Reflections of a Breeder/Owner/Handler

BY CATHY CLAPP

You wanna be taken seriously, you need serious hair.
– Tess McGill, Working Girl

You might wonder why I’m quoting a character from a 1980s movie, but that was what popped into my head as I look back on the last two years – two years that I spent campaigning my bitch. I’ll get to why the quote is relevant later.

At our Chow Chow Club, Inc. National Specialty in 2014, much to my surprise, my bitch won Best of Opposite Sex at the tender age of fourteen months. I was thrilled beyond belief because it was the best I had ever placed at our National Specialty. Not only that, but the same bitch also won Best in Puppy Sweepstakes. And then a culmination of things that happened that week made me decide that I wanted to campaign her for 2014 and 2015 with the goal of having her finish as the #1 Chow Chow Bitch and as far up the regular Top Ten (Breed Points) as possible. Best of Opposite Sex wins count as Breed Points for the CCCI so I already had a good start, not just from the National Specialty win, but she had also picked up a lot of points at the shows in Louisville just prior to the National.

I’ve been showing since the early ‘80s, but this was the first time I had ever gone out with ambitions past just getting a dog finished. Usually I would complete a dog’s championship and then maybe move over to obedience for a while. In a world full of professional handlers, I wasn’t certain I could compete. Once the Grand Champion system came in I would continue to show long enough to obtain a GCH, but still had no thoughts of actually campaigning a dog. I have had some nice dogs over the years, but this bitch is the most outstanding I have ever produced. I knew I needed a plan and a change of mindset if I was going to be successful. First, I had to find where there were breed entries that I could get to compete against. The CCCI Top Five Bitches and Top Ten by Breed Points are the most important to me and are both based on the number of chows defeated. Both Best of Breed and Best of Opposite Sex wins count and for the 2014 year they were limited to the top thirty shows that you competed in (in other words, you might show at seventy shows but they threw out all but the top thirty). While others were dancing around and trying to avoid each other, I knew the only real way to come out on top was to run straight at my competition. While competitors with the same goal were all going in opposite directions, I looked for shows where they were building entries as well as Specialty Shows, knowing that my main competitor was also going to be there. That bitch was with a highly respected professional handler, but with no fear, I charged after her like a bull. After all, what was the point in winning breed points at a show somewhere while she might be getting just as many or more elsewhere? In my opinion, the only way to truly get in front was to keep her from getting those points at all.

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Posted by Alex on Jul 13 2016. 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.