the toy group Q&A
out of reach for many families to justify. I understand that breeders spend a great deal of money to test before breeding, but in order to sell puppies, the price has to be within the reach of the buyers. 5. Advice to the new breeder? New judge? Make sure you have the best bitch you can get. Find the stud dog who will compliment her. He does not have to be a big winner to produce good puppies. Remember that no dog is perfect. New judge? Judge on the standard. Look for the hall- marks of the breed and credit them. 6. Anything else you’d like to share? As an exhibitor, remind yourself that you are doing this for fun. Remember that even the judges started from the very bottom just like the new exhibitor. As a breeder, sometimes the best planned litter is not the most success- ful. Keep only the very best puppy. DARRYL VICE
Good As It Gets came out, breeders were answering calls for the little dogs with the black beard. As a group of good breeders we got together and talked about how this could ruin the breed and were careful who we sold to. Sometime the flavor of the month is not good for the breed. Also with Toy dogs I think some people get into them because they're small and easy to take care of. Then they find out that some are much noisier than others. If they live close to neighbors they might try to find one more suitable for their living area. 4. Males vs. Females: How do bitches fare when it’s down to the wire? I put up bitches all the time. The dogs usually do have the upper hand with coat, but I think a good bitch can win anytime. However size to me does matter if it seems to be pushing the limit of the breed. If I had two “equal” dogs and it got down to size, I would put the one up clos- er to the standard. However, I am harder on my group dogs. I may send a dog to the group because it was the best dog I had in the classes, but not consider them for a placement in the group. For instance a breed that might not want trimming, if it was the best dog in the classes it would win. But on the group level wouldn’t because it’s a fault in the standard. 5. Advice to the new breeder? New judge? New breeders need to talk to long time breeders, and the long time breeders need to help the new people coming in. I think new breeders get a puppy and want to breed and show but they haven’t had much help. With that they end up breeding to anyone or dog, which does nothing for their program. It gets them off to a bad start. Also I feel some breeders back themselves into a corner because they continue to only breed to their own dogs. As a new judge, learn, learn, learn. In my opinion, but people are getting to many breeds at one time. They are in to much of a hurry to get as many as they can. I think it takes a long to time to learn the nuances of each breed. When judges say things to me about some of the Toy breeds, like, “I want to do them because they’re on a table.” I always say, “Please don’t.” 6. Anything else to share? I would really like to ask new judges coming in the Toy Group to talk to a lot of Toy people. Learn the type of each breed. Type is very important in our group. If you put up a dog that has no type but is so sound going and coming, not sure the breeders will be happy with your decision. Also you cannot be heavy handed with our dogs, you can ruin them and may never show again. They are not Working dogs or Terriers; be gentle! 7. And for a bit of humor, what’s the funniest thing that you ever experienced at a dog show? Most people would say some of the outfits I wear. We did have a monkey get loose in a hotel room at a show once that was pretty funny, but you had to be there.
1. Give a brief overview of the Group. How did it evolve his- torically? What is its place in our present-day society? This group had two main pur- poses, companionship and ratters. As far back as we can go kings, queens and emperor’s own small dogs for companions. They could be seen running through castles
and playing on their land. The Chinese would carry their small Pekinese in the sleeves of the coats, hence getting their nickname for the smaller Pekingese as “Sleeves”. Almost all royalty had Toy dogs living among them. The farmers and horse keepers along with larger dogs also had Miniature Pinschers and Manchester Terriers in the barns to help rid the rats. Even Brussels Griffons were used in Belgium to rid the pesky critters. For entertain- ment they would have competition for Manchester Terri- ers by putting them in a ring full of rats to see how many they could kill in the least of time. Legend has it, a dog name Billy killed 100 rats in 12 minutes, all this before TV. 2. What changes have you seen during your tenure as a guardian of these breeds? Like any other group, when a dog is doing a lot of win- ning everyone wants to breed to that dog. Sometimes that dog isn’t always the right dog to breed to. I remem- ber in one breed a short back dog was winning big. He was a lovely dog and very flashy, and people bred a lot to this dog. The breed is not a short back breed, but still today there are a lot of dogs and bitches in that breed short backed. It wasn’t good for the breed’s balance, because the breed asks for a longer balance. 3. Have there been any shifts that you’ve seen in the balance of popularity among breeds? Why? I think when a dog is winning in some of our big shows it helps their popularity. I remember when the movie
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