This month’s article is a compilation of comments taken from the Facebook Group: Constructive Solutions to AKC $$$$ Woes. BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTION! This group, consisting of 824 members, was formed to offer members a forum in which to offer suggestions to improving the financial/management/structural situation at the American Kennel Club. All of the comments below were direct quotes.
The Maryland Blue Crab Cluster isn’t just another group of shows, it is a special cluster offering entertainment and education to exhibitors, judges, and the junior handlers. Chaired by the hard working Lisa Miller, this outstanding group of shows starts out with the Potomac Hound Show and then continues into four all breed shows over the course of the long weekend.
President Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk in the Oval Office which said, “The buck stops here.” This derived from the slang expression “pass the buck” meaning that you shunt the responsibility off to someone else. In Truman’s world, once the problem reached his desk, there was no one left to whom he could “pass the buck.” Well, the same thing has occurred in the dog world only in this case the buck stops with people who show their dogs and with the conformation judges.
I hinted that our behavior at dog events may be aiding and abetting our antagonists, those groups that might like to see us wither and disappear. In how many ways has the world of dogs become a “dog-eat-dog” world; a world in which we care solely about our own interests and the devil take the hindmost? This self-centered, every-man-for-himself attitude can take hold before we are even aware of it, especially so, given that we are a microcosm of our world which seems more and more to be “all-about-me” as well. Is it really so hard to compliment each other… a fellow breeder, exhibitor, a fellow judge? Just how rare is this? Probably more rare than you and I would like to admit.
Great Western was Margaret Young Renihan’s brainchild. Quite a few claimed it would not fly, but it has become one of the great Terrier shows in the country, second only to the Montgomery County Kennel Club in Pennsylvania.
It was mid-January and the Knicks and Nets seasons were going as most recent ones had, in the tank. If it weren’t for the political scandals at the New York Board of Education, there wouldn’t be any headlines at all. It was too early to worry about baseball and the Rangers and Islanders weren’t worth talking about. Snow was falling and traffic as usual was an abomination. The subway workers were again threatening to go on strike. You will notice they always threaten a strike before an important holiday. The coffee machine wouldn’t even belch out stuff that resembled coffee. In short, a typical New York City day.
What is it about that last qualifying score or those last few points that makes them so difficult to acquire? During the years I judged hunt tests, time after time I saw dogs going for their final qualifying score manage to turn the go into a situation that folks in the U.S. military describe as FUBAR. (Since this is a family publication, if you don’t know for what that acronym stands, you’ll have to look it up on a military slang website.)
Most of us consider PETA and HSUS the enemy, although I understand there exists a difference of opinion regarding the latter. Following introduction in Washington of the Puppy Uniform Protection Statute (PUPS Act), HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle stated, “Yesterday’s (May 25, 2010) report and legislative introduction should serve as a warning to all those who protect this dubious industry – from “kennel clubs” to pet stores to lobbying front groups who claim to care about purebred dog breeding, but in fact only care about how much money they can make peddling loads of puppies. Your days of abusing dogs for profit while snubbing the laws of this country and many states are coming to an end.” No matter how you choose to slice Pacelle’s statement, connected as we are to a “kennel club,” we, as purebred dog fanciers, are part of the animal rights group’s long-range plan to at least seriously curb our passion if not cause its total demise.
As could well have been expected (and was), a number of communications, mainly by e-mail, have been received in response to the article published in last month’s issue of The Canine Chronicle concerning the Grand Championship program and how it has been variously received by the Fancy and by judges in particular.
Each year the Canadian Dog Judges Assoc. and the Canadian Kennel Club co-hosts the Advanced Judges Conference. Held at the beginning of November, the conference moves around the country. Last year it was held in the country’s capital, Ottawa.
