PSA: New Handling Classes in Bangor and Saco

The Penobscot Valley Kennel Club is holding handling classes on the Bangor Waterfront on the following dates: August 8, August 15, and August 29. FMI: Contact the instructor, Denyse Adams.

Petiquette Canine Education is holding handling classes in two locations in Saco...

• August 3-31 at Paw-zn-Around
• September 5-26 at Finish Forward Dogs

FMI: Contact Penny Cary.

Coming Soon to a Show Near You!

Dinah with the Winners' Bitch trophy from the 2008 BCCC National. This photo was taken in 2009, shortly before we shipped the trophy back to that year's Trophy Chair.

According to the Secretary's notes in the July (online) edition of the AKC Gazette, the AKC Board has proposed changes to the Rules Pertaining to Dog Shows. Among the proposed changes is the addition of a Reserve Best in Show, similar to what they've had in Europe for a long time. These changes would be voted upon at the September 13 Delegates' Meeting. Presumably, they would take effect next January 1, but that was not specified.

Here is the existing rule. The proposed change is underlined.

Chapter 3
Section 17.
A club giving group classes must also give a Best in Show, the winner to be entitled “Best Dog in Show”. No entry fee shall be charged but the group winners must compete. The club or association giving group classes must also give a Reserve Best in Show, the winner to be chosen by the Best in Show judge from among those group class winners remaining in the ring, the winner to be entitled “Reserve Best in Show.” No entry fee shall be charged but the remaining group winners must compete.

The rule changes also describe the RBIS ribbon as "any unassigned color or combination of colors." Looks like there might be some room for creativity there. As expected, most of the rest of the changes have to do with inserting "Reserve Best in Show" after "Best in Show" wherever described.

What do you think about the upcoming change? Is it...

• A no-brainer (after all, British KC and FCI shows have had RBIS for years)
• Just another ploy for money
• A real incentive for increasing entries
• Unlikely to change much of anything
• Just one more thing for the show chair to worry about

...or all of the above?

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.

PSA: Summer Handling Classes in Saco

Penny Cary of Petiquette Canine Education is offering handling classes throughout the summer in Saco, but they're in different locations:

• August's classes are at Paw-zn-Around. The classes take place on Wednesdays starting on 8/3.
• September's classes are at Finish Forward Dogs. The classes take place on Mondays starting on 9/5 and Wednesdays starting on 9/7.

Penny's classes fill quickly, so contact her soon to enroll!

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.

An Even Grander Champion

The July issue of Dog Fancy includes a short article by Nicole Sipe on the AKC Grand Championship program. In it, she mentions that the program has been quite a success for AKC, and she includes a quote from me about the program. (Well, it's not exactly what I said, but the editor got all excited and summed up my answer more creatively than I did.) The gist of that article is that the Grand Championship has brought a number of retired champions back into the ring, and a number of dollars into AKC's coffers. Despite my skepticism about the organization's cries of poverty, I have to agree that any initiative of AKC's that generates support from its core constituency without simply tightening the thumbscrews must be a Good Thing Indeed.

Dog Fancy's publication deadlines happen quite a ways in advance of the actual issue in which an article will appear. Nicole first contacted me about the GCH back in February. Little did either of us realize that AKC would produce a scoop of its own before the July issue reached the newsstands.

Anyway, the GCH program has been such a success for AKC that they've expanded it to include additional levels of achievement. Whereas the original GCH called for 25 points to be earned with at least 3 majors and 4 awarding judges, the new expanded levels of Grand Championship are as follows:

• Bronze: 100 GCH points
• Silver: 200 GCH points
• Gold: 400 GCH points
• Platinum: 800 GCH points

Seems like you have to show an awful lot of times to get that far... but some dogs have reached the Gold level already and are headed for Platinum. At this writing, a Doberman Pinscher named GCH Ch Mi-Ti's Three Cheers leads the GCH points race with 543. There are 30 dogs in total who hold enough GCH points for the Gold level, so the Dobie is hardly alone.

Just for jollies, I asked a couple of my friends what they thought of the new levels. Most responses ranged between chortles and snorts. "It's just another money-grab." Some felt that the new levels were completely unnecessary, and pretty much everyone agreed that the new levels were reserved for the more wealthy owners out there. If you figure that the #1-ranked GCH now entered shows at $30 a throw and won a 5-point major every time, that's still a $3,258 investment in entry fees alone. Even if you squeeze every penny till it squeals on every other aspect of showing, there's really no way to cheap out on that part. Factor in gas, hotel rooms, handlers, and the gazillion other expenses associated with showing, and you can see how things add up to put the new levels out of reach of many of us mortals.

All the same, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Many other dog sports require 10 qualifying scores to earn some titles, and performance competitors are no strangers to the concept of "money titles." I've invested in a few myself, between Seamus and Dinah. Although these new levels really redefine the concept of "money titles," at least the money headed into AKC's coffers from the new program might forestall increases in the costs of everything else. If folks have it and want to spend it, then good on them. You might say that the big-time investors are helping to keep expenses down for the rest of us.

Dinah has 10 GCH points with 2 majors and is currently the 87th Bearded Collie in AKC's GCH rankings. With the number of shows we'll be entering this year, I don't expect those stats to soar any time soon. I can pretty much guaran-damn-tee you that we won't be shooting for Platinum level.

What do you think of the new GCH levels? Are you tempted to try for any of them? Have you achieved the "plain vanilla" GCH yet?

PSAs for Today: Handling Classes in Fryeburg and a Seminar in York

Telling Tails Training Center in Fryeburg, ME is offering conformation classes for all experience levels, led by Beth Collins. These classes will help everyone get ready for the Southern Maine Coastal Classic cluster in mid-May.

Classes will be held on the following dates:

• Tuesday, April 19 at 6:30-7:30 PM
• Tuesday, April 26 at 6:30-7:30 PM
• Monday, May 9 at 6:30 - 7:30 PM

Each class costs $25. You may take one, two, or all three. Sign up at Telling Tails' website or call 642-3693.

Handling Seminar in York in October

It's a Dog's World in York is planning to hold another conformation handling seminar with Sue and Bill Burrell on October 1 and 2. FMI: call 363-0099.

Public Service Announcement: Handling Classes in Bangor, ME

The Penobscot Valley Kennel Club will start its next session of show handling classes on Monday, May 5 at 6 PM on the Bangor Waterfront.


Cost to PVKC members is $5 per class; non-members pay $7. Of course, classes are held weather permitting, so stay home if it is raining or snowing.


PVKC is also considering a 'Puppy Prep' class for conformation showing. All puppies must be 16 weeks or older and have proof of vaccinations. They plan to cover technique, filling out forms, proper dress, and other show topics.


For more information, contact PVKC from their website at http://penobscotvalleykennelclub.itgo.com/index.html.

The New AKC Points Schedule is Out

...and here it is: http://www.akc.org/events/conformation/point_schedule.cfm .

What do you think? Have the points needed for majors increased, decreased, or stayed the same for your breed and geographic region?

It's been just long enough since I've had a class dog in the ring that I don't remember what the points schedules for Beardies have been like in the past few years. The points are quite a bit lower than they were when Dinah was in the classes (7 bitches for 3 points, then 6) -- but it has also been correspondingly more difficult to field the requisite number of entries.  For a while there, it was easier for owners of the bitches to get their majors from the crossover points, since the number of dogs needed is so much lower than the number of bitches. (When there are not enough points in bitches to constitute a major, but there are in dogs, then if Winner's Bitch also goes Best of Breed, Best of Winners, or Best of Opposite, she receives the same number of points for her win as the Winner's Dog receives. This means that the Winner's Bitch receives "crossover points," enough so that she, too, gets a major from that win.)

Springtime Rituals

I've always envied my friends in California. The weather generally stays nice enough there so they can go to shows and trials all year round. Here, entering any event in the winter is always conditional. You enter a dog event with full knowledge that if the weather that weekend is sufficiently bad, you'll end up eating the entry. That, along with hibernating from Thanksgiving until St. Paddy's Day or so, marks the "off season" for dog showing here in the Frickin' Arctic.

Since today is the Vernal Equinox, it's time to start thinking about the year ahead. It's time to dust off the equipment, take inventory of what needs repair/replacement/cleaning, invest in some fresh batteries, and organize it all so that an event's worth of necessities can be tossed into the car without too much scrambling. It's time to start reading the premium lists for the springtime events and to think about what to enter when.

Another way I mark the start of the dog-event year is to clear off the bulletin board in the sunroom. Back when I was still actively trialing with Seamus, I'd hang the ribbons and rosettes he'd earned from it in a given year onto the board. At the beginning of the next season, I'd remove them, pack them away, and hang the new year's booty. This has now become an unofficial ritual to mark the new dog-show season. (So what can you do with all the old ones? I had Dinah's BPISS rosette from the '06 BCCC National framed. There are also quite a few people who will take your collected ribbons and stitch them into a quilt, wall hanging, chair back, or what-have-you. This site shows a bunch of photos of finished examples. Maybe someday I'll do something similar with mine, but storing all the ribbons in Rubbermaid boxes in the downstairs closet is still much easier than trying to figure out where to hang a quilt.)

2010 was relatively slim for us in terms of spoils -- we only entered three conformation shows, five AKC rally trials, one UKC rally trial, and a bunch of APDT rally trials -- but we did bring home enough bling to cover the bulletin board. Each one marks some pretty nice memories: the weekend we finished Dinah's Canadian CH, BOS for the second year in a row at our Regional Specialty, her AKC RN and RA and APDT RL1 titles, Badger's 4th in Veterans at the BCCC National... Still, they make a pretty nice collage...

Now that the bulletin board is bare again, it's time to start thinking about the year ahead... and train, train, train! Dinah's litter sister Buffy is now competing in APDT Rally in the UK and is on the verge of earning her RL1 title, too.

As Seen in Dog Fancy

A few weeks ago, a very nice person named Nicole contacted me through the blog. It seems she was writing a small article about the AKC Grand Champion title and was looking for thoughts from the fancy about the new title and its appeal. The article will appear in the July issue of Dog Fancy, in case you're interested.

Public Service Announcement

The next session of Penny Cary's conformation handling classes starts in April at Finish Forward Dogs in Saco. Class spots are filling up fast, so contact Finish Forward soon if you want to get in on the fun.

Public Service Announcement: Handling Classes in York, ME

Sue Burrell's weekly drop-in handling classes are returning to It's a Dog's World in York, starting today (March 7). Class starts at 7:30 PM. last 1 hour, and cost $17.00 per session.

FMI: Call 207-363-0099 or email info@itsadogsworld.me.

Public Service Announcement: Handling Seminar in York, ME

It's a Dog's World in York, ME is hosting a conformation handling seminar with Sue and Bill Burrell on Sunday, March 6 from 9 AM till 5 PM. The cost of the seminar for participants is $50 ($25 for auditors), and includes handouts and snacks. (Bring a bag lunch.)

Sue and Bill are the regular conformation class instructors at IADW. They've taken a break for the winter, but will resume their weekly drop-in classes in the spring. (Dinah and I attended the drop-in class a few times for practice, but we took semi-private lessons closer to home.) In the meantime, you can spend 7 hours with them and get much more individualized attention than you would at the drop-in class.

To sign up or for more information: call 207-363-0099 or email info@itsadogsworld.me.

Here's more information from the flyer:

it's a dog's world's conformation instructor, Sue Burrell and her husband Bill Burrell, will divide students based on their knowledge and present a day long seminar on conformation handling. This seminar is geared towards:

• Dog owners who are thinking about or who will soon enter their dog into a show
• Owners who have already entered their dog into a show
• Dog owners who are campaigning their special
• Anyone looking to learn more about the dog show circuit

This seminar will be divided between the talents of both Sue and Bill as they discuss:

• Choosing your show puppy
• Raising your puppy for show
• Creating a presentable dog for the show
• Presenting your dog to the judge
• Basic and Advanced handling techniques

Seminar Details

When: Sunday, March 6, 2011

Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm - including a lunch break

Cost: Participants: $50.00 Auditors: $25

Includes: Full day seminar, handouts & snacks

it's a dog's world encourages attendees to bring a brown bag lunch as there will be opportunity to ask questions during the lunch break. There are ample sandwich shops located nearby.

Sue & Bill Burrell's Bio

Sue & Bill have been handling dogs professionally combined for more than 90 years. They have shown dogs in 25 different countries spanning 3 continents. They average 15 Championships on dogs each year. Their familiarity with all AKC breeds and most FCI breeds has allowed them to place in every AKC group and win multiple Best in Shows. Their success is supported by a proven selection and training program that produces the highest quality of dogs to be presented to the judges.

PSA: More Handling Classes in Saco

Petiquette Canine Education is holding handling classes on Wednesday evenings at 6:15 starting on 2/2. These classes take place at Paw-zn-Around in Saco. FMI or to sign up, contact Penny Cary of Petiquette at sasanoa@hughes.net.

Guess the Plan Worked!

The following press release comes straight from the AKC Communications Department. I find it interesting to note that the inclusion of mixed breeds in certain performance events was not specifically cited as a cause for the increase in entries. This doesn't mean that it wasn't -- only that there was no specific mention. The Grand Champion program in conformation appears to have lured people back to Best of Breed competition. This release is good news for agility and conformation events, anyway!

THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB’S OVERALL ENTRIES INCREASE IN 2010

-- Records More Than 3 Million Entries --

 

New York, NY — The American Kennel Club^® ( AKC^®) leapt over the 3 million entry mark in 2010, recording a total of more than 3,014,000 dog entries across all conformation, companion and performance events. The growth over the number of entries received in 2009 was sparked by the ever-growing interest in the sport of Agility, where entries increased by 9%.  The new “Grand Champion” title assisted shows by providing an increase of over 40,000 additional entries in Best of Breed.  This equates to more than $1.2 million in additional entry fees to Conformation clubs.

“We were very proud to see the uptick in entries,” said Dennis B. Sprung, AKC ’s President and CEO. “The increase is a promising step forward for our clubs in the face of a persistently challenging economy.  We will continue to research ways to enhance the fun and value of competing in each of our sports.”

In addition, Sprung said, “We salute the finest Agility competitors in the nation who continue to set records; the entire AKC community appreciates their skills.”

The 2010 entry total includes entries from all-breed and specialty conformation shows, obedience, field trials, hunt tests, coonhound events, herding tests and trials, lure coursing, agility, earthdog, tracking and rally.

###

The American Kennel Club, founded in 1884, is a not-for-profit organization which maintains the largest registry of purebred dogs in the world and oversees the sport of purebred dogs in the United States . The AKC is dedicated to upholding the integrity of its registry, promoting the sport of purebred dogs and breeding for type and function.  Along with its nearly 5,000 licensed and member clubs and its affiliated organizations, the AKC advocates for the purebred dog as a family companion, advances canine health and well-being, works to protect the rights of all dog owners and promotes responsible dog ownership. More than 20,000 competitions for AKC -registered purebred dogs are held under AKC rules and regulations each year including conformation, agility, obedience, rally, tracking, herding, lure coursing, coonhound events, hunt tests, field and earthdog tests. Affiliate AKC organizations include the AKC Humane Fund, AKC Canine Health Foundation, AKC Companion Animal Recovery and the AKC Museum of the Dog.  For more information, visit www.akc.org.

AKC, American Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club seal and design, and all associated marks and logos are trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks of The American Kennel Club, Inc.
To become a fan of the AKC on Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/americankennelclub. To follow the AKC on Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com/akcdoglovers.

Public Service Announcement: Group Practice Match in Saco, March 5

The Pine Tree State Doberman Pinscher Club is holding an all-breed Group Practice on Saturday, March 5 at Finish Forward Dogs in Saco. (Snow date: March 6.) Breeds in the Miscellaneous Group are welcome; a Miscellaneous Class will be offered. Come practice for the spring shows!

If you haven't been to a Group Practice before, it goes something like this: You enter your dog's class (for example, Open) as usual, but all dogs (and bitches) within your group and class (e.g., 9-12 month Toys) will compete at once. Since the classes range from 3-6 month Puppy to Open of any age, you'll first see the 3-6 month ring with (for example) all the little Shepherds leading the pack, huge puppy feet flying, and the little 3-month-old Corgi puppies toddling sweetly in the rear. Next, the 6-9-month-old puppies in the Herding Group get to do the same thing... up through the Open class. Spectators are welcome, and all dogs could use practice moving to applause. Come cheer the next generation of group winners!

Entries are $10 apiece, and you sign up the day of the match. Show up between 9 AM and 9:45. Judging will start at 10:15.

Here are the rest of the rules:

• Classes offered are: 3-6 month, 6-9 months, 9-12 months, 12-18 months, and Open.
• Dogs with one major are welcome to enter.
• All dogs must be current on their vaccinations (as recommended by their vets) and free of internal/external parasites and communicable diseases.
• No heavy grooming, no chalking, and no taped ears.

Crating space is limited, as is table space. The match will take place indoors on Finish Forward's wonderful cushioned flooring.

Food will be available in the morning and the afternoon, and there will be prizes and a 50-50 raffle.

FMI: Email Penny at sasanoa@hughes.net.

Public Service Announcement: Handling Classes in the New Year (Southern Maine)

It's a new year, all right -- so new that I'm still writing 2010 on the checks I've been sending out for the latest training classes. Anyway, if you've made a New Year's resolution to sharpen up your handling skills, continue with your handling classes from the previous year, or begin to get the puppy ready for the spring showing season, here's your chance.

Penny Cary of Petiquette Canine Education and Finish Forward Dogs will be offering handling classes on Monday evenings starting on February 2. Class sessions are 6 weeks long and cost $120. Look here for a registration form. Classes take place at Finish Forward's facility in Saco. Penny's classes always fill up quickly, so sign up soon if you plan to join in the fun!

Casco Bay Dog Training Club offers classes in Bath at the Bath Recreation Department. Their class listing doesn't show handling classes for January or February just yet, but visit the page again and/or contact the club to find out when they plan to schedule classes.

It's a Dog's World in York has drop-in handling classes on Monday nights with Sue Burrell. Sue is taking a break this winter, but will start classes up again in March.

Carroll County Kennel Club offers conformation classes in North Conway and Shelburne, NH. Their January class schedule hasn't been announced yet.

If you know of other conformation handling classes or seminars going on between southern NH and Mid-Coast Maine, please let me know at saltysheepdog at gmail dot com and I'll gladly announce them.

First Shout-Outs of the Year

Congratulations (slightly belated) to our long-time Dog Show Newbie friends Barb Rimoshytus and Rio the Papillon! Rio earned his AKC championship at the Worcester County KC show on 12/4. His handler Courtney Pray finished him, and she sports a great grin in the win photo. If you're a friend of Barb's on Facebook, you can see him with Courtney and with judge Ruth Zimmerman. The win was a little bittersweet for Barb, who couldn't be at the show, and who wishes she could have been holding the lead that day... but the deed is done. Rio is now officially CH Brookfield's Slam Dunk, and he might also have some Rally title initials after his name. Rio and his Golden roomie Tazzy have both been doing rally this past year.

Another old friend picked up some alphabet soup at this year's Springfield Thanksgiving shows. Deb and Richard's Moxie was already a Canadian champion, but now you can call her Am/Can CH Cameron's Kiss Me Quick. Moxie's long march to the CH was even longer than ours. Even with the slightly reduced number of dogs it takes to make a major in our region nowadays, it still took forever to find majors, and for those majors to hold. I'll have to ask Debbie how many points Moxie finished with. Dinah has something like 24 or 25, and Rowdy Blue had close to 30 by the time he caught his big break.

Fiona needs only two more singles, and her brother Brae finished this past fall at the age of only 17 months -- that's a month younger than his sire Traveler was when he finished. CH Bramley's Green Mountain Boy CGC and handler Brian Kirk made a great pair. Brae took his last points with another handler whose name escapes me, but whom Brae's owners also like very much. Good work, kids!

Okay, I admit that I feel just slightly nostalgic for those days in the classes and all of the socializing that went along with them -- but the whole ordeal of hunting majors feels somewhat like having kids. You have to forget about the pain before you're prepared to have another. We have no room here for a puppy anyway, much less a litter. Maybe someday it would be nice to start again, but in the meantime, it will be fun to cheer for Cash/Casey, Bonnie, and all the new kids. Good luck this year!

A Brief History of Dog Shows

In the wake of recent big dog-show events such as the National Dog Show in Philadelphia and Eukanuba in Long Beach, this article appeared in Yahoo! News. Not sure how long this story will persist, so enjoy it as soon as you can...

A Brief History of Dog Shows

It's (Almost) All About Dinah

It's getting to be the time of year where we pack up the show stuff and prepare to hibernate for the winter. Dinah hasn't actually seen the inside of a show ring since the Canadian Specialty in August (though I still wish we could have gone to the Carolinas Regional). We do have two more APDT rally trials coming up on the first weekend of December, and then we'll really put 2010 to bed.

All the same, we brought home a decent small collection of memories this year...

• BOS at the New England Regional (for the second year in a row)
• BOS at the Supported Entry the next day
• 10 AKC Grand Champion points
• BOS at the Fredericton KC show to finish her Canadian CH
• Best in Show in the MB-F Virtual Dog Show
• AKC Rally Novice and Advanced titles
• APDT Rally Level 1 title with an Award of Excellence (AOE) and 1 leg toward Level 2
• 7 legs (so far) toward the APDT Rally Level 1 Championship (RL1X) title
• 1 leg in UKC Rally Level 1 (URO1)

Although I say we're hibernating for the winter, we're really just not going out to compete. When the weather permits, we spend our time at home on the weekends, practicing. Dinah's back in agility class with Jim Gregg, who's a master at deconstructing handling and helping you build a successful process. We've been going to Wednesday-evening rally classes since school started, and will resume when the next semester resumes in January.

Oddly enough, working in rally and agility seem to complement each other — all the more so since Jim is so good at spotting inconsistencies in handling that (especially in my case) seem to be handicapping our progress. Sometimes neglecting the simplest things can make a huge difference. Jim noticed that I wasn't taking the time to catch Dinah's eye in the ring because my ring nerves had me all flustered. Keeping that in mind, I tried to keep eye contact in both agility and in rally, and Dinah did much better. She's always stellar in practice; at trials, not so much.

I'll have to remember to keep Jim's advice in mind next time we go to a trial. I've had the worst time doing APDT Level 2, although we managed to complete the AKC RA. Dinah knocked the jump bar on our first Excellent run, but that has to do with bad agility handling (mine). She was looking at me, and not at the obstacle.

The year hasn't been completely about Dinah, though. Badger Blue managed to take a 4th in his Veterans class at the BCCC National.

Dinah's image has been places, too. Two photos of her — one as a puppy, one as an adult — appeared for the Bearded Collie at the AKC's Meet the Breeds event in NYC last month.

Next month, Dinah and Badger get to be supermodels for a day! They'll be modeling couch covers for the FetchDog catalog. We'll all head to the shoot at a house somewhere in West Falmouth, and a local dog trainer we know will help coax the two stars of the show up onto the furniture, to recline in appealing poses. Somewhere, some lucky copywriter will get to struggle with the temptation to talk about all the dog hair that won't get on the furniture, and we'll end up with some lovely professional photos of the Breakseas. I'm looking forward to it!

Seamus already knows how best to model a couch!

We have to spend every Thanksgiving on the road, so we won't be home to watch the National Dog Show on TV. Have a great Thanksgiving, all, and enjoy the show for us!

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!