What is it about that last qualifying score or those last few points that makes them so difficult to acquire? During the years I judged hunt tests, time after time I saw dogs going for their final qualifying score manage to turn the go into a situation that folks in the U.S. military describe as FUBAR. (Since this is a family publication, if you don’t know for what that acronym stands, you’ll have to look it up on a military slang website.)
Most of us consider PETA and HSUS the enemy, although I understand there exists a difference of opinion regarding the latter. Following introduction in Washington of the Puppy Uniform Protection Statute (PUPS Act), HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle stated, “Yesterday’s (May 25, 2010) report and legislative introduction should serve as a warning to all those who protect this dubious industry – from “kennel clubs” to pet stores to lobbying front groups who claim to care about purebred dog breeding, but in fact only care about how much money they can make peddling loads of puppies. Your days of abusing dogs for profit while snubbing the laws of this country and many states are coming to an end.” No matter how you choose to slice Pacelle’s statement, connected as we are to a “kennel club,” we, as purebred dog fanciers, are part of the animal rights group’s long-range plan to at least seriously curb our passion if not cause its total demise.
As could well have been expected (and was), a number of communications, mainly by e-mail, have been received in response to the article published in last month’s issue of The Canine Chronicle concerning the Grand Championship program and how it has been variously received by the Fancy and by judges in particular.
The original Morris & Essex Kennel Club Dog Show was the realization of one extraordinary woman’s vision. Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge set a standard for shows in the first half of the twentieth century. She had the influence and resources to craft a show to her own specifications. However, when Mrs. Dodge could no longer orchestrate the show, Morris & Essex ended. Only memories remained and a treasure trove of catalogs, pictures and memorabilia were forgotten in an attic at St. Hubert’s Giralda, the shelter established on Mrs. Dodge’s Madison, New Jersey estate after her death.
Each year the Canadian Dog Judges Assoc. and the Canadian Kennel Club co-hosts the Advanced Judges Conference. Held at the beginning of November, the conference moves around the country. Last year it was held in the country’s capital, Ottawa.
Showing dogs today is rarely glamorous. Aside from the moments in the ring and a chance to catch up with friends, there’s a lot of back-breaking work and too little time. Too often, exhibitors leave a show with no idea of what happened in the groups, much less which dog went Best In Show. It’s understandable – most dog fanciers have jobs, families and responsibilities waiting for them at home. And most have never experienced the grandeur and scope of the great dog shows of the past.
Anyway you spell “ridiculous” it conveys the same message. That had been the response that many breeders, handlers, judges, and local kennel club members have expressed concerning the recently imposed Judges Maintenance/Breed Fee.
Some business! But is it a business? Or a profession? Or is it a hobby? For many of us it is the latter although there are those who, by virtue of money earned and time spent, may consider it a business. Certainly it is business for AKC while the professional handler could easily call it a profession. Hobby breeders that consider their activity a business are generally hard pressed, however, to eak out a living, rarely making it out of the red. Then we have our judges, of which I am one. Exactly how are we defined?
There are a fair number of hazards in the field. Some are risks only in certain areas of the country while others are pretty much out there wherever you go. Most of these are “biohazards” but some, like barbed wire, are man-made and it is a “given” that if there’s anything in an area where a dog can get into trouble, they will manage to find it.
I last came to Crufts (or DFS Crufts, to give its major corporate sponsor, the furniture retailer DFS, its due) 30 years ago, when it was still a (relatively) modest show at Olympia, though already showing signs that it would outgrow that home soon.
