Mating mistakes may just have a valid place in the canine universe. We have all heard those unicorn tales about the accidental breeding that produced the showstopper, and yeah, mainly they are on par with flying horses. But a recent bit of revelatory DNA investigation seems to lend a bit of legitimacy to that beloved myth.
Officially, the red wolf has been considered extinct in the wild since 1980.
It all began with a 10 year-old boy practicing handling techniques in his family’s yard after school. Most junior handlers probably would have focused on their own skills – taking even strides, mastering the smooth transfer of the lead from hand to hand. For Charles “Corky” Vroom, the practice sessions had a deeper purpose. He wanted to understand the dogs – their structure, how they moved, and how their minds worked.
- Grants Matched Through Adopt A K-9 Cop Program -
Stats, statistics, or rankings–whatever you want to call them–tend to create excitement and anxiety for those in our sport. Exhibitors, owners, breeders and handlers attempt to calculate points every month. They keep spread sheets, notes, and check for updates to their dog’s record. In the end, they wait at the computer around the middle of each month waiting for the new stats to post.
As a wise man from north of the border once said: “judging is not a matter of sharing our opinions, it’s a matter of sharing our knowledge.” When those of us who have been in the sport all or most of our lives take on the responsibility to judge, we don’t take it lightly. There is an expectation that judges have decades of knowledge stored in their mind and reflected in their eyes. They should have serious experience and the willingness to continually learn. Their knowledge should be earned, processed, and ready to impart. I believe that to a reasonable human extent, all of that is true. Moreover, it is a wonderful goal. How we are allowed to share that knowledge and learn more is, in my opinion, a growing concern.
Some judges are notorious for their prickly ring demeanor. Yes, judging is a demanding task, but it also requires a modicum of empathy for the exhibitors paying for that expert opinion. Unfortunately, more than a few novice exhibitors leave the ring, the sport, and the entire world of purebred dogs thanks to one mortifying experience in that realm. That brings me to Jerry Weiss. A casual glance at Col. Jerry H. Weiss, U.S.M.C. presiding over his ring would instantly brace anyone for the worst. He ran his ring with military precision, which was true to character. But that’s where any semblance of intimidating formality ended. Jerry greeted every exhibitor like a friend and every dog received his patient attention. Win or lose, showing to Jerry was a positive experience.
Before the advent of four-day clusters and the widespread use of air travel as a means of moving from dog show to dog show, a quiet, even shy, manwas setting records in the Midwest. “We used to call him ‘Three-State Cooper,’ for Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin,” former assistantKen Murray recalls. “He didn’t have to chase Best in Show wins – they came to him.”
The recently resurrected International Kennel Club of Chicago has set the dates for its “revival” show: August 26-27, 2023. The show will return to its roots at Chicago’s expansive McCormick Place Convention Center, where it previously set records as the nation’s largest dog show.
Have you ever sat outside a ring and watched an unfamiliar breed? Have you looked at the outline or the coat and wondered what is correct for the breed?
Misinformation breeds misfortune. That’s especially true when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, in which misinformation has led to both human and, indirectly, canine deaths. These deaths have occurred mostly in China because of unjustified fears that dogs can transmit COVID-19 to people.
