Rarefied Heirs – Judge’s Ed In Rare Breeds

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150 – August, 2026

By Lori Sternola

Here’s my premise: Judges’ Ed has greater importance in rare breeds than it does in other breeds. I’m not saying it isn’t always important, or that more popular breeds matter less, or that the presentations shouldn’t always be high quality and presented in a useful and unbiased way. But what I am saying, is this:

If you have Golden Retrievers, or Whippets–not only can judges, aspiring judges, and other exhibitors see your breed every weekend; but they usually see enough of them to cast a critical eye over what they’re looking at; and to take a view on which dog is best, and why. How many specialties do you offer nationwide ever year? 30? 40? More? And at how many of those will the clubs offer Judges’ Ed? How many active breeders will attend your larger specialties and be available to share knowledge? Five? 15? More? Breeds like the Chinook and Norwegian Lundehunds have one specialty per year (unless you’re a Harrier in 2026 – in which case, zero; not even a National). How many active breeders are involved in each of the ten rarest breeds in the AKC? Three to five for each breed. Maybe. For a breed that judges might see once or twice a year–and one or two dogs at a time–things are much different. Each “sighting” is worth that much more. Each conversation carries that much more weight. The infrequent Judges’ Ed session for one of these breeds has more value. And that cuts both ways. A good one benefits the breed tremendously by really helping judges and would-be judges understand and evaluate something they won’t see every weekend. A bad one hurts the breed–and disrespects the judges–disproportionately. This is because they can’t just go out and get someone else’s opinion or see ten other examples of the breed next weekend.

The attendees at these seminars have usually gone to a lot of effort to be there: In some cases, they’ve traveled extensively, and paid for meals, hotels, dogsitters at home, etc. In all cases, they’ve given their time and attention in an effort to learn more about our breeds and to be able to judge them with respect for the breed and its future, and knowledge about what they’re seeing and putting their hands on. If I were in their shoes, I would 100% expect that the content of the seminar I attended was presented with integrity and was an accurate reflection of the standard of the breed. I would not feel like I should have to take my time to fact-check the presentation or make sure I wasn’t being misinformed. Each parent club has an absolute responsibility to make sure these presentations are fair, accurate to the standard, and objective. Doing less than that insults the breed, and it insults the audience.

Click here to read the complete article
150 – August, 2026

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Posted by AnthonyA on Aug 14 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.