A New Ranking System – Part One

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72 – July, 2026

By Wayne Cavanaugh

– Part One, Section One –

How A Ballroom Dancer Changed Dog Shows 

It’s Time to Change it Again

For the first century of the sport, no one knew which dogs were number one, or two, or three, or eleventh. It’s not certain if the sport even cared who was number one. With far less than half the number of shows back then, dogs more likely became famous for winning the big shows, the shows with the most entries, the most prestige. Then along came Irene Castle Phillips Khatounian Schlintz (née Foote) who created the sport’s first ranking system in 1956. It became prominent in the late 1960s.

It would be a gross understatement to say that Irene Castle Phillips Khatounian Schlintz (1893-1969) was accomplished. Her accolades even outnumbered the syllables in her name(s). As a fierce duo with her first husband Vernon Castle, Irene was an internationally famous ballroom dancer and a star of silent movies. In 1939, the movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, was a hit for RKO films. Irene was also a fashion icon often referred to as “The Best Dressed Woman in America.” As a hockey fan, I was delighted to discover that, in her spare time, she designed the jersey for the Chicago Blackhawks while married to Frederic McGaughlin, the original owner of the team. Evidently, McGaughlin’s surname was cut to make room for the others.

Eventually, she left the spotlight of the entertainment world, wound down her dancing days, and shifted her interests to animals. Her interest in animal welfare began when she successfully sued her neighbor, a pig farmer, who evidently mistreated his pigs. Perhaps it was the blend of her fame, her love of the arts, and her dislike of those who treated pigs poorly that vaulted her into another chapter of fame … her life in the sport of dog shows and the creation of The Phillips System show-dog rankings.

Click here to read the complete article
72 – July, 2026

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Posted by AnthonyA on Jul 9 2026. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.