“Author Archive”
Stories written by AnthonyA
Who would have imagined that dog shows would be affected by a fifteen-year slow, steady, consecutive decline in show entries? Now, after many attempts to stop this decline, exhibitors and handlers are wondering if they need some good luck to end the problem of entries of zero or only one dog in a breed. Many factors have been attributed to the entry problems and three stand out. The first is the slow and steady growth of Low Entry (LE) breeds which now have become 50% of the stud book. Another, is a steady increase in the number of clubs suffering from the greying effect. A third is the increased effort by the Animal Rights groups (AR) to influence breed clubs, breeders and the sport.
November 23rd, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
My personal experience of the Irish Setter is limited to interactions I had with my Uncle’s dog when I was a child. This was in 1970s London and he then owned a lanky Irish Setter imaginatively named ‘Red’.
November 21st, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
In Virginia, Illinois and New Jersey, 3 regional Irish Terrier Clubs took advantage of the AKC’s new directive that they can hold up to 3 independent specialties a day within parent club guidelines and local restrictions. Masks and temperature checks, hand-sanitizer stations, and “maintain social distance signs” joined pop-up tents, grooming tables and tack boxes as standard equipment for the new era of showing.
November 19th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
So, here we are. Nine months into pandemic life and we are still groping in the dark for answers. Even scarier, we seem to be getting used to it. Now, on the other hand, dogs are true existentialists. They just ain’t dealing with that nonsense.
November 17th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
The 2020 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show ended on Tuesday February 11th. Handlers, trainers, owners, organizers returned to their homes and began to plan for the next leg of the new season and circuit. But Westminster turned out to be the last significant moment of what constitutes “normality” for the fancy.
November 15th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
Non-Sporting may qualify as the strangest manifestation of purebred culture. And I’m never one to dis this quirky, marvelous sport. But here’s the thing. The various subdivisions that dog shows have spawned over the decades are fairly straightforward, defined primarily by function. Because lest we ever lose sight of the bottom line (although mass media does their damnedest to corrode that ideal), every breed has a function.
November 14th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
I had a good conversation recently with a great, highly-respected judge about learning new breeds. He started in the sport many, many years ago with a breed in which movement was king. His thought was that because of his initial background, he wondered if he sometimes put too much emphasis on movement over type in his newer breeds. Accordingly, he was working on learning about the subtleties and details of breed type in those breeds. That simple insight alone tells you exactly why he is a highly-respected judge. He has the passion to learn and continually improve no matter how long he’s been in the sport. As important, he was keenly aware of his beginnings and how that perspective consciously or subconsciously could affect his outlook over a half-century later.
November 13th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
Westminster, that cornerstone of staid traditionalism, has truly busted out of character in recent years. Remember when even the mildest inquiry about maybe… someday moving the show out of Midtown or possibly to a more amenable season received a swift and unpleasant response? Those heretical ideas got slapped down pronto. But lately, it’s hard to keep pace with the mind bending changes going on with everything from format to location.
November 11th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
Are dog shows fair? Is judging fair? Do dogs that win do so because they’re the best ones in the ring? Ask two populations of people in the dog show world and you’ll get two very different answers.
November 10th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
I know that many of my American friends are following the great Brexit debacle with interest; a disgraceful episode still rumbling on over here three years after the result of the vote was announced, and many of you are scratching your heads in sheer disbelief at what is happening. So many have asked me, ‘What on earth has happened to your country?’
I cannot give a sensible reply; like a lot of my countrymen (well, those who live outside of London) I am equally baffled and ashamed by the pantomime unfolding all around me.
November 8th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Featured | Read More »
