Invisible Handlers Are The Best Handlers

by Ric Chashoudian

From the archives of The Canine Chronicle, One Man’s Opinion, June, 1992

            In one of my last articles I talked about professionalism. I want to carry on with this theme because it covers a lot of ground. I have been a professional dog handler ever since the age of 16. That was when I first charged to show a dog. The old American Kennel Club rule, when handlers had to have a license, was that unless you were 21 years or older you could not have a handler’s license. Unless you had a handler’s license you could not charge to show a dog. There was an older guy by the name of Johnny Hicky who turned me in for charging; why, I don’t know because he didn’t show the same kind of dogs that I did. You can see that my problems with the Kennel Club go way back. This was in 1947, when I was 16.

“I firmly believe that the best dog handler is the one that is not seen. I will repeat THE HANDLER THAT IS NOT SEEN!”

            I don’t remember when we got our first AKC rep out in California, but it was Major Godsol who was our first one. Now Major Godsol was a wonderful man. He was married to Bea Godsol who I always thought was the best woman judge that I had seen up to that time. Bea was so good, and had such natural ability that there was no way that Major could judge on her same level. Major was not a natural, but worked hard at it and towards the end of his career got good, but Bea was a giant amongst judges of either sex.

            To get back to professionalism, when Major came on the scene, we had to clean up our act in California. They made us wear ties and sport coats, when we never had to before. I have many old Ludwig pictures showing dogs in my shirt sleeves in those early days.

“I come up to dogs in this group and find hands firmly clutching the throats of these dogs so hard it pulls their haws down, not realizing that down haws in a gun dog is even worse than a little throatiness.”

 

            Down came the whiskey bottles on top of the crates. The areas started to get cleaned up, the language improved, the judging was a littler sharper and less flagrant favors were getting done. We all bitched a lot about the inconvenience of all this, but I think most of us realized that a new age was starting, and we had to clean up our act. While all this was getting done, Major hardly ever opened his mouth, but just looked at you with that slightly boyish grin of his and you knew that he wasn’t pleased with something you were doing. We all tried harder because we had tremendous respect for him. Our leading handlers in those days were Harry Sangster, Ben Brown, Porter Washington, Jim McManus, Nickey Finn, Roland Muller and a few more. They all decided that we would cooperate in every way with Major Godsol. Now, that was respect. There is no substitute for respect, and he had it.

            There have been a myriad of books written by some of our best professionals. Some of my peers have asked why I don’t write a book. I will tell you why. I do not consider myself a professionals’ professional. I think I am probably more on the order of Pop and Henry Sayers, Dougie McLane, Ben Brown, and many, many more of that ilk. Many of the old Terrier guys were determined and stubborn old guys that wanted to be left alone to do their own thing. They would bring their charges to the show, proclaim that they had the best whatever in their string, and if you don’t believe it come and take a look. If the judge did not believe it, he got it quick and nasty and that was the end of it. A handler today would be turned in telling some of the judges the way these old guys did, but it did add some color to the shows at that time. I’ve been caught a few times, so I know what I am talking about. You still see it, right on T.V. when a baseball player lets go on an umpire, but nowadays they boot ‘em out of there quicker than they used to.

            Now we can talk about professionalism when it comes to the actual showing of the dogs. I want to give my views, for whatever they are worth.

            I firmly believe that the best dog handler is the one that is not seen. I will repeat. THE HANDLER THAT IS NOT SEEN! I will give you some examples. We all know that Mrs. Anne Clark is not a small lady. She is tall, stands straight and makes herself as tall as she can be. Now there are probably not a great percentage of our people showing today who ever saw Mrs. Clark show dogs. I watched her win BIS at the Westminster KC dog show with a black Miniature Poodle in 1959. I will tell you from one that was there that this was one of the greatest handling jobs I have ever seen, and you did not see Mrs. Clark. Your eyes were riveted on her dog and you did not even notice who was handling. To me, this is what dog handling is about. I worked for a man called Ben Brown. Ben was about 6 feet 3 or 4 inches tall. He drank and ate a lot and probably weighed around 280 pounds. Now, I will tell you that when I was a kid and worked for him, you did not see him. Towards the end of his life,  Ben’s asthma finally got to him and he slowed down quite a bit, but he could still show a Boxer or Dane and you really did not notice him. I will tell you another handler that has this talent–that is Tommy Glassford. If you ask some of our better handlers and judges of today who the best pure dog handler is, they will talk about Tommy Glassford. Now Tommy is no ballet dancer, especially in the hot weather. What I am telling you younger people is the less you are seen, the more the attention goes to your dog. If you don’t believe me, ask some of the better judges and dog people and they will probably tell you the same.

“Down came the whiskey bottles on top of the crates. The areas started to get cleaned up, the language improved, the judging was a little sharper and less flagrant favors were getting done.”

            Now I am a firm believer that some of our young people of today are on the wrong track. I judge junior handling about three or four times a year, and I know there is a new book out on how to judge junior handling which–I think–is a joke. Not so much the book itself but the idea that you would even need a book on how to judge junior handling. If you do not judge these juniors like the book says, which I doubt I do, it gives these kids and their parents an opening to run to the reps or someone else to say that you do not judge as to the format of the book. This is more judging by the numbers and ‘robot judging’ that the American Kennel Club seems to want, which is so dead wrong as far as I am concerned. I got a two on my report card judging juniors, which I kind of get a chuckle out of, but that was the score.

            I will tell you what I look for in a junior showman and that is the kid that shows me his or her dog and I don’t notice them. The kid with the most rhythm and togetherness with his dog; the kid that watches his dog and does not stare at me like he or she was saying their Sunday school prayers. I have my own way of judging juniors, and I have judged the finals at Crufts in England, so somebody must think I do okay with them.

            Let’s get off the juniors judging and talk about the older exhibitors. I judge Terriers, Sporting and most Working dogs at the present time. I personally have found the most offensive handling is in Sporting dogs. When I think of the great sporting handlers I have seen, they have shown Sporting dogs with one finger of their right hand, usually the one that is seen as an offensive gesture. Then with two fingers of the left hand on the tail. Where has this beautiful presentation of these gun dogs gone? I come up to dogs in this group and find hands firmly clutching the throats of these dogs so hard it pulls their haws down, not realizing that down haws in a gun dog is even worse than a little throatiness. Then, in some of the smaller Spaniels, they pull the ears over the head like he was some headless monster in what seems to be an attempt to hide some of these muzzleless Spaniels that we are seeing nowadays.

            Now, in the Terrier group, we have the tail holders that hold on for dear life. I like to bring Terriers out to look at each other because no handler can make them look better than they do on their own, when sparring, and some of these breeds will look at one another and then look up at their handler with their tail clamped as if to say, “where is my tidbit, my ears are up?” I could name off the breeds of the biggest offenders, but I might cut my own throat because I wouldn’t be asked back to judge these breeds, and judging is my partial income. Then, in Working dogs, we get the screwing the dog’s leg into the ground type, the cropped ear holders who muddle things up a bit, and the knee and foot people who have found it helps to get those in action. These are all some of the things that handlers do to try to fool judges. Now maybe these things do fool dog judges that are not up to the job and are over their head judging these breeds, but it does not fool the true dog men and women. I believe the very knowledgeable judges find this offensive.

One of the truly beautiful jobs of handling that I ever saw done in the Sporting Group at Westminster was with our own Jane Forsyth and Anne Clark showing a brace of English Setters, I believe. You never saw either one of the handlers. This was one of the memorable sights I have seen at the Garden. Another was a team of Canyon Crest Great Danes shown by a little man by the name of Russel Zimmerman; another was a team of Maltese who always swept up in braces and teams at the Garden.

            My last observation is about the handlers who stare at you. Dogs don’t like to be stared at and I don’t think dog judges do either. Some of these people even stare at you when they are moving their dog. I wonder how they keep their balance! None of the great handlers I ever knew stared at judges. They were focused on their dog.

            Trust me, handlers should not be seen. It’s all about the dog at the end of the lead.

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