Bandwagon Judging – New Twists On An Old Problem

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84 – May, 2026

By Wayne Cavanaugh

Photo by Lisa Croft-Elliott

After finishing my assignment in Ring 4, I walked over to my next ring, Ring 8. The judge in Ring 8 finished his last breed for the day, marked his book, and on the way out, saw me waiting and started a conversation. Quite excitedly, he asked if I agreed with his breed winner. I did. Well done. He then proceeded to tell me who the sire of his winner was, a dog I know quite well. But something didn’t feel right–how would he know who the dog’s sire was? Perhaps the exhibitor told him, but I didn’t notice them having any exchange while handing out the ribbons. With a vague sense of guilt, I asked him a trick question: “Weren’t there three others in the ring who were also sired by the same dog?” He quickly responded with absolute certainty: “No, he was the only one.” It was that moment that I realized we have a problem–the online catalogs and instant results.

There is only one way a judge would know the sire of all the dogs in the ring. He must have checked the online catalog prior to judging. It could have been the night before, the morning of the show, at ringside, or during lunch. He could have even read it in the ring on his cell phone while pretending to check the time or review a breed standard.

I suppose that reading a catalog online the night before the show could just be a case of harmless curiosity or hotel room boredom. But reading it and using it to make judging decisions is absolutely unacceptable. It’s all there online for the taking. How insecure of their own abilities must judges be to study the catalog before judging? And why? Are they afraid of missing the bandwagon?

Click here to read the complete article
84 – May, 2026

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Posted by AnthonyA on May 8 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.