Every dog registry in the world has one thing in common: they enter, store, and retrieve data. In fact, they are IT and customer service companies at their core. Their biggest assets are the names of dogs, lots of names of dogs. Their inventory is words and numbers. Some of those words and numbers could be of great use to breeders while simultaneously creating revenue for AKC – if used far more creatively than it is today.
Many of the breed standards as well as other dog literature has inadvertently made the assumption that dogs are so alike that what is good or correct for one is necessarily so for another.
After many years of posing with my dogs de jour–a zillion times a day–I can probably consider myself somewhat of an expert on the photographer-exhibitor-judge connection at our AKC dog shows.
One thing I can say for this dog, he has good taste, wandering onto the grounds of the presidential palace where the guards immediately befriended him. That didn’t last long. He soon caught the attention of Brazil’s president, who is none too popular these days.
The good news is that we, as a fancy, are strong and determined and, as a result, we are back! Folks have put ‘Entry Wednesday’ back on their calendars.
The growing list of canceled shows is distressing to anyone who loves the sport of purebred dogs. Every day seems to bring a bit more bad news. However, we are not here to talk about cancellations specifically. We are here to celebrate the valiant efforts of those trying their damnedest to make sure the show goes on!
by Herman L. Felton, From the archives of The Canine Chronicle, March, 1994 Rumor is something that goes in one ear and comes out through the mouth. A gossip is one who makes up in suspicion what he or she lacks in knowledge: who is a fact mangler and misinterpreter; who likes to shake things […]
By Deborah Wood It’s the most famous story in the history of dog shows. It was Westminster in 1969. New York was in the grip of a horrific snowstorm. The streets had grown icy as the weather had gotten colder. Walter Goodman was stepping carefully through the ice and snow outside the brand new Madison […]
by Gareth Morgan-Jones, From the archives of The Canine Chronicle, March, 1999 Lift the barrier of quarantine, risk being inflicted by the scourge of rabies, but truly join the European and, ultimately, the world dog community or remain more or less isolated. Such, as mentioned in my previous article, is the choice and attendant dilemma […]
“A judge new to any breed is unable to recognize that the current winners may be of a far different type than those of another era. . . . Frequently today we hear exhibitors and judges say a certain dog is the greatest living example of that breed. Unfortunately, this dog may be very showy and sound but is not, in reality, the true type of this breed as were the winners of 20 or 30 years ago.
Many breeds today have lost their true type. . . We must realize that true type is the quintessence of any breed. A healthy farm dog trotting down a country lane has all the attributes that are found in most standards of most breeds – all it lacks is type!”
