THOUGHTS I HAD DRIVING HOME FROM THE DOG SHOW
by CAROLINE COILE
I live in Florida, so it’s a pretty short trip to Orlando for me. Even so, I had put off leaving until Mon- day afternoon, already in a pessi- mistic mood from the tales of battles brewing over crating and parking and grooming and breathing at the conven- tion center. So I was gritting my teeth when I merged onto the Interstate and glanced at the van pulling alongside. Dog decals. Crates visible through the back windows. People smiling through the front windows. Colorado plates. “AKCNCS or Bust!” My mood changed instantly. I’m headed to the biggest dog party in the country. People are driving from every corner of the continent, fly- ing from around the globe, thousands of dogs, millions of dreams—why I didn’t leave earlier? Okay, so I get there and it turns out the stories about the lines and the crat- ing and the parking and all the things we find to gripe about were correct. But I don’t care. It’s the AKC National Cham- pionship Show, and THOSE PEOPLE HAD DRIVEN FROM COLORADO! Of course there was griping, and of course there was praise. Herewith are the best and worst of the 2016 AKCNCS accord- ing to the official (translation: my) Facebook poll! THE WORST #1) Not being there. Many people questioned when it would be rotating
to their part of the country. Don’t hold your breath. Not only must the location be warm (none of this New York in Feb- ruary insanity!) but it must be in a town with a major airport, giant convention center and affordable hotels. It can’t be in a football city because playoffs could pre-empt dog shows at that time of year. And it needs to be in a breeder-friendly city; why should AKC pump millions of dollars into a community that works against us? As a bonus, it should have family friendly attractions. How else
can you convince your spouse to pack up the kids and head cross-country to Wally World? “Oh, and we might as well take the dog—Oh look! There’s a dog show... who knew?” #2) The “old” building. Are we real- ly that spoiled? Yes, it wasn’t as good as the building we’ve been using, but they used the whole building, not just half, and it was actually not that bad. Except for parking (see below)and crating (see below) and ex-pens (see below). It was a scheduling problem and we’ll be back in the “good” building next year. Get over it. #NotAsBadAsWestminster
OF THE 2016 AKC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW #3) Parking. I don’t know what everyone was complaining about. As long as you got there before sun-up, you had at least a 50/50 chance of BEST & WORST
40 • S how S ight M agazine , J anuary 2017
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