Most Memorable Memorial Day – A Snapshot In Time

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

By Wayne Cavanaugh

This year, on Memorial Day weekend, there were 164 chances for Best In Show, or BISS, in five days. There were 73 AKC All-Breed and Group shows, and 91 specialty shows, held between May 20th and May 24th, 2026. Seriously.

Widening the lens to look at all of May, there were 240 All-Breed and Group shows and 442 Specialty Shows for a grand total of 662 AKC dog shows in four weeks where championship points could be awarded.

What does this say about the state of our sport? What does it say about the physical and mental health of all involved, including the dogs? Did a win 25 years ago feel more important then or today? What does it say about records and statistics? What do the number of shows and top-dog rankings say about the future of the sport? Is it about the quality of the dogs, the quality of the wins, or the number of wins that means the most today? A cell phone photo analogy comes to mind: how many photos do we take, how many do we keep, and how many will we ever look at again?

There are no universal answers to any of these questions because each of us came to the sport from a different time and place. For example, those who came of age in the 1970s saw photos of every Best In Show winner from the previous month printed in a few pages of the AKC Gazette. Today, there wouldn’t be enough pages to print win photos of even half the Best In Show winners from Memorial Day alone. We judge the state of the sport against our own starting point: when we first entered a breed ring, where we were, which breed we began with, and the dogs of the day that we remember. In that sense, that time and location becomes our individual benchmark. For now, 164 top awards in five days appears to be the new normal–at least until next year.

Is There a Moving Van in Your Future?

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

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=360411

Posted by AnthonyA on Jun 6 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.