands! With a minimum of preparation, one can easily unearth the mysteries of what judges have accomplished in their years of experience before becoming a judge. This would inform these inquisitive new people with much necessary information as to what a particular judge prefers and/or holds most important with regard to the breed standard. It’s not rocket science! It just requires a little bit of groundwork.

So, of course, the ‘new experts’, i.e. those who did not win under the mentioned judge on their most recent social media ‘post’ regard him/her, as an idiot, crook or worse! When you read about people asking what the judges who are icons of the dog show world and true legends of the sport “Like”, you can be sure the questioner has no clue. They should know who these judges are and what they accomplished in their illustrious careers in the dog show world! This should be the first thing you learn as an exhibitor. You should know who was most successful in the sport and do your best to figure out why they succeeded. Not knowing these judges who were famous exhibitors, handlers or breeders in the sport is like a football player not knowing Brett Favre played the game.

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=139171

Posted by Alex on Feb 26 2018. 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.