In these dark and quite frightening times, what we need to hear, more than ever before, are stories of resilience, perseverance and eventual triumph. It is of no surprise that the popular fairy tales, which we were all brought up on, were often also written in times of great fear, challenge and hardship.
It’s been a long time since Louisville was abruptly shut down, mid-cluster. It’s been a long time since those who rely on dog shows for their income have been able to do their work, and it’s been a long time since those who just love dog shows, dog sports, dog people and dog events have had a dog show fix. With the list of cancelled events stretching into September, some people despair that they’ll never see a dog show again.
Antiquity has nothing to do with Stone Age Neanderthals in early Europe. The history and culture of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome – ca. 3000 BC to the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 – is generally identified as antiquity, a remarkable period that left us abundant information about hunters and hunting.
It’s an old adage, and, unlike some of the old adages, this one actually is true: It takes birds to make a gun dog. Certainly, you can train virtually any sporting dog without using birds, at least to a functional level. But, it’s not efficient and it’s not easy.
Dog shows are being cancelled because of a novel form of coronavirus. This isn’t a news flash – you’ve probably experienced the frustrations of no TP at the store, being told to cook at home instead of go out to eat, and cancelled dog shows.
Nat Geo WILD, the network that brought “Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet” to Westminster last year was back again for 2020. This year, the lines at their booth were even longer as “The Incredible Dr. Jan Pol” and his wife, Diane Pol, greeted fans with hugs, signed pictures, and posed for selfies.
The breed standard for the Flat-Coated Retriever includes one of my favorite phrases describing a breed – “power without lumber and raciness without weediness.” The standard also lists the “distinctive and most important features” of the breed in the General Appearance section – silhouette (moving and standing), smooth effortless movement, head type, coat, and character. They reflect the five items of breed type in Richard Beauchamp’s book, by the way. It is helpful when breed standards provide us with explicit priorities. I looked for the survey that this article is based on to corroborate and elaborate their priorities.
Facebook has become the best friend and the biggest enemy of our social media lives in Dogdom. What can be a positive interaction can just as easily become a destruction derby. Here are viewpoints from three judges on this very challenging area of our daily interactions. Maybe these responses will encourage the way you use Facebook to do good, or to temper your words before they do harm? ~ Elaine Lessig, Moderator
Icancelled our show. The show we had been planning for a year, the show that broke all our entry records for the past decade. It wasn’t an easy decision. I have a reputation to uphold as the last person to prepare for a hurricane/metro impact/zombie apocalypse…I have handlers contacting me to make sure the show is still on, reminding me their livelihoods depend on my decision; I have all those memes on Facebook telling me “it’s no worse than the flu…”
Finally, after several weekends in a row of family events and dog show commitments, my husband, Marvin, and I were both at home at the same time. For us, yes indeed, this is a very special event. What better way to celebrate than to have Chinese take-out? There was just one issue to be resolved, where to order the food.
