Your Feedback is Needed!

The Dog Show Superintendents' Association released a survey today asking what people think of the new Group Realignment proposed by the AKC. If you haven't been following this story, AKC has been working since 2008 on this initiative. Basically, it splits the current 7 groups into 11 groups by subdividing the Hound, Working and Sporting Groups according to function, and then shuffling around some breeds to more closely fit their functions to the group descriptions. The Miscellaneous group would disappear entirely, and breeds currently in that group, or awaiting admission to it, would be assigned directly to the other groups.

For example, the Hound group would be divided into Sighthounds and Scenthounds. Looking at the proposed realigned groups by breed (current as of July 2011), the Scent Hounds look pretty much as they have, with the addition of the Treeing Tennessee Brindle. The Sight Hounds include some breeds that have been in FCI and/or CKC shows for years (the Azawakh and Sloughi), plus a new breed called the Cirnecco dell'Etna, or Sicilian Greyhound. The CdE is currently an AKC FSS (Foundation Stock Service) breed, and has been admitted to the current Miscellaneous Class this month.

Here in Beardie-land, the Herding Group remains largely unchanged. Some of the breeds that had been added to the Herding Group would be moved to other groups after realignment. We get to stay right where we are.

As with every change to the way dog shows are held, the repercussions reach farther than to just the name of the group you're showing in. Remember that the change affects everyone from judges to hosting clubs to parent clubs to ring stewards. Speaking just as a humble ring steward and as a newly-minted Chief Steward who already has her work cut out for her finding enough warm bodies to cover seven rings every day... all I can do is cry "Uncle!".

Not that these changes will show up right away. The implementation date for the realignment would occur in 2015 sometime.

(And, as with every change, we all know that the ultimate aim is to give more money to the AKC. We know their employees have to eat too, but geeeeez.)

With all the repercussions in mind, the DSSA survey attempts to capture the concerns of a wide variety of dog fanciers, from the ringside spectators to the handlers to the judges. They'd like to hear from you, too!

Take the survey here.

Background Reading

If you'd like to catch up on the proposal and how it affects your breed/group, here are some links to follow. All of these are PDF files from the AKC website.

• Realignment Proposal
• Tentative Realignment Judging Procedure
• Realignment Suggested Breed List
• Realignment FAQ

So... What Do You Think?

What do you think of the Group Realignment? Will your breed be affected? Is your all-breed club prepared to cover the additional expense and need for warm bodies? Is your Judges' Selection Committee tearing its collective hair out? Growth and change are inevitable, but that doesn't mean that they're always easy.

AKC Tries to Woo Back Owner/Handlers

I was never that great a handler, between lack of coordination and stage fright. My hat's off to anyone who sticks with it.

MB-F once published statistics for 2008 and 2009 that show the percentages of wins that go to dogs with and without agents named at entry, and you can see that the majority of Winners and BOBs are awarded to dogs with no agent listed. The majorities change for Group Firsts and BIS, though. Although the class and breed win ratios look good for the agent-less dogs and the thesis is proved that judges don't always put up handlers, the stats don't distinguish between dogs who just don't have their handlers named in the show catalog, and those being handled by their owners or other non-professionals.

You have to give AKC credit for trying, though. Between offering the 4-6 Month Puppy class and the Open Show to attract more AOH entries, AKC is hoping to get more owner-handlers out there with their puppies and class dogs. The idea is kind of nice: a lower-pressure environment where owner-handlers can just show their class dogs and compete only with other owner-handlers and their class dogs. Of course, the honors you can win at Open shows don't count toward a real CH or GCH, so amateurs still have to get out there and compete with the professionals in order to finish their dogs. The Amateur Owner-Handler (AOH) class at AKC shows is still relatively new (it replaced Novice, which hardly anyone entered anyway), but in my time stewarding since it started, I have yet to see the AOH entry get the win where any other competition is involved.

AKC hasn't given up on its hopes of getting more buckage from the non-professionals. Here is a blurb from the October AKC Board minutes describing the Best Owner/Handler. See Page 22, Attachment C. AKCommunicates! describes the Owner/Handler Series thusly:

AKC Owner/Handler Series

The AKC Owner/Handler Series will showcase owner handled dogs at well attended dog shows geographically distributed across the country. The AKC Owner/Handler competition will be conducted following Best of Breed judging in each breed ring. All dogs in the BOB competition (including WD & WB) will stay in the ring after the judge makes their placements in BOB competition. The ring steward will ask all professional handlers to leave the ring and then judge will then select the Best Owner Handler (BOH).

It sounds like a good enough idea, though as a ring steward I'm not thrilled about having one more thing to juggle at shows where we already have Puppy, Veteran, and BBE extravaganzas and their separate groups to judge. On the other hand, we adapted to awarding the Selects after only a couple of hiccups, so this is just one more thing we'll have to keep track of (not to mention the entirely new sets of ribbons we'll need for the 4-6 Puppies). As an owner-handler, you have to at least get Winners for consideration. There's also that mention of "well attended dog shows." I'm reasonably willing to bet that none of the shows north of Massachusetts will be deemed sufficiently "well attended" so that BOH can be offered. If you want encouragement, folks, be prepared to owner-handle at the Big E.

It's nice to see that AKC still cares enough about revenues form owner-handlers that they'll keep trying to get more of them back into the ring. I honestly hope that the experiment works. What do you think?

4-6 Month Puppy Class/Open Shows

Dinah would have been a little handful in the 4-6 Month Puppy classes! Here she is at 18 weeks of age, playing in the mud. (She'll turn 6 tomorrow! Where does the time go??)

After we held a Beginner Puppy class at our National Specialty, AKC solicited input from the committee on how they thought the event went. People we talked to loved seeing the little puppies — it's just too bad that the show photographer didn't get any candids that day. (A lot of photos are showing up on Facebook, though.) Our judge LOVED her assignment, and wanted to take all of the puppies home with her. The only suggestions people made were that the puppies be separated by gender, as the older ones are.

AKC has announced that the 4-6 Month Puppy class is now official. You may show your puppies at regular all-breed shows, or at the newest type of conformation event: the Open Show.

Here is the official scoop on both news items, borrowed from AKCommunicates!...

Four-to-Six Month Puppy Class

The Four-to-Six Month Puppy competition will be open to dogs that are at least four months of age but under six months on the day of the event. Classes will be offered for AKC recognized breeds and varieties as well as Miscellaneous and FSS breeds. Professional handlers are not permitted to exhibit in this class.

Entrants in the Four-to-Six Month Puppy class will compete for Best of Breed and Best of Opposite Sex to Best of Breed. Group and Best in Show Puppy competition will also be offered.

Four-to-Six Month Puppy competition will take place in a separate ring(s) from the regular class judging in order to avoid delays in the judging of regular classes. Classes will not be divided by sex in this competition.

Certificate of Merit (CM)

Certificate of Merit points can be earned in the Four-to-Six Month Puppy class at a regular all-breed or specialty show, at an Open Show and in Miscellaneous classes. The Certificate of Merit, a suffix title, requires 15 points awarded in accordance with the following point structure.

Dogs Competing	Points
2	1
4	2
8	3
12	4
16	5

AKC had me with the 4-6 Month Puppy classes, but semi-lost me with the expanded competition and the CM. I can totally understand why someone would want to get out there and win with a promising youngster, and I'd have gone for it myself when Dinah was still a little fuzzball. I'm just not entirely sure I want to see baby puppies chasing points for the title and being campaigned the same way the adults are. Let puppies be puppies!

Open Show

An Open Show is an informal American Kennel Club sanctioned conformation event at which dog clubs, judges, stewards, and exhibitors and their dogs gain experience needed for licensed events.

All-breed clubs must offer classes for all registerable breeds and varieties and for purebred dogs of any breed eligible for entry in the Miscellaneous Class and all FSS recordable breeds.

Classes offered include:

• 4-6 Month Puppy Class
• 6-9 Month Puppy Class
• 9-12 Month Puppy Class
• Open Class

Licensed and member clubs may hold two sanctioned Open Shows each year in addition to their two championship shows.

The Open Show is a terrific idea — think of it as being sort of like a B conformation-only match with points toward the new Certificate of Merit. This is a great way for everyone to get in practice "that counts." It's a great place for provisional judges to pick up experience with breeds, and it makes for a great training ground for everyone else involved with a dog show. Best of all, licensed and member clubs may hold them without having to give up their all-breed shows to do so.

Most importantly, the event is designed to be owner-handler friendly and geared toward the dogs and puppies in the classes. Champions of record and professional handlers are not permitted.

The October AKC Board Minutes contain information about the 4-6 Month Puppy class, Open shows, and more. See the attachments at the end of the minutes for the details and complete rules. The minutes themselves are fascinating reading, and include much discussion about new breeds in the registration pipeline.

Milestones

The longer you remain in the dog world (or in any community, really), the more likely it is that you'll observe not only your own personal milestones, but those of the community. We celebrate birthdays of people and puppies. We bid farewell to our old dogs and our friends' dogs, and to the people we meet in this sport of ours.

AKC judge Lester Mapes was one of those. He died on June 15 after surgery from injuries sustained in a car accident. He and his wife lived in Monson, MA, one of the towns that sustained the most damage from the tornadoes that struck the Springfield area in western Massachusetts. The tornado knocked out two walls of their house and removed the roof. Lester and Judy Mapes were in their car at the time, when their car was struck by another car. Firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to extricate them before taking them to the hospital. Judy was injured but survived; however, Lester succumbed. This is just all too sad.

His obituary mentions his life in dogs and his equal passion for music and theater. I didn't know him well enough to know any of these things about him — just to note that his time here on earth was still too short.

Lester Mapes gave Dinah her very first AKC point as a puppy. I hadn't yet met Kathy and was still stumbling nervously around the ring with her myself. Despite taking Best Puppy in Show at the Canadian National Specialty, a Puppy Group 2 at another local show, and placing in the puppy class at two regional specialties, Dinah hadn't competed with enough other class bitches to have earned any points. Her perfect shutout score was finally broken, thanks to Lester Mapes, in the cavernous and funky downstairs area of Bangor Auditorium. I guess you never forget your first (point, that is).

Here's our photo from Best of Breed that day (that's Traveler in front of us). Rarely do our action photos include the judge, and it never occurred to me then to ask for a win photo. Try not to wince too much at this display of handling greatness (but at least the puppy's cute)...

Looking through Infodog, I see that other judges we've shown under have also passed. Norman Herbel gave Dinah the Puppy Group 2. Bill Bailey gave her a Reserve in a large and competitive lineup at Ladies'. Robert Moore gave her the 4-point major in Springfield that made her a champion of record, after a long march through zero-point shows and broken majors.

They might be gone from this plane, but they are remembered — and I hope that they've met up with their own old dogs in the afterlife.

We Are Virtually Proud

InfoDog Virtual Dog Show
9/27 - 10/1/2010
Best In Show

Yes, you read that right. Dinah just received her first Best in Show as an adult, and her first in the States. (She was Best Puppy in Show at the Canadian National back in 2006 and had an AKC Puppy Group 2 as a puppy.) Okay, so maybe it isn't a real show, since it didn't involve grooming, gaiting, sweating, driving, or an expensive hotel stay. All the same, it's a Best in Show, and we'll take it.

If you're not familiar with the Infodog Virtual Dog Show, it's an online simulated all-breed show sponsored by show superintendents MB-F, Inc. It's free to enter; all you need are a few nice photographs. There is also a "fun" section where you can enter candid photos of your dog in various categories. Yes, you may enter both sections.

In the dog show section, you may enter with just one show-side photo of your dog, or you may upload front, back, and right side photos and even a video of your dog gaiting. (We have an assortment of very nice stills, but no video.) In a way, this forces you to select from among the piles of posed and candid shots you own to find the ones that would look good to a judge who cannot actually touch your dog or watch the gaiting around the ring. The breed, group, and Best in Show judges' bios are posted as the show opens for entries.

Judging proceeds the same way as it does for any other all-breed show: first the class dogs, then the class bitches, then Best of Breed. Infodog even has little "animations" of the dogs' photos going around the ring to "applause." When your dog wins, you receive an emailed certificate showing the photo, the win, and a rosette. Judges are allowed to post evaluations of the dog they've judged, and some do take advantage of that. I'll never forget the evaluation we received the first year we entered (2008): "This appears to be a quality dog with a correct coat, however there is so much that a judge cannot do in this sort of competition. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that this dog has or will win big." Well, we've done okay since then.

This year Dinah, being a special, started off in BOB. Okay, so there wasn't a lot of competition in breed this year, since there were only three Beardies -- but still, she won and advanced to Group.

Last year, she didn't place in Group, though she's had a Group 3 and a Group 4 in the past. There were some very nice competitors out there. This year, though, was different...

The same lovely blue merle Aussie and some other group competitors from the last were there again this year, though there weren't any Collies. It might be just a virtual Group First, but it was Dinah's first! I was too busy to read email this morning, so I missed the email with the Group 1 inside. Dinah went on to BIS without me.

At lunchtime, I received this in email:

It took me a minute to react (as it usually does) -- and then it hit me. Judging was over. There were no additional rounds to advance to. Dinah had not only won Best of Breed and defeated the other dogs in the Herding Group, but she had also defeated the other group winners! Sure, this is how every all-breed dog show works, and people whose dogs are multiple BIS winners are probably used to this... but all the same, it's our first BIS, however virtual. Maybe a real one is in the cards for someday... most likely, not.

Anyone can enter the Infodog Virtual Dog Show. Get your photos together and come join in the fun for the next round!

O Canada: the Road Trip Movie

Bearded Collie Club of Canada National Specialty
8/11 and 12, 2010
Badger: 4th, Veteran Males 7-9

Judge: David Hyde. Photo by Garth Gourlay.

In a way, Val and I needed to go to Fredericton to prove to ourselves that not all car trips turn into plots for horror movies. Our trip to Minnesota was so Edvard-Munch-The-Scream horrible that we still have PTSD flashbacks from it, and I never did finish my blog post about it from last year. (I might still do that someday, but it would probably end up within the chronology of this blog and pass, unnoticed, into the Collection of Things Best Not Mentioned. Either that, or someone like Rob Zombie will pick up the option for it and turn it into this generation’s version of The Exorcist Meets Sybil. Yes, it was that horrible. Worse, even.) Anyway, we were overdue for one of our own road trips -- so off to the Maritimes we went. We baked in the heat, we got wet in the rain, and we encountered giant spuds on the roadside... but we did have a pretty good time.

When Dinah picked up her last point in Fredericton, I said, “Pack your bags – we’re heading to Belleville!” We’d entered the National two days before, simply because entries closed before we could make it to the Maritimes. If we hadn’t had such a nice trip to Fredericton and back, we might not have gone at all. The very idea of long car rides still makes us both cringe.

So there we were: the two of us plus Kathy with Dinah, Fiona, and Badger -- all packed into a rented Ford Econoline van, eager to prove to ourselves that not all trips have to be Trips From H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. The construction on the way there, plus the traffic through Montreal, made the drive up a Trip From Heck, but we survived. If not for the fact that most of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Quebec appeared to be under construction, we might have made the trip in 9 hours instead of 10 1/2.

The Ramada in Belleville was lovely, with a nice big flat area perfect for showing -- and right by the water for scenic show pictures. We arrived late enough in the week so that we missed having time to explore the hiking trails, but that was unavoidable. Next time, for sure!

Here's a view from Val's and my 4th-floor balcony:

Badger and Fiona, the class dogs, showed on Wednesday, with the boys showing first. Badger was first up on the table:

He's essentially retired from showing, but he still loves to show off occasionally. I brought him along mostly so Kathy would have enough dogs to show, but he cleaned up nicely and looked great in the ring.

Badger ended up taking 4th place in Veteran Males 7-9, which was a pleasant surprise. There were 6 dogs entered and 5 showed up, so he wasn't last in the class. Not bad for a retired guy. He still gets his spot in BCCC history now.

All the weather forecasts the previous week had promised us lovely, 60-degree days and 40-degree nights with a chance of rain on Friday and maybe Thursday. None of us -- especially the hairy members of the entourage -- are huge fans of very hot weather, but Kathy probably dislikes it the worst of all of us. She's the one who has to dress up and run around in the bright sunshine -- while wearing a suit and pantyhose. Can't blame her there. Anyway, the weather forecast lied. By the time we made it to Ontario, it was just plain baking hot. We ended up having to soak chamois cloths to put over each dog before showtime. Luckily, we had electricity available so we could plug in our big fan, and we ran the batteries in the crate fans until they begged for mercy. Dinah relaxed on her waterbed, but Badger just didn't care for his. He stood it for the car rides, but asked to be placed in a crate without the bed -- and then dug up the fleece bed so he slept just on the plastic pan on the bottom. Silly old bluey.

Next, it was Fiona's turn to shine in the baking hot sun.

The Open Bitch class was massively competitive, and Fee acquitted herself very well. There wasn't a bad-looking girlie in the lot. I'd moved Dinah up since she finished in Fredericton; otherwise she'd have been in this class, too.

The judge had pulled out his first picks in the ring in Open Bitch, and then he looked back and looked Fiona over again. He pulled her out to join his other picks, then moved her up to third place. For a moment, we thought he would move her up more, but he seemed content with his choices as they were. Third place at a National is still nothing to sneeze at, and it gave people a good look at Fee.

Thus encouraged, we celebrated with a room-service picnic and high hopes for Best of Breed. If David had liked the B-Man, then he would love Dinah, right? Dinah had been Best Puppy at that specialty in 2006 and Winners Bitch in 2008. With a winning streak like that, she should come home with something very nice from out of the Specials class, right? Even if she didn't take Best of Breed or Best Opposite, even an Award of Merit would have been cause for a victory banquet at Big Daddy's BBQ, home of the all-you-can-eat lobster dinner.

Of course, the big game that everyone plays at dog shows is, "What does the judge like?". Some like good movers. Some like nice heads. Some don't show any pattern to their choices. Everyone scrutinizes the judge's picks and tries to determine the pattern (if any).

It rained in the early morning hours before the show, which to us was an encouraging sign. Dinah loves to show in wet weather; as Kathy says, "She's a mudder." It remained cloudy at showtime, which was a vast relief to everybody sporting sunburns from the previous days of showing.

There were so many entries in Best of Breed that the judge brought everyone in, then allowed the bitches to leave the ring so he could judge all the dog entries first. He would make his cuts, then dismiss the dogs and do the same for the bitches.

By the time dog judging was complete, the atmosphere had started heating up again. I was disappointed that Dinah wouldn't get to show in the rain. Sure, she gets horribly messy, but she plows through the muck and water with such joy that you'd think she actually loved to show. She doesn't really -- she likes it okay, but she doesn't love it. Still, add water and she's a happy camper.

Finally, the bitches were called in. Because Dinah had moved up from Open just the day before, she was placed last in line. She had plenty of time to get bored and fidgety back there, and she made Kathy work to keep her focused. All the same, she looked lovely.

She moved nicely, when it finally came her turn.

We were surprised and disappointed when she didn't even make the cut, but she simply wasn't David's cup of tea -- nor did she feel particularly motivated to make him change his mind about that. David appeared to prefer bigger, longer dogs. Dinah is long enough, but he liked them really long. Badger and Fiona are both longer than The Lovely One. She's also a little girl, and he didn't put up any little Beardies in any of the classes. Anyway, we sadly left the ring and started packing up. Dinah's winning streak at the National was no more. No AOM. No all-you-can-eat lobster.

The top honors eventually went to two deserving dogs: Arwen (whom Dinah has beaten every other time they've been in the same ring) took Best of Breed, and Darcy (Diva's littermate and a very nice boy) took Best of Opposite. All of the specials were nice -- not a bad one anywhere, or an undeserving one -- but it was still a bummer about Dinah's winning streak. Not even Kathy's lucky suit and my lucky earrings helped. (I'm not really a believer in lucky charms, but I do believe in how you act and feel when you have them. It does make a difference when you feel lucky.)

Our trip home took us over the same bridges that we crossed to head home from Gananoque, and we took a shortcut through the farm country in upstate New York that was charming, but not exactly short in terms of time. At least we weren't stuck in miles of orange barrels with kamikaze traffic trying to run us off the road. It took us a good 11 hours to get back, but we made it safely (if a bit punchy toward the end -- we giggled from central MA all the way back to Maine), unpacked in as orderly a fashion as we could manage, and got lucky Kathy on the road for home so she could attend a wedding the next day. She survived it, and we all survived the road trip. Even if we didn't bring home any really big honors, simply surviving the trip without it devolving into insanity was almost enough of a reward. Maybe we can travel again without flashbacks after all.

AKC Screws the Pooch

If you've been following dog shows and dog show news within the past few years, you're already aware that show entries have been on the decline for quite a while. Numerous articles have been written exploring this subject, attempting to determine the main reason(s) for the decline: the floundering economy, onerous anti-dog laws being enacted, the aging of the dog-showing population, lack of interest on the part of juniors, rising entry prices and other costs, the disappearance of the small local dog show... All of these are true and valid reasons, but there haven't been many articles discussing one of the larger and more disturbing reasons: AKC is so determined to make money at all costs that their core constituency -- dog exhibitors and breeders -- is no longer important to them. If they were a corporation, the trade press would be speculating when they planned to divest themselves of the conformation division, and whether they thought they could sell it for a profit.

I personally don't have a big problem with AKC's decision to allow mixed breeds in performance events, in spite of the fact that the decision contradicts AKC's own position as overseer of the sport of purebred dogs. Plenty of mixed breeds compete in leagues such as NADAC agility and APDT rally, and the world hasn't come to an end. What galled me at the time was that the constituency was asked its opinion after the decision was made, and it was evident that AKC would go on with the decision no matter what the member clubs said. If I were an owner of a purebred dog from a breed not recognized by the club, I'd be mighty pissed about now. Anyway, the decision is done, the events are opened, and welcome to the new exhibitors!

Don't even get me started on the long-standing romance between AKC, high volume breeders, pet shop brokers, and so on. When the whole Petland proclamation backfired, AKC backtracked, fortified itself with a few cocktails from the Hunte Corporation's table, and then quietly created the PRIME program in an attempt to woo back the breeders who went off to form their own bogus registries. What's the PRIME program? It's basically a double-secret discount on registrations for pet-store puppies. Pretty soon people can be as proud of their AKC registrations as they are of their registrations with the Continental Kennel Club.

As if that weren't enough evidence of AKC's waning interest in dog shows, the club has been creating rule after rule designed to ensure the extinction of the small local dog show. From piling on additonal educational requirements and rules to campaigning for clubs to advertise on AKC's behalf in the local papers (at the clubs' expense, of course) to ensuring that small clubs forced to cluster to save costs may not share the same volunteer show secretary, AKC has gone out of its way to make it harder to put on dog shows in the first place. They derive only a small part of their revenue from show entry fees and licensing fees, so they've made it evident that they won't miss us when we're gone.

Here, however, is the crowning glory of the whole sad scenario: AKC has decided to start killing off their Best in Show and group judges. It sounds innocent enough: they've decided to start charging each dog show judge an annual fee of $5 per breed. For the judges licensed in only one or a few breeds, this is no big whoop. Many already have day jobs, and they judge a few weekends a month. Provisional judges, eager to complete the requirements for the breeds they want to judge, pretty much pay their own way to their assignments -- plus they don't get paid.

However, consider the Best in Show judges, judges licensed to judge 151 breeds, or even just whole groups of breeds. Annual fees from them can run into the hundreds of dollars. This prospect makes the bean counters at AKC salivate like a cartoon doggie at the sight of a biscuit -- THIS is where they can make some serious judging revenue. Never mind that many of the judges who have reached that echelon are elderly, living on fixed incomes, and derive no benefits from their part-time judging labors. Faced with the prospect of having to pay such huge fees to AKC, it's likely that some judges will drop breeds they don't judge often, refrain from picking up additional breeds that don't fit the budget, or give up judging altogether. This scheme makes Wal-Mart's treatment of its senior employees look benevolent in comparison.

You have to hand it to UKC President Wayne Cavanaugh. In the wake of this pronouncement by AKC, his statement reiterated how much UKC values its judges -- and as a token of that club's appreciation, UKC would send them badges and other small gifts. Coincidence? I don't think so. On the page at the UKC site where this announcement appears, there's a link reading, "If you'd like to become a UKC judge, click here." In light of what AKC wants to do to its judges, who wouldn't want to click there?




-- Post From My iSomething

Newbie Gets a Promotion

Woohoo! Imagine my surprise! This past weekend, I checked my phone messages and found one from a friend in the Midcoast, asking me if I would judge the Working and Herding Groups at her kennel club's spring match. She assured me that I didn't need to be an expert on all of the breeds, and that my eye for dogs would be my best guide. I was pleased as anything to be able to accept.

The only Working breed I've ever had is Newfies, though I've spent time with my brother's Boxers and Mastiffs, and I never met a Rottweiler I didn't like. Come to think of it, the only Herding breed I've ever owned is Beardies. I'm hoping I can persuade a bunch of them to come to the match so I'll have some entries of a breed I actually know.

Anyway, I'm tickled. Even if the position is more ceremonial than anything else, it's still quite a step up for a mere Dog Show Newbie. (This doesn't mean that I'm changing the blog's name to Tired, Jaded Old Dog Show Regular.)

My chances of ever qualifying as a regular AKC judge hover between slim and negative infinity. I've never bred a litter before, which makes it unlikely that I'll ever produce the requisite number of champions. I have been doing my time as a steward, but I mostly like the work.

Anyway, if you're within driving distance of midcoast Maine, come to the match on May 16! The host club is still working out venues and other arrangements, but I'll find out as soon as they're sure what's going on. Come see me hit the big time!