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?

Vanna, Can I Buy a Title?

Sometimes I wonder whether I should rename the blog to What the Hell is AKC Doing Now?. I completely understand that having the organization lose money is a loss for all of us, but sometimes their desire to wring every possible dollar out of the dog-owning public is just so naked it's embarrassing to watch.

Thus it is with the new AKC Therapy Dog (THD) title. For the price of your time and a mere $20, you too can buy a Therapy Dog title from AKC!

Please don't get me wrong. Therapy dogs provide wonderful, valuable help and service to so many people, from shy kids struggling to read aloud to lonely seniors in nursing homes to hospital patients missing their own pets. Therapy work requires training, patience, and an unwavering commitment to helping improve others' lives at the same day and time every single week, rain or shine, month after month after year. It's something that I have always wanted to do, and have always been too short of reliable time slots — but as an AKC CGC evaluator, I'm always especially proud when one of "my" teams expresses a desire to go on to do therapy work. (I did look into becoming a TDI evaluator in order to help make therapy certification more available here in Maine. The organization quite rightly requires evaluators to do therapy work for a year first, even if you are a CGC tester already. This goes to the top of my "when I retire" list.) We need to have more therapy teams in the world, and any method that encourages people to engage in therapy work with their dogs is a Good Thing.

So what is my objection to the new THD title? For one thing, it marks a major departure from the way one normally earns an AKC title -- at AKC events, with AKC sanctioning. Just because I do CPE agility and APDT rally doesn't mean I can go back to AKC, wave those title certificates, and say "Hey, gimme one of those AKC titles. I have the papers to show I've earned one. Oh, and here's $20."

I don't really even object to the fact that the THD is the first non-competitive title that AKC has ever offered. (I'll get to CGC later.) What I do object to is the fact that AKC doesn't really even oversee the earning of the title; that work is left to whichever organization certified the therapy team in the first place.  It's not redundant to require that work toward an AKC title be done at an AKC event, even if it means liberalizing the interpretation of the term "event." All AKC is doing for therapy teams is printing certificates and offering up titles for non-AKC activities — for a fee.

The Delta Society also certifies goats, llamas, rabbits, and other animals for pet-assisted therapy. If I give AKC $20, can my goat have a title? (Actually, no — unless I register it as a mixed breed first.)

CGC: So What Am I, Chopped Liver?

Where does this leave the CGC (Canine Good Citizen), the red-headed stepchild of AKC titles? Well, CGC is not exactly an official title — it's a certificate. You're not allowed to include it in your dog's list of titles when entering AKC competition events, nor does the CGC appear on any of your dog's other title certificates. Many — perhaps even most — of the therapy teams out there started with the CGC, but the record of that CGC is buried in another database far, far away from the "cool" AKC activities.

Despite its subterranean profile, you don't get the CGC for nothing. Some people train on their own, and some enroll in CGC classes to learn the 10 exercises (all of which are part of the therapy certification programs as well). Both approaches require investments of time and money, and the exam costs extra for those people not enrolled in the training classes. If you pass, you have to send your evaluation sheet and $10 to AKC for your certificate. How about if we CGC graduates send AKC $20 so we can have titles too?

If AKC's objection to legitimizing the CGC lies with the fact that they only get $10 per dog, then perhaps it could adopt a three-tiered program such as the UK Kennel Club's Good Citizen Dog Training scheme. Dog/owner teams can work toward Bronze, Silver, or Gold levels of training, learning such valuable skills along the way as an emergency stop and "go to your place." This approach ought to be good for at least $30, plus the opportunity to sell the associated swag.

Don't even get me started on the amount of effort, love, time, and training that puppy raisers for programs such as NEADS and Guiding Eyes for the Blind put into their charges before the pups go on to lives as working service dogs. If those people and those puppies haven't earned the right to recognition, could they please get a title of their own for $20? Better still, give them their certificates for free. They're the only group for which success means having to give back the dog at the end.

Okay, we get it. AKC is changing its slogan from "We're the Dogs' Champion" to "We're the Dollars' Champion" — but at least be consistent about it, folks. Put something behind the sale of THD titles, or make titles easy enough for all of us to buy that we can get them at Big Lots, where they hang next to the AKC-branded Made-in-China dog treats and the AKC-branded Post-Its with the adhesive that doesn't stick to anything. That, at least, would be the honest approach.

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

The Obligatory Look Back, and Where We Go From Here

At the end of every old year/start of every new year, it's customary to look back at the year you've just slogged through and try to assess what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks just happened. Top 10 lists abound, as do pleas to vote for the Best Whatever of 2008. Given the state of things these days, there are plenty of Worsts out there, as well.

I don't feel any sense of loss in saying goodbye to old 2008, though for us, it will be the Year Dinah Finally Finished, Dammit. Just for chuckles, I scanned the past year's blog posts to compile the year's statistics. We really didn't show that much in 2008, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Here's what we did in 2008:

• 6 AKC shows, 4 BOS, 1 WB at a Regional Specialty, 2 majors


• 3 CKC shows, 9 CKC points, 1 WB at a National Specialty


• 6 eaten entries, 4 more where we pulled out before entries closed


• 1 broken major


• 3 UKC shows, 85 UKC points, 3 BOBs, 1 major, 1 Group 3

Some folks have told me that I'm a masochist for doing this, but I went back and calculated how many shows it took to finish Dinah. 30! 30 frickin' shows (if you count Saturdays and Sundays separately) -- and that doesn't count all of the ones where we ate the entries due to lack of competition! Granted, we did almost all of our early showing in places where Trav was the only other Beardie, so there were no points to be had. I probably should count them as lessons, since puppy entries were (at the time) cheaper than handling classes. However, the AKC counts them as shows, and so must I.

However, I am NOT brave enough to calculate how much money we spent getting there. I'm afraid I might cry.

You'll have to forgive me if I avert my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears, and sing "La la la la la la, I can't heeeeear you" every time I get reports of someone else finishing a puppy in three shows, going BOB or BOS over a dozen specials for a bazillion-point major every time. We never had that kind of luck. It was such a struggle for us that I just plain don't want to hear it. Congratulations. I'm glad for you, really. Now go away. I'm not bitter; I'm just tired.

Where Are They Now?

Nicole, the editor of The Show Ring Online (for which I'll be writing soon), asked me whether I've been bitten by the dog-showing bug as a result of my experience. The answer is maybe. A true dog-show addict, feeling just a tad bereft after finishing her first show dog, would probably rush right out and buy or breed the next puppy, and then start all over again. A real die-hard would also special the new champion.

It's not that Dinah and I don't have plans -- we do -- but I feel that achieving the CH is just the beginning of our adventures together, not the end. I'm just so relieved to finally get the whole frickin' thing over with that I can't even begin to think about starting over again with another show puppy at this point. I honestly think I don't have it in me to do this all again. "La la la la la la, I can't heeear you!"

So What's This Beginning Thing You Speak Of?

What's in store for Dinah and me for 2009? Kathy and I have been trying to compile our to-do list. The top of the list for me is to take Dinah back to Canada and get that last point for her CKC championship. Kathy pointed out that we should try to bring her back to the BCCC National as a special this year. Dinah would be only the second Am/Can CH in the Breaksea family, and the first bitch to sport that combination.

The joy of being a special is that you can pick and choose your shows, instead of desperately hurling money at every show within a 300-mile distance that stands even the remotest chance of attracting enough class dogs to make the trip worthwhile. With that in mind, we'll make an appearance at Ladies to support the local Beardie club's first Regional. Kathy and I both have warm spots in our hearts for the Garden State Regional, so we'll definitely want to head back there (and make plans for dinner at that Tuscan bistro) -- assuming we're home from the National in time. Since I have to show up to the BCCA National in Minneapolis anyway and the Burfitts will be there, Dinah might as well come along. At this point, Dinah's 2009 career as a special will probably be limited to those shows. We haven't the time or money -- or the need or desire -- to put Dinah out on the specials circuit every weekend. Kathy has a life, too -- and dogs of her own as well as other clients. It's Diva's turn to be at the top of the show-handling food chain.

Since the BCCC National is coming to Quebec (the closest thing we'll ever have to a local National Specialty), we'd be crazy not to go. Kathy and I would both like to show Dinah there as a special -- so we can plan on two Canadian shows this year.

There's always UKC, too. We've made it this far in one weekend, even with our pulling from the last show due to burnout. We might as well get that done.

Performance Events: Sticking With What We Know

Whatever will we do with all of the extra time and money we'll have now that we're not going to so many dog shows?! We've been enjoying our Tuesday-night agility classes with Auntie Cindy, and Dinah just keeps getting better and better. She improves by leaps and Beardie bounces. I improve by baby steps at best, but my handling is getting just the teensiest bit better. We're not ready for trialing just yet (as our performance at our first CPE trial strongly suggested), but we'll have more time to practice. With the money I'm not spending at dog shows, I can purchase some more equipment (or materials to make some) and a subscription to Clean Run.

Dinah also accompanies Seamus and me to Sunday morning rally-roo classes. I have her enrolled in Auntie Judy's Novice class, which meets just after Seamus's Advanced/Excellent class. I don't think Dinah sees the point of rally just yet -- why stop so many times when you could fly around the ring and really have some fun? -- but she does the best she can to humor me. Seamus loves to work for the sake of working, but Dinah's work ethic is a little different. She wants to know why one would bother. If you give her a good enough reason, she'll put her heart and soul into it.

Me to Charlie: Jump!
Charlie: Nah. Been there, done that. Ask one of the kids to jump.
Me to Seamus: Jump!
Seamus: Yes, ma'am!
Me to Dinah: Jump!
Dinah: Why?

I confess to being the world's laziest trainer, which partially explains why Dinah's littermate Buffy already has about 658 performance titles after her name while we have only two. Add to that my stage fright, and it's a wonder any of my dogs have ever earned titles at all. Duncan the Wonder Dog really only needed me to sign the entry checks and drive him to events; he could have done everything else without me.

But What About the Blog?

Ah, not to worry. I'll still have plenty to say in between shows. As an owner-handler, I'm still very much on the newbie end of the scale -- so there are plenty of newbie adventures to be had. Here's to 2009!

No Joy in Mudville, But Plenty of Mud

Time for another chorus of that old song: Why, oh why, do we do this, again?

Of course we can't win them all. Ask most exhibitors and they'll probably say that their dogs lose more often than they win. Still, Dinah's been "pointed out" since last June, and we still just can't seem to get those gawdforsaken majors done. This means that aside from the Canadian and UKC shows, every single show we've entered since then has been a failed attempt at trying to get those majors. Every single one. Even when we've won, we've lost: someone doesn't bring a bitch entry, the major breaks, and we've taken two points from someone else who could really have used them.

We gave it another shot this weekend. I drove through friggin' Tropical Storm Hanna to the Red Roof Inn in Milford, CT on a day when I would much rather have stayed home with my sweetie and all my dogs, watching our Netflix rentals and making popcorn. But noooooo. There I was on friggin' I-95 in Providence, half-blinded and half-deafened by the rain pounding on my car, trying to get to the hotel so I wouldn't have to drive five hours to a show on show day. I got stuck in traffic behind one car crash, and passed a couple of others.

Not that we're afraid of a little rain, or even a lot of it. Dinah thrives in crappy weather. She loves showing in mud, and she doesn't care if her feet get wet. Maybe it's the British heritage thing.

We did have mud at the show. The rings were actually pretty dry, but there were some major mud grooves cut into the fields where vehicles sank a little getting into and out of the parking areas. We brought Dinah to the ring in boots.

All six bitches were in the Open class at the Tarrytown show, even the ones who were being shown by their breeders. It was a massively competitive class, with nary a bad one in the bunch. The usual "big hats" were there, plus a couple of the top breeder/owner/handlers. Every single entry was beautiful, impeccably groomed, and worthy of the major. The judge placed Dinah fifth out of the six. He wasn't grossly confused like the last judge we faced last time we tried for a major. It simply wasn't her day. Again.

Dinah just wasn't "on" today, and when you're faced with a lineup like the one we faced, it isn't enough just to go in there and look pretty good. You really have to shine -- but she didn't shine, and so she ended up in the penultimate spot in the pack.

There's no shame in being beaten by a lineup like that, but I just can't help but wonder if it will ever be our turn. I have a friend who finally just spayed her bitch at age 8 after failing to get her majors and finish her. She's a beautiful girl who just doesn't happen to like showing very much -- which is generally not Dinah's problem. I just can't see myself still trying to get those same majors for five or six more years, when a single show entry will be above $50 and entries will be down so low that it will take two male Beardies to make a major -- but the AKC will keep the number of bitches at six just to keep things interesting.

When I talked to Greg on the phone afterward, he asked me whether it might not be time to just give up. I couldn't give him an answer.

We're approaching the part of the year when we can pretty much count the number of shows we're entering between now and New Year's (probably two). Because winter comes early and stays late in this latitude, the new year won't start up for us again until next April. Come spring, we'll have a whole new crop of hot competitors to face. They'll all finish in 3-4 shows and we'll still be plugging along.

Kathy's trying to help strategize by creating the perfect conditions for Dinah to win. The show is preferably outdoors, not too hot, and she gets to play with at least one of her buddies. Of course we'll have Great Bait there, and we won't have shown her every day of a three-day weekend.

We have to keep hoping that day will come (actually, "those days", since we still need two majors) -- but when?

Tempus Fudge-It

Last night I emailed back and forth with my friend Pat in Ohio. As with almost every conversation about show entries this year, ours turned to the fact that entry numbers are in the proverbial toilet. Pat's one of those real die-hards who is out there showing every single weekend, taking the old Monster Van as far as it needs to go -- even to the FCI World Show in Mexico last year. She bemoaned the fact that sometimes she'd drive hundreds of miles to find that no one else had shown up, or that judging programs would come back and the only entries would be her dogs. This in Ohio, convenient to just about every decent-sized show location between the two coasts, plus Canada!

Anyway, in talking to Pat it suddenly hit me that we haven't had a major in Beardies in the Northeast since last December's Boston shows. Small wonder the pickings seem so slim -- I'd say that going 6 months without a major would narrow down the field of possibility some.

Since my luck is my luck, of course there are majors for both dogs and bitches in Beardies over July 4th weekend, when I won't even be here. Apparently Linda was successful in recruiting a bunch of people to come to Springfield (ugh, Springfield) and show that weekend. But would they come to Maine to either of our supported entries? Nooooooo. So much for the "supported" part of "supported entry."

If You Can't Beat 'Em (Because There's No One to Beat), Steward For 'Em

BCCME's second supported entry of the year, at the Penobscot Valley KC shows, seemed like a sure thing to us. School would be out, it would be summer in Maine, the sun would shine, and the lobster would be plentiful (if not exactly cheap). We figured that the weather would be more predictable (by Maine standards, anyway) than it usually is in May. If enough people showed enthusiasm for that weekend, we might even expand to holding a regional specialty then in future years! We felt like real heroes for supporting our local kennel clubs.

In theory, it seemed like a nice idea. In practice, we ended up drawing only 4 class bitches, and Val and Pat and I were the only Mainiacs who showed up. I decided (yet again) to leave Dinah at home and go play ring steward for the weekend. At least Trav took BOB both days, which pleased Val and Pat.

After some initial confusion when the head steward assigned two stewards to the same ring, I managed to end up working a ring with Jean Fournier, who was charming, gracious to everyone, and a lot of fun to work with. After she found out that it was my second time running a ring solo, she continually encouraged me and gave me some tips to help speed things up and keep the ring running on time.

I had great fun working across the table from an experienced steward from the Vacationland club. As the day grew progressively hotter and more humid, we peeled off layers, fanned each other, and compared notes about freezing at Acton in May. We joked about the hot spaghetti, hot chowder, and hot coffee we had for lunch (but it was good, and free, and we enjoyed it thoroughly anyway). We fantasized about ice cream sundaes and trips to the beach. We hoarded hand wipes for our judges and shared the walkie-talkie. Other stewards dropped by to visit and to hand out numbers while we were busy directing ring traffic.

Ring stewards share a kind of camaraderie that's unique among groups of dog show attendees. Once you've been initiated into the club, you get to keep company with a friendly, funny gang of self-described masochists. The experienced stewards band together to help the fledglings, and come armed with a wealth of "war stories" and helpful hints. The venue may change, the hosting club may change, but the legion of stewards is always the same.

You can always spot a show that's chaired by a ring steward (Vacationland being a great example). The coolers under the ring tables are always stocked. Volunteers come by with hot and cold drinks, extra hand wipes, Band-Aids, and other necessities. Everything runs on time. If you're stewarding at such a show, it's easy to get spoiled by all the care and attention. This show wasn't such an example -- we were lucky to see a single hand wipe per judge by the time Sunday rolled around - but no matter. We survived, and Sunday's sandwiches were fantastic.

A Quick Shout-Out

Steph and Bowie of Run Bowie! fame were in my ring on Saturday at the Penobscot show! I'd been hoping to meet her for a while, and we finally ended up in the same place. The two of them worked together nicely in the ring from what I could see, and I hope they do very well at the shows this summer.

Road Trip Over Niagara Falls

This week, Dinah Moe and I get to drive out to Michigan for the Great Lakes Bearded Collie Club's regional specialty. My friend Maryann and I devised this plan last year after I set up her Web site. "Think about this, " she said. "Bring Dinah out here where we'll definitely have a major. I'll show her there, and then we can go show in Canada for the weekend."

It seems as though we've had this plan forever, but now it's actually time to make the journey. The car has been outfitted with new front brake pads (cha-ching!), and has just undergone its 150,000 mile checkup. The entries are in for the shows in both countries, and we're ready. We'll drive across New York, enter Canada right by Niagara Falls, and cross the bottom part of Ontario to reach the "thumb" of Michigan. All three shows are just a short commute from Maryann's house. Wish us luck out there!

Road Trip, Part Two - Already

Hard to believe, but we've also just started planning for the BCCC National Specialty in Gananoque in August. Kathy's coming up to show Dinah, Jake, and Diva, and we're already compiling our To-Do lists and our To-Pack lists. August seems like it's a long ways away, but July starts next week. What happened to the summer, and where was I when it started to whiz by?

Of course, I have fond memories of returning to the site of Dinah's first big win ever (Best Puppy in Show at a national specialty at her fourth show) -- but I'm also looking forward to seeing everyone again. It'll be even sweeter this time because I won't have anyone screaming at me. Seamus's breeder will be there with one of his sisters. Moxie's breeder always throws a margarita party in her hotel room, and maybe the lovely Miss Moxie herself will be there. Pat's coming up from Ohio with Merlin (her English import) and a couple of puppy entries. Val and Trav are coming along to split the expenses and share the fun, and we're hoping for a better journey than the one we took to National Capital. (I intend to rent a van from a more reliable rental company. Enterprise had its chance and failed miserably.) If we're very lucky, Dinah will step into the ring with a few Canadian points already to her credit. Trav will enter a show as a class dog for the first time since he finished.

Here's hoping we do well, eh?

New Point Schedule, Same As the Old Schedule

The new point schedules always come out the week following the York County shows. I was just checking them before entering Dinah in the Penobscot Valley KC shows (our other supported entry this year). Here they are:

Bearded Collies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 point: 2 dogs 2 bitches
2 points: 3 dogs 4 bitches
3 points: 4 dogs 6 bitches
4 points: 5 dogs 7 bitches
5 points: 7 dogs 9 bitches

Good news for anyone showing the boys these days. I can't believe we still need to field 6 bitches for a major, though. I wish AKC had noticed how totally freakin' hard it was to get 6 Beardie bitches of any age anywhere last year, and would have cut us a break. At least for the boys' side, since there were hardly any boys showing in our area last year, at least they're making things easier for the crop of new puppies coming in this year.

Sigh.

Pass the Ketchup...

...it's time to observe another historic ritual of the dog-showing season: the Eating of the Entries. At least entries don't have any calories, dammit.

Our latest $60 snack comes from the Springfield shows happening the first weekend of April. Last year, there were majors both days. We knew going in that most of the big guns would be showing in North Carolina at the regional down there instead, but we had hoped there would be more stay-at-homes than there actually were. I'm genuinely happy for the nice folks in the Carolinas Bearded Collie Club that they're drawing people for their show -- and it should be a very nice show indeed -- but it does mean that those entries had to come from somewhere.

Now that Dinah has 14 points and needs her two majors, it's likely that we'll be eating a lot of entries this year, or not entering shows where the likelihood of majors is iffy. Last year, we'd enter if there were a slight possibility of enough bitch entries. This year, not so much. If we're not reasonably certain that enough dogs will show up, we won't enter -- and if we do enter and there aren't enough entries, we won't go.

In a way, it's a shame -- the shows least likely to command majors are the ones we really enjoy. Those include the smaller outdoor shows put on by our local kennel clubs, most of the shows in Fitchburg (where Dinah shows well), and pretty much anything that we can day-trip to. With the cost of gas and the cost of entries and the cost of freakin' everything else, we're going to have to rethink the concept of "entering just for the fun of it."

(Not that I myself will be missing out on those shows, mind you. The local stewards all know I'm not showing at the smaller shows, and already I'm starting to field requests to play ring steward anyplace where we're not entered. I fly solo for the first time at the Vacationland shows in mid-May. If you're in my ring, be gentle with me.)

I'd much rather enter a show where we can have fun. Some of my friends who have been showing for a long time speak wistfully of days when everybody would group together to build majors in their breeds, and they lament the lack of esprit de corps among exhibitors these days. I'm not sure it's so much that people are only in it for themselves as that gas was under $1 a gallon in those "good old days" of fairly recent memory. People could afford to enter more shows, even if just to do a friend a favor.

For Dinah and me, this also means that we'll be doing much of our showing this season in Springfield. Springfield has never been good to us, and my heart sinks just a little every time I enter a show there. Dinah doesn't like it there, and even on the days when she shows well, we have never, ever, ever won. Really, I don't think it's my attitude -- even when we're excited, happy, and she's doing well in the ring... we always, always get skunked. After last Thanksgiving's cluster, I'd be happy if I never saw the freakin' place again, and she showed as well as she ever has there.

The hardest part for me about signing up for an inevitable disappointment in Springfield is that it's easy to throw away $300+ on a single weekend. Even when trying to travel on the cheap, you still have to enter the show at close to $30 a pop, feed the car and yourself, pay the turnpike tolls, get a hotel room for the weekend (and we can't really share; Dinah just wants to play with the other Beardie all night -- especially if we room with Traveler), pay for the parking permit or the daily fees, pay the groomer or buy the supplies to do it yourself, and pay the handler or do it yourself. I have a good job, but we're not rich. When we don't come home with anything, we have essentially just blown hundreds of dollars and a weekend's worth of time.

Sometimes it makes you wonder whether the people who go to casinos and gamble for fun are really all that much crazier than we are. Dog showing even makes golf look like a bargain-priced sport. Some days I think that maybe a crack addiction would be cheaper.

The fun doesn't end with a dog's AKC championship, either. Know all those Multiple Best in Show winners you see strutting around the ring on TV? See all of the camera cuts to the wealthy celebrities sitting in the grandstand? It's not a coincidence that those fantastic winning dogs belong to people who are oozing money. It takes a lot of that old ooze to get a renowned handler for a well-bred dog and to send that dog on many, many road trips. Some dogs live with their handlers until they retire from showing, and don't think for a minute that the in-between-show conditioning/grooming/feeding/boarding is exactly a pro bono on the part of the handler. That's overtime work. Even though most handlers are careful to keep the financial outlay at a reasonable level, a small expense here and a small expense there do eventually add up to a bankroll. That's why the top show dogs have sponsors, whether corporate or simply a cooperative of individual co-owners who share the financial part of campaigning a winner. There are top-ranking dogs who belong to middle-class owners and owner-handlers, but the percentage is definitely lower.

Now, just consider how much fun it is to enter a show against a well-financed dog and a well-known handler. Dog showing is a democratic sport; you can show against that handler and beat him or her, but just as easily (or, arguably, a lot more easily when you're showing to a "face judge"), you can flush another few hundred of your own harder-earned bucks down the drain. I've waved bye-bye to my share, and then some.

Some friends of mine, with a great dog and a modest income, have decided to campaign their dog themselves on a limited basis, simply because their handler isn't as famous as the handlers she's competing against, and they're having trouble voluntarily flushing extra money down the drain for essentially the same results. At a certain level of competition, the dogs themselves cease to matter, and the "face judges" would be more honest if they would just examine the handlers' teeth instead. (If you don't believe me, watch a televised dog show sometime. When the winning dog gets picked, just listen to who gets the glory and the credit. "What a great day for handler Highpower Fancypants!") Small wonder most people stop showing after their dogs finish.

Will I campaign Dinah after we reach the magic CH? I'd actually like to, in spite of all my ranting above. Once the almighty quest for majors is over, we no longer have to limit ourselves to those few shows where we might see the requisite number of other dogs. We can stay the heck away from Springfield if we want to. We can even just show at all of the lovely, local, congenial outdoor shows that we have to pass by while we're still showing in the classes. At that point, we really can go to dog shows for the fun of it again. Kathy and I can get a little sun, enjoy the fresh air, and enjoy freshly charred fairground food for lunch instead of microwaved fairground food.

Conformation showing is not the only money sink in all of the dog world, though you rarely see bejeweled celebrities gathered in the mud and the rain to watch their dogs herd sheep. I was talking at an agility trial with a teacher who planned to delay her retirement as long as possible because she knew she wouldn't be able to afford to trial once she left full-time work. Don't even get me started on herding. When I was new to showing, I was thrilled to discover that a conformation entry cost about half the price of a herding trial entry, and you were guaranteed a spot in the show if you entered by noon on the closing date. "Luxury!" I thought. "Conformation people have it soooo easy."

I've had another freelance column in the works for quite a while now with the pets area of MaineToday.com, the online version of the Portland newspaper (no link because my stuff isn't up yet). It will be called "Dog Showing 101" -- yeah, I know that's not exactly an original name, but you wouldn't believe the number of search engine hits this blog gets for that very phrase. Anyway, at some point, I intend to publish a column on the subject of dog showing for cheapskates, in which I share some of the ways fellow exhibitors try to pare down the costs of dog showing.

If you have any cost-saving tips you'd like to pass on to a Dog Show Newbie, please leave a comment or send an email. You could end up in the funny papers!