How I Got (Back) Into Show Dogs

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182 – April, 2024

By Ellen Vernon Hatch

I recently got back into show dogs, Labrador Retrievers specifically, after 40 years. Things have changed, and I keep hearing about it being a graying sport with trouble eliciting newcomers. I thought it might be useful with respect to recruiting new people, to share how I got involved in showing dogs in the first place–and how I got re-engaged in the dog show world again.

I bought my first showdog, a Shetland Sheepdog, in 1979 with my own money as a pre-teenager. My parents were not involved in the dog show world and my interest came from reading Kids and Dog Shows from the local library. We owned a pet Shetland Sheepdog since I was born, and I showed him in obedience a bit, poring over Winifred Strickland’s Expert Obedience Training for Dogs. My Sheltie was an old dog then. However, I learned about the AKC and his pedigree–descended from Ch. Elfdale Viking, a prolific stud of the era–and started looking into what lines of showdog I wanted to buy for conformation. I ended up buying a 4-month old half-brother of BIS BISS Ch. Brangay Unchained Melody through Gayle Eads. He had just won a Best Puppy in Match, and had good show potential.

Gayle helped me pick out everything I needed to learn how to show Shelties and condition my dog properly–crate, grooming table, ex pen, Dubl Duck scissors, toenail clippers, thinning shears, chalk, moleskin for ears, and a few books. Gayle was an amateur photographer at the time and impressed on me the importance of good photos of your dog (especially in the era of printed magazines, before the internet and social media).

She taught me about training your dog for conformation, and the importance of proper movement and freestacking for the smart and agile Shetland Sheepdog breed.

It was an interesting time in Shetland Sheepdogs, loaded with the top dogs in the history of the breed, yet fraught with many of the same conundrums that plague breeders in many different breeds today:

Click here to read the complete article
182 – April, 2024

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Posted by AnthonyA on Apr 19 2024. 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.