A Great Idea! But Would My Show Survive?

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124 – August, 2026

By Caroline Coile

If you haven’t read Wayne Cavanaugh’s proposal to revamp the statistics system that appeared in the last issue, and the promised follow-up in this issue, do so now. Wayne’s articles are always the first I read, and this Part 1 did not disappoint. It’s based on excellent research and innovative ideas–enough so that I called my friends and excitedly repeated his proposal. Sheer genius! Except…wait a minute. Would my club survive it? Now we’re getting personal…

In brief, his proposal is to count only the top 100 shows (in terms of entries), plus five more shows from low-population regions, in computing all-breed stats. Breed stats would still be computed using data from all shows, since breed entries don’t always follow all breed entries. The idea is that if you’re in the race for #1 all-breed, you need “only” attend 100 or so shows, rather than 200.

I think everyone would rather go to 100 shows. I remember “back in the day” top handlers would regularly take entire months off, even if they had the #1 or #2 dog. These days they wouldn’t have #1 or #2 positions for long, and quite likely, not even the dog after it is whisked away to a more industrious handler. Miss even a weekend or two and you risk being the hare in a tortoise-and-hare scenario. So those in the quest for #1 end up living on the road, and visiting home for a day at a time.

But how could they survive with half the income? With larger shows, they could likely charge higher fees, since they’ll probably be in the breed rings longer. And the clients’ bottom line would remain about the same.

Owner-handlers, most of who have real-world jobs, would be at far less a disadvantage as they wouldn’t have to take off so many days from work.

Dogs would get to run around and be dogs at home instead of living in crates and ex-pens.

Click here to read the complete article
124 – August, 2026

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Posted by AnthonyA on Aug 11 2026. 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.