Those who judge know that faults and virtues vary in their degree of severity and in the frequency of their occurrence from dog to dog and from breed to breed. Because virtues and faults occur in all breeds the challenge is to recognize the average dog from the better and the best ones.
Dennis McCoy gives his thoughts on the recent email sent to AKC from judging operations…
Tom Pincus, Cluster Chair of the Houston World Series of Dog Shows chats with Deb Cooper about what exhibitors can expect at the Houston shows this year.
Deb Cooper chats with Sergio Brown from The Crew about how The Crew began and ways to reach out to the community to get help with putting on dog shows.
David Johnson, Cluster Chair of the Kentuckiana Cluster chats with Deb Cooper about the upcoming Kentuckiana Cluster in Louisville, Kentucky.
Judging dogs is a complicated process with many factors in play. Politics, biases and preferences are common human traits. A judge may be extremely knowledgeable but may have some unwitting or unconscious biases running around in their head. Some may be knowledgeable but not confident enough to stay on track – for example, when one handler has the best dog, bitch, and special in two back-to-back breeds.
Sometimes, I interrupt rants to ask people point blank: If you hate dog shows so much, why do you do it? They backpedal and say they don’t really hate it, then the conversation pivots toward the good things that have kept them there.
Britain was the nucleus of the modern dog world, but most of the breeds that propelled its success had strictly working class roots. Moreover, a very small group was primarily responsible for their advancement.
Two thoughts were expressed over and over again by the Brittany experts. First, Brittanys cannot be evaluated unless you see them move. So understand that with the priorities listed below and especially with the placement of the outlines, the experts would reserve final judgment until they could see the dogs move.
