AKC has reigned at the top tier of dog breeding excellence for over a century. I’m pretty sure nobody reading this will disagree. It therefore stands to reason that our dogs are build to last. They come with an ironclad warranty and we are rightfully proud of that. Also needless to point out, the level of skilled craftsmanship backing up that assurance doesn’t come easy.
The American Kennel Club offers 35 different kinds of competition through a network of more than 5,000 clubs, 130,000 breeders and 23,000 events. Some venues garner more attention, interest and support than others and, historically, the most popular of these competitions has been the conformation dog show which unfortunately is now is in its 15th year of declining entries. The declines occurring can be understood by a number of factors.
The other day, a friend of mine sent me a t-shirt that gets to the nub of my relationship with my dogs. It says, “The dog is in charge. I just pay the bills.” It’s true that the dogs, over the years, have created a very well-trained human. I buy their food and serve it to them on their schedule. I provide their recreation, frequently at their insistence when I’m most busy trying to meet a deadline or, during the months when the area where I live is ruled by King Boreas, in the most godawful cold imaginable. There is NO clothing that both allows you to throw bumpers and stay warm when the wind chill is at minus-57. If you live south of I-70 you’ll have to trust me on that because I have had a considerable amount of experience trying to do both and failing. At the slightest hint that all might not be beer and skittles in their lives physically, they are rushed immediately to the best medical care available.
Ordinarily, my monthly contribution to The Canine Chronicle contains some element of humor, is reflective or rueful, and occasionally it expresses outrage. In a major departure from the usual, this one’s going to contain some practical information–since this is the Sporting Dog issue–for those of you who are planning to take your champion sporting dogs into the field and will deal with what the well-equipped hunter and his/her dog need for field work.
On a recent trip to a large beauty supply store, I noticed that in addition to the usual variety of well-known and advertised brand name products on the shelves, an array of their own store products had now appeared in force. Whether it was shampoo, hair spray, skin cleansers, or body creams, there was one of the store brand placed next to the more recognizable labeled product.
It’s often said that when true love hits there’s no going back. Unfortunately, in Mrs. Cheever Porter’s case, the object of that desire didn’t happen to be Mr. Porter.
We asked experienced AKC judges two questions about current issues affecting our sport. Here’s what they had to say…
MARCH 12th. was a sad day for the AKC and, more importantly, the sport of purebred dogs in general. This month ended the twenty-year tenure of probably the best friend the dog world ever had.
It seems to me that there is so much mean, disconnected and judgmental behavior, even among those of us who DO know each other, in addition to the lack of welcoming attitude toward the public or the “newbie”. In some cases, a short “hi” and a “walk-off” could be due to the person being busy, and that is understandable. Even if you are busy, it only takes a few seconds to say, “follow me to the ring and I’ll tell you where I am set up and we can visit in a bit later”, or “I’m sorry I am in a crunch right now, my name is “xx”, and please look me up later”.
We have to speak out if we want the sport of dogs to survive. And we have to stop our own mouths from denigrating this sport we love while we’re at it.
