Knock. Three. Times. On the ceiling if you want me. That notable lyric from Tony Orlando and Dawn were no truer words spoken in my dog show world. When purchasing a puppy from an AKC breeder, one must register the dog. Breeders usually have a theme to follow for the litter registration. The breeders also identify the litter as a limited or full registration.
The liver is a complex organ necessary for survival. Providing over 500 vital functions, which can best be envisioned as a series of organic filters. Blood leaving the stomach and intestines passes through the liver where toxins are removed, glucose is converted to glycogen for storage, and amino acids are regulated. The liver also stores iron and other minerals, removes bacteria from the bloodstream, makes immune factors and converts ammonia to urea.
Driving home the other evening, our car headlights illuminated a man walking a most glamourous looking dog. Marc slowed down and I gazed out of the window. It was a Rough Collie but, for Britain, one of a most unusual color.
The dog was pure white with tricolor markings on its head. It was quite stunning.
Each week, more and more judges are taking a leap of faith, returning to the ring for the first time since early 2020. How do they feel about taking that step after a longer than anticipated time away from judging? Is there anxiety, like going to an overdue visit to the dentist? Will it be just a walk in the park? Every judge, surely, has an individualized concept of how that day will be. Read the opinions which this month’s respondents share. They are as diverse as they are thoughtful. You may or may not be surprised by them. What you will appreciate is the honesty and sincerity of each of these judges.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
