The Seven Secrets of Show Success: Find A Great Handler BY MICHAEL AND CATHY DUGAN continued
“NOBODY ALWAYS WINS AND WE’VE LEARNED TO BE GRACIOUS WHEN WE WIN AND GOOD SPORTS WHEN WE LOSE.”
GREAT HANDLERS ARE GREAT COLLEAGUES: Over the years we found that most handlers helped each other freely and quickly. When a handler needed some- one to step in and show a dog because of ring time conflicts or other problems, good handlers helped out without hesi- tation. It took us a while to realize that in most cases this was done without pay, it was simply professional courtesy. For Mike, a lawyer, it was a pleasant sur- prise to discover professional courtesy still existed. In his profession, that dis- appeared a long time ago. When Amy delivered a Terrier to Bill McFadden it was simply one of many time that they had helped each other out; no big deal. At Westminster, Dogs in Review holds a competition for that year’s best profes- sional handler. When you look at the lineup for the award each year you see the great handler All-Star team; all of whom exhibiting the best traits of their profession. We also have noticed that great handlers never disparage other handlers or try to take work away from a competitor. Because of our success, we’ve been approached many times by handlers trying to get our dogs to show and take work away from our handlers. We wonder if they even figured out that that approach disqualified them out of hand. We learned a long time ago that good sportsmanship is critical for us and for our handler. Nobody always wins and we’ve learned to be gracious when we win and good sports when we lose. We make it point to congratulate our competitors when they beat us as. We’re still surprised when a handler or fellow owner or breeder stomps off when we’ve won. It doesn’t cost much to try to be nice and classy although the cost seems to be too high for some people. We’re talking dogs here, right? Not world peace. DOES THE HANDLER HAVE THE “TOUCH”? Early on in our show dog insanity we noticed that there are stark differ- ences in professional handlers. You can’t spend much time watching a competition without discerning that different handlers have a very differ- ent “touch” with their dogs. The great ones obviously have a connection with
their dogs and the dogs respond to that connection. When you watch a handler yank their dogs around and sometimes even hit them you don’t have to guess that that handler is not in the top tier of success. Ladybug was so successful primarily because of the emotional link between her and her handlers; they really love each other and it shows in the ring. A great handler lets the dogs be the star, not them. I watched one handler at Westminster dance, swoop and pirouette in the ring, her hands casting lovely circles in the air. We, and her dog I suspect, were wondering where the hell she though she was? I have no idea if her dog was any good or not because we all were so distracted by the theatrics of the handler. Great handlers speak through their dogs; they let them be the stars. DO I REALLY NEED TO HIRE A PROFESSIONAL HANDLER? There’s no quick answer as to whether you need to hire a professional handler. After all, you can save money and do well handling your own dogs, right? Well, there is one quick answer. The only good reason to hire a profes- sional handler is if you want to win at dog shows. We’re not saying that some- one can’t win with their own dogs at shows; it happens every weekend at some show in the country. In class and even Best of Breed competitions we see people win who are not professional handlers. On rare occasions they might even pull off a Group or Best in Show win; but not very often. Is this just our opinion? As it so happens, MB-F Shows pub- lished a study they conducted for shows held in 2008 and 2009. It was titled, “Judges Only Put Up Handlers, So Han- dlers Must Be The Only Ones Winning At Dog Shows”. They looked at over 160,000 winners awards and found that 86 % of the winners were awarded to dogs with no agent listed. So, you don’t need to have a handler to win, after all. Not so fast; remember what they say about statistics, “Lies, damn lies ands statistics.” When you drill down into the MB-F results you discover that as you move up through the food chain from class wins to Best in Show the
results change dramatically. For Best of Breed wins 34 % were won by someone listed as a handler and 66 % were won with no agent listed. For Group wins, 55 % were awarded to handlers and for Best in Show 66 % were awarded to dogs with a handler. The tougher the compe- tition, the more important it is to have a handler if you want to win consistently and at the highest level. BUT, I CAN SAVE MONEY SHOWING MY OWN DOG: Alright, maybe the average owner/ breeder can’t win as often as they might with a handler, but you can still save money, right? For the average dog in the ring the amount of time it takes to win a championship depends greatly on how well that dog is presented. We know from experience that a puppy we have evaluated as a potential champion will get finished in 10-15 shows over three to four months. First, we never put a dog into competition until Cathy and the handler believe that the dog is ready to win; not just compete. Second, once in the ring if we see that the young dog really isn’t ready, we’ll pull the dog out for a while to mature. Particu- larly for male Portuguese Water Dogs it’s not unusual for a dog to be nearly three before their brains and coordina- tion has merged enough for them to win. Third, we don’t like to compete against ourselves. We typically have a lot of dogs ready for competition and it doesn’t make sense to win a class while another one of our dogs loses the same class. Our owners wouldn’t be too cra- zy about that either. We have watched many owner/breeders trudge around the ring with a hapless pup for over a year knowing that a handler would have finished the dog in a few shows. So, which costs more in money and emo- tional rejection, handle the dog yourself or have a handler show your dog? Finding a great handler and develop- ing the long term partnership necessary to having show success is an art, not a science. Anyone can do it if they take the time and planning that the sport demands. Larry Bird was a legendary NBA three-point shooter. The fact that he took about 1,000 practice shots a day probably helped.
40 • S how S ight M agazine , S eptember 2018
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