The Other Side: The Owner-Handler/Professional Handler Divide

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98 – August, 2024

By Caroline Coile

“What we have here, is a failure to communicate…”

Dog shows are made up of many factions, but there is probably no bigger divide than that between the professional handler and the owner handler—and that’s partly due to a failure to communicate.

Those Spoiled Professional Handlers

A recent cartoon made the rounds on social media, showing a dog show maze ultimately leading to Best in Show. The maze had two entrances: one, labeled Owner-Handler Entrance, was the typical labyrinth of dead-ends and turns; the other, labeled Professional Handler Entrance, was a dead-straight line leading directly to the goal. I confess, as an owner-handler, it sometimes feels that way. But also as a person who’s watched handlers develop over the years, what this cartoon doesn’t show is that the pros already traversed that maze on the way to getting to that entrance.

Ask some pros sometimes how they got where they are. You’ll hear tales of hardship and devotion. Some may have started as Juniors, or with helpful parents, or even pro handler parents, but just as many struck out–often against their family’s approval–to start a career with no job security, no benefits, no retirement, no safety net, no assurance that there will even be dog shows in the future, just a love of dogs and a crazy idea that they could make a living running around a ring with them.

Most successful professional handlers don’t just pass out a card and start taking on clients. The smart ones started young, maybe were successful Juniors, maybe left home to apprentice with one pro handler, and then another, in order to gain experience with more than one group of dogs. They started at the bottom, cleaning up after dogs, feeding them, bathing them, getting them ringside, long before they were ever trusted to take scissors to one or walk one inside a ring. They slept in the truck with the dogs to ensure their safety, were away at shows or at home kennel sitting every weekend (so much for partying with friends) and were up early to start their long day caring for the dogs every non-show day. Many had to give up their own dog to live with the handler.

Click here to read the complete article
98 – August, 2024

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