I’ve been writing for many years now and, as a commentator, I quickly learned to grow a thick skin. You have to since not everyone showers you with platitudes; in fact, quite often the opposite happens and you and your ideas are ridiculed and attacked.
Dog shows are nothing like they used to be. How often do you hear that? I am being sarcastic. That question invariably leads in to a long list of exactly how things have changed for the worse. It’s fair to say that similar critiques are frequently applied to just about everything in life–mainly because we conveniently forget about the really crummy stuff. Still, the subject really comes up a lot in reference to dog shows.
At a typical 10AM meeting one morning in August of 2006, I began to reconsider the way I look at our sport as a truly international affair. It’s not only the differences in the culture of dog shows around the globe that struck me. It’s the differences in the phenotype and genotype of the breeds that we think of as ours. And it’s the differences in the opinions of judges that comes with that international diversity.
Will Alexander Drops Some Knowledge About What’s Happening in the Sport of Dogs. It’s Deep… It’s Humorous… It’s Provocative… It’s Will Unfiltered! Will Alexander has an in-depth conversation with Michelle Yeadon. Click here to watch on Canine Chronicle TV!
“Why are people so nasty,” my friend said. This was how she opened the conversation, so I was taken off guard for a moment. I replied with, “What people?” She said, “Dog people!” I asked, “Which dog people are you talking about?” She countered with, “ALL?dog people.”
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Will Alexander Drops Some Knowledge About What’s Happening in the Sport of Dogs. It’s Deep… It’s Humorous… It’s Provocative… It’s Will Unfiltered! Will Alexander has an in-depth conversation with Cindy Vogels. Click here to watch on Canine Chronicle TV!
Setting off down the trail in the first glimmers of daylight, I watch Prima, my German Shepherd Dog, prancing ahead of me, full of energy and vigor. She runs along, searching for exciting smells or the odd cow pie to munch. Her companion, Skittles the Border Terrier, runs beside her, occasionally rolling on the ground. This scene in and of itself may not seem unique unless you consider that they are both ten years old and have hiked nearly 2,400 miles over the last five months to get here.
The Rhodesian Ridgeback is a product of crosses of breeds that Europeans brought to southern Africa with native dogs available. The crosses introduc-ed or produced the ridge which is a hallmark of the breed–a length of hair growing in the reverse direction on the back. It is the only fully AKC-recognized breed with this feature.
This sport has always maintained a schizophrenic relationship with glitzy promotion. On one side, we want to focus strictly on the agenda of our dedication to breed improvement
