New NOHS Regulations – Better for Whom?

By Peri Norman

Policy decisions in any area have winners and losers. This is true in corporate America, in social and religious groups like Boy Scouts and churches, and in legislative arenas from town halls to Congress. While the advocates of any position will highlight the positives to the exclusion of any downside, knowledgeable observers will always seek to understand the full range of influence of any given decision. Sometimes, it is impossible to foresee all the possible effects of any legislative or policy decision, and on some occasions adjustments are necessary to avoid more negative complications.

It seems like in our sport that the squeaky wheel gets the grease with increasing frequency. Decisions are made and changes in regulations are put into place because one subset of participants is fussing, without fully considering the impact on other stake- holders and the sport in its entirety. The dog fancy is continuing to scramble to attempt to address monumental changes that have taken place both within the fancy and in the mind of the general public over the past several decades. As the proverbial pie is shrinking, the struggle to balance both resources and perceptions is real. The very first step in making good decisions is an accurate assessment of the current situation. Knowledgeable pundits in our sport have been universally decrying the explosion of shows as a major concern for the fancy. We have too many shows for the number of exhibitors, dogs, ring stewards, committee persons and judges available to participate, primarily concentrated in areas of high population density. The availability of multiple large clusters on many weekends facilitates the chasing of records based on numbers, not healthy competition between large numbers of ex- cellent exhibits. Resources (both human and financial) are stretched to the breaking point. Entries are just beginning to level off from decades of downturn and some clubs are going under because the current situation is not sustainable.

One attempt at increasing participation is the implementation of the National Owner Handler Series, which has shown some remarkable success over the short time the program has been in place. Owner Handlers have been given more recognition for their hard work and an opportunity to compete with their peers on a more level playing field. Recently, a girlfriend of mine who had resisted competing in the NOHS because she wanted to be perceived as “professional” gave it a try and was surprised! She really enjoys it and is having some good success with her young special. Entries are up across the board at shows offering NOHS, and comments on social media to the effect that some people only consider shows offering NOHS competition are fairly common.

On the other hand, judge-bashing on social media seems to be getting more participation than the actual sport. The NOHS pro- gram has not escaped the effects of disgruntled commentators whose dogs did not win at last weekend’s shows. Apparently in an attempt to reassure a small number of vocal owner handlers, the Board recently (without consultation with the Delegate committee on Dog Show Rules!) made a decision to change the NOHS Best Policies into regulations effective April 2017.

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Posted by Alex on Mar 24 2017. 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.