From The Publisher
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The four-plus day show cluster has become the staple of today’s dog show scene in the United States. A quick glance at our events calendar at www.caninechronicle.com shows how clusters of shows held in one location has become a normal, weekly occurrence in most regions. Heck, we even have a button titled “Cluster View” on our events calendar that groups the shows by cluster each weekend.
I am told there are individual locations around the country that host more than 30 dog shows per year. A bit of investigation shows that many shows are held far from their geographic area. At the risk of sounding like an oldster clamoring for the way things were, I think that clusters are affecting participation in our sport in a very negative way.
I recall things being quite different when I was a professional handler in the ‘80s & ‘90s. We had our share of circuits. The difference is you relocated every couple of days at most of the circuits. The Florida Circuit was a death march with the circuit beginning in Jekyll Island, Georgia and finishing in Tampa. Many other circuits across the country mirrored this routine. Most shows were held at fairgrounds with minimal facilities or small convention-type buildings. We all survived. It proved that we didn’t need a huge convention center in which to show our dogs. The important thing was we exposed purebred dogs to the territory in which the host kennel club resided and controlled.
The shows were big and the local population showed up to see our dogs show. It was not uncommon to pick up a new client at some of these shows. Then a couple of clubs got into a fight. One wanted to take advantage of an AKC rule allowing them to have their own dog shows back to back on one weekend. This was a rule designed to help geographically isolated clubs. However, as we all know, rules and laws have unintended consequences. Once AKC let a single club have back-to-back shows, the floodgates opened. Any club that had an argument with their partner club applied for back-to-back shows rather than trying to work things out. This change in the approval process by AKC led to the mess we have today with 5-day clusters every week everywhere.
The next big mistake AKC made was allowing clubs to move far from their geographic territory. We now have shows held in Ocala by clubs two hours from here. This has led to huge swaths of the country becoming dog show deserts with no access to AKC-sanctioned purebred dog shows within hours of their locale. We have large numbers of people who could be tempted to buy a purebred and eventually participate in our sport but for the fact they never see a dog show. These are people in rural areas. They are people who might have the desire and locale to become breeders. They might be AKC’s best customers, but they aren’t going to drive 2 hours to check out the show!
I can’t prove that large, multi-day circuits are affecting participation in our sport. I can’t say that holding dozens of shows in the same metropolitan location while leaving huge swaths of our country show-less is responsible either. I know for certain if you don’t expose your product to new potential customers, you will never gain them as clients. You can take that to the bank.
Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=97598
Posted by ralbee
on Feb 11 2016. Filed under Current Articles, Editorial, Featured.
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