So, You Want To Be A Professional Handler?

by Ric Chashoudian, From the archives of The Canine Chronicle – September, 1991

Today we have what some people might say are too many dog shows. [Editor’s Note: The discussion about too many dog shows has been going on for 30 years.] Maybe that’s right, but I always counter with the argument that you don’t have to attend them all if you don’t want to. This dog showing thing is getting bigger and bigger, so why fight it? Why don’t we just lay back and enjoy it? There are large dog shows and small dog shows. There are group shows and breed shows. There are matches and symposiums, trimming demonstrations, and handling lessons. The same applies to obedience. Why not just let it happen like it does with other sports? There are people who say there are too many baseball teams and not enough good players to play on them. The same thing they say about all kinds of other things that people enjoy.

People like going to dog shows and are having fun doing it. I am one of those. I go to judge or I go to show and I have tremendous fun doing it. Nobody is twisting my arm to go. I do it because it has become a way of life for me. When I quit handling and started judging there was a lull between the two. I was a lost soul and had a heart attack. I get to thinking that it is like dope, like golf is to George Ward, the Forsyths, and Bobby Barlow. Like candy is to a child, a pacifier. I love every minute of it, except maybe for the airports and travel. Sometimes they are not so bad–when things go right.

I have had some arguments with some of my peers who do not want to see their kids or young people they care about get hooked into our sport. I say, why not? If these kids have a talent for it, have the dedication for hard work, hard knocks, the love, and I mean real love for dogs, not just the money, then give it a try. Giving it a try does not mean that you are going to make it. Making a living in this game is like trying to play pro sports. If you do not have a tremendous talent for it–and that covers a lot of ground–then do it as a hobby and not as your living.

Let us take a long look at what I think it takes to succeed in the sport of purebred dogs. First of all, you must pay your dues. I believe it is very important to work for or with a very good dog person to learn about the sport. This person does not necessarily have to be a handler but can be a good breeder or fancier that you can learn from. The better teachers are few and far between but do your best to find one. Then one must pay attention. When you go to shows, look and look and look and absorb what you are looking at. When there is a good dog of any breed, study him. You must do this to obtain an eye for dogs. This ‘eye’ is to study type: size, proper coats, heads, bodies and the way they move or cover ground, coming and going and around. You must study the good dogs and find the good in them. The last thing you want to do is look for the bad first. Do not fall into the trap of looking for the bad before the good. This is how a person finds good dogs for clients, or picking puppies, or knowing how to trim or show these dogs. This eye for good dogs sounds easy, however this is where most young people fail.

A good dog makes good handlers before a good handler makes good dogs. It is like the saying, “which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” One real good quality dog can put a talented person on the map in the dog world. Learn to find and recognize these good dogs. My old boss, Ben Brown, gave me the best advice I ever received in dogs. When you have a chance to look at a dog, really look at him. It does not matter what shape he is in. Maybe he is unkempt, or thin, or not socialized or many, many other reasons why this certain dog does not look good on the day, but you take a good look at him. Let the others laugh about him. This is the best advice I have ever had in dogs. Many of the good dogs I have found, and I have found a few, were dogs that nobody else would look at, including judges, because these dogs were so far away from being in show shape.

Another great way to learn dogs is through trimming pets, or in obedience work, or both. Some of our young people today laugh at this, but you will have the last laugh because you will learn hands-on anatomy, dog psychology, how to handle a nasty one, or a hyper one, or a shy one, or a spoiled one. I can go on and on. All of this is experience that cannot be obtained in dozens of seminars or whatever. This is the real hands -on stuff. This is the nuts and bolts of the dog world that shapes the real dog people.

As I see things today, [1991] there is much more opportunity than when I entered this sport. In my day as a youngster, about 1944, the average entry in a major show in California was about 250 dogs. If an entry hit 300, it was a large show. These shows were mostly single shows, held on Sundays. We would have one show in the Los Angeles area such as Pasadena and then the next week one show in Oakland near San Francisco. This was 400 miles away on poor two-lane roads that took much longer to travel on. If they put on shows like that today, no handlers would go because there would be no money in it. We went because that was the only game in our state. Handlers now make these 400-mile jaunts on interstates. They will not go if there are not at least two, three or sometimes four shows. There is money to be made if you remember these things. Have you a talent for this? If you have tried it and are struggling, go to a good successful friend in the business that you trust and will level with you; ask him whether he thinks you have the talent. Have you paid your dues? This usually means starting at the bottom with a scoop and picking up you know what. Do you even realize how much you can learn about a dogs physical and mental condition picking up you know what? Learn about mental and physical care of dogs from books and hands-on experience. Learn how to whelp puppies, how to care for them, the pitfalls of the whelping box like bad milk, cold or draft, dehydration, worms and a hundred other things. Learn how to socialize and lead break them at a young age. Learn how to grade pups so you do not sell the ones you should be keeping. You will be surprised how often this happens–even to the experienced people. When a person tells you it’s pick of the litter you better ask whose pick.

There are so many things that you must know and learn in this sport before you can even think about making a living from it.

One of the main pitfalls is a person not temperamentally suited to it. I have often thought that this was my main drawback, but I suffered through.

Can you handle the owners of dogs? This is a major, major factor because the dogs do not pay you, the people do. Are you an introvert that has problems relating to people even though you relate to dogs on a superior level? If you cannot relate to people, forget it. This means people working for you also. Now, to you young people who still want to handle dogs for a living, jump in and give it a try. If it does not pan out, make your fortune another way and show dogs as a hobby.

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