We received the very sad news that Patricia Lorenz of Sellersville, Pennsylvania passed away on December 29. Pat, as her friends called her, was a longtime fancier and breeder of Toy Poodles. Pat was proudest of her big family and loved spending time with them. She was happiest at home surrounded by her family, dogs, […]
“The Great American Dog Show” returns to Chicago, this weekend, Jan. 6-8 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center. Watch as Dr Jerry Klein and Scott Pfeil visit with Chicago’s Fox 32 to promote purebred dogs and dog events! https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1161528
More than a millennium before Karen Pryor popularized clicker training, dog people understood the magnificent simplicity of this concept. It only takes one or two positive experiences for dogs to forge that neural pathway between a sound and a reward. You might say that the hunting horn was the big clunky prototype for this training methodology. Luckily, our sport had Freeman Lloyd to document the origin and evolution of this iconic symbol for the AKC Gazette in 1943. He wrote, “In actual hunting, only one man is entrusted with it, and he is the official huntsman. For carrying the horn signifies absolute power like the sceptre of a monarch or the baton of the conductor of an orchestra.”
By Peri Norman Originally published: February 2020 Making New Year’s resolutions is traditional for many. They can involve work, family life, finances and personal health. If you are one of those overachievers who make resolutions for each area of your life, it is easy to become overwhelmed. So here is a fairly easy one related […]
Watch your breed until the end of judging. I know it’s hard sometimes; after all, who cares about that moron’s opinion now? But try to objectively find things the judge’s winners and losers have in common. If the judge truly only puts up faces, then that’s valuable information. Maybe one day you’ll need to hire a handler under them! But maybe they are actually judging dogs. It’s easy to be so mad about the day’s judging you can’t find anything good about the judge, but maybe, just maybe, their choices had something to so with the (gasp!) dogs! This means you have to be objective about your own dog as well as the competition. I showed a great moving dog with a poor head once. One day he lost to a poor mover with a good head. Once I got over my “They don’t run on their heads!” indignation, I brought that judge my dogs with great heads and never lost under him again! The same with a dog I showed that was more workmanlike. We lost a to a pretty little bitch under a judge who I immediately thought must be senile. But again, I stopped to think about it, and the next time he was on a panel I brought him a pretty little bitch and won the group! You may not have a dog to fit their preferences immediately, but stow that information away for future use. I could have stayed mad at both of these judges and crossed them off my list, but the loss would have been mine, not theirs!
The canine sport of Barn Hunt is still relatively new to the conformation dog show community, but has grown substantially in popularity the last decade. Barn Hunt is a timed event designed to test a dog’s ability to locate the quarry (a rat) and to signal the find to his handler. Just as with most AKC performance events there are multiple skill levels: Novice, Open, Senior and Master, with titles awarded in each. Each test level is made increasingly more difficult with the addition of tubes containing used bedding material and more rats. There is also a basic level, the Instinct test, that must first be passed.
147th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Monday and Tuesday, May 8-9, 2023 8th Annual Masters Obedience Championship Saturday, May 6, 2023 Premium List: https://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/2023-dog-show-info/westminster-kennel-club-dog-show-premium-list-2023
This is a love story, not a romantic one, but a love story nonetheless It speaks to a level of love which is pure, deep, and in so many ways incredibly beautiful. It is poignant and also painful. Yet, it is one I feel compelled to recount. I share it with you in the spirit of the love which I witnessed, and as a lesson in loving. I observed it firsthand while flying at 24,000 feet above earth during my return home from a recent judging assignment. I hope I never forget what I felt and what I learned.
By Amy Fernandez After decades of hit-and-miss efforts to extrapolate meaningful research data from fruit flies and lab rats, modern science finally realized that the best window into human health and longevity is sitting under everyone’s kitchen table. Our dogs participate in every facet of our daily lives. They breathe our air, drink our water, […]
