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By Tom Grabe

The hot topic around the rings these days seems to be, as usual, the quality of judging. Big surprise, huh? Unfortunately, this subject has been beaten to death for longer than I have been alive and it seems to be a problem that just won’t go away. However, the lack of quality judging seems to have become a bigger problem as of late.

I have written before about some of the problems facing judges, the judges department and, most importantly, exhibitors. I am hesitant to tackle the subject again at the risk of just repeating my and others’ ideas, but I am going to take another swing at it.

As I see it, there are several problems that contribute to poor adjudication in the ring. No, it’s not the heavy promotion of dogs; it’s not handlers and dogs chasing judges around the country, and it’s not the lack of quality stock supplied by exhibitors. Those are all factors that can be controlled by the judge in the ring. They don’t have to point at the heavily-promoted dog; they don’t have to put up a dog or handler that chases them from show to show; and they can easily withhold ribbons from sub-par specimens.

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10 – May, 2026

I just returned from South Jordan, Utah, where I attended one of my favorite circuits of the year. The Beehive Cluster volunteers do a wonderful job making all exhibitors feel at home, AND they have something for everyone. This time of year in Utah is lovely, and for a Midwesterner like me, the view of the mountains is always a special treat. With one day of group shows and four days of all breeds, it is a busy time at the equine facility at the Bastian Agricultural Center. This year, the entry averaged 1,000 dogs per day, which, in today’s standards, is considered an above-average entry.

With several well-attended specialties, majors were plentiful. The club does a terrific job of keeping things moving, and they include a Brace special attraction every day. The show began at 8:30 AM, and Best In Show was over by 6 PM. I cannot help but wonder how, with a 1,000-dog entry, these shows maintain a schedule like this when judges at shows half the size are pinning BIS after 7 PM. You should consider adding the Beehive to your show schedule next year!

It is hard to believe it’s time to start thinking about your hippie outfits. Yep, one of the best celebrations of peace, love, and dogs on earth is just around the corner. Woofstock is coming soon, my friends! This year, the show has relocated to the Yolo County Fairgrounds in Woodland, California. It’s a short 20-minute drive from the Sacramento Airport, and there are plenty of hotels in the vicinity.

 This year, there are over 30 independent specialties on Thursday, June 4^th, followed by three all-breed shows, which include over 80 designated specialties and supported entries.

Check the judges on the Canine Chronicle calendar, and you can find the premium list at Infodog.com. Get those entries in, my friends! Entries close on May 20^th. If you tried to submit online entries and had a problem with the Infodog website, please try again, as I am told the issue should now be fixed.

 On Saturday, June 13, 2026, there will be a celebration of life for Heidi Martin at the Skokie Valley Kennel Club in Grayslake, Illinois. Heidi was very active in the dog show world. She was a well-known artist, too. Heidi drew head studies and portraits for many breed standards, and you will see her work on club premium lists and catalogs. Anyone who wishes to share memories or stories should contact Pete Martin at 847-826-3684.

 The Fiesta Cluster will be holding its shows this coming weekend at Westworld in Scottsdale, Arizona. You’ll remember they previously held their shows around the Thanksgiving holiday. There are several specialties and a Toy Show on Friday, and two all-breed shows Saturday and Sunday. Westworld is a nice venue for a show, and I hope these new show dates help them grow in the future.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my query about attendance at national specialties, etc. The consensus was that fanciers would attend their national even though the judge may not be good for their entries. Individuals look forward to the opportunity to showcase their breeding program to the fancy, and a nice ribbon is always a bonus. There were a couple of individuals who indicated that they would attend weekday portions of their national but, in the past, have left to attend all-breed dog shows on the weekend if they felt it would be more beneficial for their dog.  It was uplifting that most of the respondents stated that the opportunity to learn and spend time with friends topped the list of why they attend the national specialty.

 Fanciers celebrating birthdays this week include Carri Beaver, Antoinelle Vulpis, Blai Lobet, Cassie Clark, Pam Lambie, Tim Lehman, Patrina Odette, Dylan Kipp Keith, Patrice Lawrence, and David Kirkland. Best wishes for a great year!

 A few words of wisdom from a breeder to fellow breeders and fanciers:

To those breeders who are striving to produce their best interpretation of the breed standard: Keep going. Stay disciplined. Continue learning. Share your knowledge generously. Collective efforts are what will ensure the future of this sport and the preservation of the breeds we love.

I’m off to the American Boxer Club, where I plan to bring you interviews with those fortunate enough to score a win among some beautiful dogs!

Wherever your travels take you, try to take a bit of time to enjoy your travels, and be safe! I will see you soon down the road. Until next time….

We want to see our readers’ funniest or most embarrassing photos from a dog show to be shared on The Canine Chronicle in good fun!

Thank you Leslie Racine for sharing this photo the wind making everything go wrong in this canid win photo!

We all know how many photos it takes to get the perfect photo! Was the wind blowing the wrong way? Were you making a weird face? Was your dog not cooperating?  Please share your best BLOOPER photos with us via Facebook Messenger! 

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10 – May, 2026

Once again we caught up with John Miller, and he talks about the logistics for indoor grooming.

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Our world is filled with advice on breeding dogs and much of it is very good. Examples include, “pick a stud dog who will improve your bitch’s weak points.” Or, “find a stud dog whose faults will not overpower your bitch’s attributes.” “Never double up on a fault,” is another common bit of wisdom. Some people will encourage us to pick proven stud dogs that have not produced serious problems we don’t want like cancer or hip dysplasia. Mentors advise that finding a dog with an excellent temperament is critical. Breeders who are fairly new or wanting to expand their knowledge listen carefully to the tidbits offered by those more experienced. Yet somehow the task of picking the right stud dog never gets any easier.

One thing that I have noticed is that some would-be or beginning breeders take every piece of advice to heart. This not a bad thing unless one ends up paralyzed and unable to make a good decision in an attempt to avoid faults in the stud dog of choice. No stud dog is perfect. You can search high and low, but you will not find him. There is a way out of this conundrum. It involves thoughtfully creating a list of “acceptable” negative traits. It sounds crazy, but much like in judging we must teach ourselves to balance a dog’s faults against its attributes. Annie Clark once said that judging a stud dog or brood bitch class is like playing a hand of cards… the best hand wins. So it is when we are seeking to create a breeding pair that will produce the most (and most important) attributes with a minimal number of detrimental characteristics.

The importance of starting with a thorough knowledge of your bitch’s strengths and weaknesses cannot be overemphasized. This includes a careful of evaluation of the details of her structure and type. Using the sections of the standard and comparing each part of her against the ideal described therein should give you a fairly good picture. You will probably need to expand the section on temperament. Most standards give a good overview of what a breed is generally like, but most of us have preferences/requirements depending on the activities we participate in that might include instinctive talent at whatever task the breed was originally to perform, or it may include specific attributes like excellent dog-dog skills or things like biddability, work ethic, energy level and resilience. Finally, it is extremely important to prioritize health concerns; everything from the deadly and debilitating, to missing teeth and testicles, to chronic ear infections. The list of health issues will vary from breed to breed, but it needs to be as complete as possible.

One important part of this process is asking for input from other people who you feel are knowledgeable and honest. Love is blind. Regardless of our best attempts to separate our emotional attachment to a dog from an objective consideration of her value as a show or breeding animal, you will always have blind spots. Close friends and honest mentors can help us to see those blind spots in a way that illuminates our vision without negating the positive attributes we treasure.

Once you have made an accurate and objective evaluation of your bitch, then you need to find as much information as you can about her parents, grandparents and siblings or half-siblings in all three generations. The picture of these dogs that you create will not be as complete as the one you made for your own bitch, but the more information you can include about reasonably close relatives, the better chance you have of making a good breeding decision.

Now, instead of thinking of your bitch as an individual with strengths and weaknesses, visualize her as a sort of genetic bank account. The information that you have collected about all of her close relatives, taken in aggregate, will give you a deeper understanding of what she is likely to produce based on the strength of her genetic background. It will also shed some light on what she might produce depending on the strengths of the contribution of the stud dog. Finally, you may get some ideas what she may not produce even bred to a stud dog strong in that area. This latter evaluation often involves the types of traits that take multiple generations to fix in a breeding program.

Make a list of potential stud dogs. Evaluate them both as an individual and as a hypothetical genetic bank account. In order to make a sound decision, we must know what each partner is bringing to the table in the potential match. On the one hand, this can be even more difficult than it was with your bitch because information may not be as readily available. On the other hand, proven stud dogs will have offspring available for you to evaluate as well, always keeping in mind that someone else’s bitch was half of that equation. This is particularly helpful in figuring out that “middle category”; the one where a breeding animal CAN produce a positive (or negative) trait when it is bred to a partner whose pedigree contains a number of dogs exhibiting that trait. I once heard a dog called a “tread water dog” because regardless of the style or quality of the bitch he was bred to, the litter was a “reflection” of her. What a marvelous find for someone with an excellent bitch!

It is important to include an assessment of the reliability of the information you are receiving about both the dog and your bitch. There are people who keep extensive lists and/or databases about health information related to dogs in their breed. Sometimes, they can tell you where or how they learned about a particular tidbit of information. Other times, it seems as though it just magically appeared in a database with absolutely no supporting information and no way to determine validity. As in so many other areas of our lives, it only makes sense to be a little bit skeptical and confirm as much information as you can. As a person who has been on the receiving end of some pretty remarkable smear campaigns against my dogs, I can tell you that Winston Churchill hit the nail on the head with this line, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on. “ It would be a shame to pass on an excellent stud dog because of untruthful “information”. The best source of information about any dog is the owner and/or breeder. While there are a few who own and breed “perfect” dogs, most people will be honest and candid.

The next step is to evaluate the potential breeding pairs by integrating the information you have compiled on the bitch and her various potential suitors. Here is where it gets tricky! This is the stage where most people begin to cross dogs off the list. It could be that Susie has a littermate with light eyes, and Fred has an uncle with light eyes as well. When any doubling on an unwanted characteristic automatically results in a cross-off, the inevitable result is no dogs left on the list. Some people even go so far as to make a new list (often with dogs of lesser quality than those on the original list) and start all over again. This endless loop of researching and rejecting leads to frustration, exhaustion and bitches that never get bred. The old adage, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem,” comes to mind. If, in fact, you have a quality bitch with a contribution to make to your breed’s gene pool, not breeding her because of fear of producing a fault or some less than desirable health or temperament trait, then you are doing your bitch and your breed a disservice. Perfection is not required. Honesty and your best effort are necessary.

Enter the positive/negative list! You can keep your original choices of suitors, but before you eliminate any of them from consideration, look at your bitch and her genetic bank account from the opposite direction. Turn it upside down and ask yourself which qualities are she and the majority of her relatives most strong… strong enough that they could “carry” most of the pups even bred to a dog whose fortune was not that particular attribute. You can also think about which traits are a mixed bag for your bitch and her relatives. These are crucial traits which your bitch may produce if bred to a dog with a strong genetic background in these areas, or not, if bred to a dog weak in these areas or coming from a family frequently displaying these shortcomings. Write it down, or at least firmly fix in your mind, the “negative” traits that your chosen stud dog is “allowed” to have. This is a concrete way of recognizing that no dog is perfect and that as responsible dog breeders, we get to choose not only which traits to emphasize, but also those traits that may be desirable, but not mandatory.

Another way to formulate the “positive/negative list” is look at it like a bell curve. On the very top are just two or three traits which are “must-haves”. In the middle are many traits of weighted value based your evaluation of your bitch’s bank account. At the far end of the bell curve are the traits that are of minimal importance. These are the ones that you can live with as a part of your breeding program, at least for another generation or two. This is really the breeders version of not fault judging. Virtues and weaknesses have to be thoughtfully weighed in order to determine the best possible package. Understand, that the more information you acquire and attempt to include in your objective evaluation, the more compromises you will be required to make. However, the Herculean effort required to attain and balance all that information will be worth it when you look into the whelping box and find what you hoped and planned for all along.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “reinventing the wheel”, which essentially means taking the long way around to what seems to be a fairly obvious conclusion. That concept applies to plenty of stupid stuff, but in our case it falls within the context of dogs.

Life with dogs is standard procedure for us. We long ago devised straightforward solutions to plenty of seemingly complicated dog issues. For instance, if you train a dog to have nice leash manners there is no need to invest your life savings into a million different behavior experts and exotic leash/collar/harness combinations that almost never solve the problem. There are countless examples of this wheel reinvention nonsense that we witness on a daily basis. That’s a story in itself.  But this one earned a gigantic article in The Times.

Apparently, the long-established principles of selective breeding and predictability have now been elevated to the status of an astounding discovery about canine behavior. Get ready… giant Working breeds tend to be fairly, low key housedogs.  Yeah, for real. The general public has apparently totally lost the plot as far as what dog breeders have been doing for the last couple thousand years or so–because this dedication to tailoring breeds to meet specific expectations did not commence when the kennel club commandeered the procedure in the 1800s.

Here’s the gist of this breakthrough news.  It’s no secret that pet ownership complicates the rental process. That door is beginning to open for the simple reason that most (normal) people want some form of animal companionship. However, the dog/rental regulations seem stuck on the size issue–which is a very stupid assumption.

As a lifelong owner of small breeds I know exactly how much damage they are capable of inflicting. And there is absolutely no correlation between size and a whole host of traits guaranteed to incite landlord discontent.  Dogs under 20 pounds can definitely bark, bite and destroy things and people.

However, there is a very reliable way to calculate a breed’s potential for domestic mayhem. The story featured interviews with several apartment hunters seeking to relocate with one or more large Working breeds.  The first quote came from a Great Dane owner who “learned the hard way that the perception of big dogs, accurate or not, influences the reality of urban real estate.”

So, here’s the big revelation of this investigative report. “Painting large breeds with broad strokes reinforces erroneous beliefs such as that Greyhounds need constant exercise when, in fact, many are couch potatoes.” Among others, they also interviewed a Cane Corso owner to reinforce this shocking concept. (There are at least 30-40 breeds that fit the bill) Mastiff? Tibetan Mastiff?  St. Bernard.  Okay, made the point.

At least this story emphasized the fact that training is non-negotiable when owning dogs that often outweigh their owners. But we also knew that already.

Here’s the thing. Long before kennel clubs made selective breeding official, large breeds were intentionally selected for very specific behaviors. Those traits are hardwired into the gene pool and they have always been in high demand. Right at the top of that list is a calm, quiet, watchful temperament. Realistically, that requirement is fairly essential for a dog that is meant to protect the home.

There’s never been any correlation between breed size and polite house manners.  A Tibetan Mastiff weighs more than a Border Collie. Which one is likely to have more non-stop energy?

Obviously, every dog needs activity and exercise. And there’s a very simple way to learn that along with every other seemingly mystifying aspect of this deal. Selective breeding instills predictability. Therefore, you know what to expect if you read the pre-packaged instructions that come with every breed. That useful bit of info can be easily accessed by a glance at the breed standard. Adult size, coat type and tons of other useful details are packed into that concise fact sheet.  Selective breeding takes the guesswork out of those big questions.

But why bother with 2000 years of successful results when we can reinvent the wheel?

The American Kennel Club was proud to support this bill and is grateful for the Congressional leadership that made it possible. Executive Secretary & VP Government Relations Sheila Goffe commented, “House Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson and his staff have demonstrated extraordinary bi-partisan leadership in developing and shepherding a measure that not only supports crucial U.S. agricultural programs, but also supports important priorities for dog enthusiasts including canine health, welfare and the rights of responsible dog owners and sportsmen.”

Dog-related highlights of the bill include: 

• Enhancement of Pet Protections Under the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA): Additional resources for USDA to better enforce the AWA, including expanded resources for educational outreach and reporting to Congress on existing enforcement with recommendations for improving enforcement. 
•  Enhancement of USDA’s electronic health documentation requirements for pets entering the United States to protect pet and public health. This reflects language in the Healthy Dog Importation Act (HR 3349 ) by requiring electronic records documentation on dogs prior to their importation that confirms the dog is in good health; microchipped; has received all necessary vaccination and parasite treatments, demonstrated negative test results, and has a health certificate from an accredited veterinarian; and in the case of a dog intended for transfer, is at least 6 months old. Exceptions are provided for dogs that are personal pets of United States origin returning to the United States; United States military working dogs; for research purposes; and coming to the United States solely for veterinary treatment; among several others. AKC believes this is an appropriate alternative to current, across-the-board bans on the import of puppies under the age of 6 months.
• Protecting Animals with Shelter. Reauthorizes funding for transitional shelters that allow victims of domestic violence to seek safety without leaving their pets behind.
• National Detector Dog Training Center. Authorizes the USDA National Detector Dog Training Center to establish additional training facilities to prepare specially selected dogs and their handlers to detect invasive pests and diseases that threaten American agriculture.

Throughout the legislative process, numerous problematic proposals were also advanced.  AKC is grateful to Chairman Thompson, his staff, and members of The House Agriculture Committee for their emphasis on a science-based approach to agriculture and animal care, and their opposition to amendments promoted by extremists that would have restricted responsible dog breeders or hindered widely accepted animal husbandry practices, traditional dog competitions, hunting with dogs, or common dog training methods.

The cultural divide between humans and canines has been growing for well over a century. There are many reasons for that; starting with the economic shift away from an agricultural lifestyle, which severed that daily interaction with domestic animals that had defined humans since prehistory.  That trend likewise phased out most of the essential jobs that kept humans tethered to their canine workmates.  And probably the newest and most insidious force separating our species is the horrific  proliferation of the Animal Rights (AR) philosophy which at its core seeks to eradicate domestic species and obliterate our interactions with animals in any capacity at all.

The thing is that this paradigm shift has happened so gradually that no one really noticed what we lost along the way.  Specifically, I mean our hardwired ability to communicate with dogs.  This thing between dogs and humans is unique among species. We co-evolved and–as neuroscience is slowly discovering–both species have some built-in software to enable this seamless nonverbal conversation. Actually, dogs haven’t lost it at all. They read us like a non-stop Twitter stream.  Unfortunately, the human race has lost the plot on a global scale.

The recent realization of that embarrassing learning deficit has been another unexpected consequence of pandemic life.  The bull market for pandemic pets, originally seen as a disaster in the making, has not turned out as the naysayers predicted. No one anticipated the duration or scale of pandemic disruptions. Weeks morphed into months and, in some cases, life is still on sort of a freeze frame. In other words, everyone has had tons of time to get acquainted with their new canine family members.  And the more they watched and listened, the more confused they became.  Weird half-mast tail wags, whistling whines, and that almost menacing lip curl. And to a good portion of those 23 million first-time dog owners, deciphering this stuff was like trying to read the Dead Sea scrolls. Worse yet, the dogs frequently refused to follow those internet training directions!

Yes, there was dramatic uptick in dog school enrollment. And even that didn’t always crack the code. Back in pre-pandemic times, that sort of frustrating obstacle typically resulted in an instant reevaluation of the entire dog project. Take it back, or to the pound, or to the local rescue. This time things were different simply because after an entire year of daily cohabitation, getting a divorce just didn’t seem quite as easy. Good or bad, these people had a history with their chosen canines.  Obviously the next step was “family counseling” to rehabilitate these fractured relationships.

It seems that canine behavior specialists have been busier than ever. The scale of the situation even prompted a lengthy feature in the New York Times Science section last week which recounted one family’s crash course on how to understand their mysterious new dog; which basically amounted to a primer on reading canine body language.  The writer started off conceding that their first big discovery was that they were probably misinterpreting much of the dog’s behavior.  “Dogs are always communicating with us but most of the time we’re not listening.”

As per usual, the article quoted a range of experts from different academic sectors; they all provided knowledgeable, authoritative explanations of the mechanics of dog communication.  I loved the story because it was so accurate, yet so obvious. For instance, don’t anthropomorphize your dog. (Actually, it doesn’t feel guilty about raiding the garbage and peeing on the rug.) Don’t assume that dogs like the same things you do. (If the dog doesn’t seem to enjoy your bubbly social outing, maybe it really does prefer staying home flopped on the sofa.) Don’t assume that every dog loves to meet new dogs. (Based on my personal observations, humans like dog parks way better than half the dogs I see at those places.)

Those experts did have one point of common consensus.  Dogs are very, very good at understanding us. So, take heart. This will take a little time but those 23 million clueless new owners won’t be riding the short bus forever.