The Seven Secrets to Show Success Understanding the Game BY MICHAEL AND CATHY DUGAN
dog food and product producers perform. It is part of a $50 billion industry, but ultimately it is the circus. Every week- end, the performers break down the tents, put the animals into trucks and travel to the next show. Like the circus, this traveling show becomes tight-knit and protective of the world they produce week after week. For new owners, this carni- val atmosphere can seem unfriendly and hard to penetrate. One of the problems of our sport is that new owners are not always welcomed as much as they should be, even though they are the lifeblood of the future of our sport. When you attend a major dog show it really does have the atmosphere of a three-ring circus. At any time, dogs are in the conformation ring, running through agility courses, doing obedience, tracking or whatever, while handlers and assistants are feverishly running back and forth to the rings. The ringmaster (the superintendent) tries to keep everything happening simultaneously. While there are many avenues of competition available, we opted for conformation and performance work. For us, if we were going to make the kind of plunge of time and money necessary to win and promote our breed, the conformation ring made the most sense in terms of time, money and expo- sure. Performance work gives our owners another venue to work with their dogs. Television networks, pet food manu- facturers and pet products and services providers spend mil- lions of dollars promoting and showing events like Westmin- ster, focusing on conformation. When Ladybug won groups on national television it advanced the breed as well as our own kennel. And we figured out a way to succeed in a different model. For many decades, being successful in a breed required that an owner be part of the “club” and receive the blessing of the old guard in order to do well. While we honor the many breeders and competitors of the last century who have built the world of dog shows for their efforts and the foundation they have built, things are changing. WHAT ABOUT THOSE JUDGES, ANYWAY? As with any sport, fans love to blame the umpires, referees and judges if things don’t go the way they like. Dog shows are no different. If anything, judges get a lot of heat from the fancy because judging in the ring looks so subjective to new competitors. Once you understand how long and arduous the process is to become an AKC judge, you begin to appreciate the skills and time and talent required. As Cathy was going through the process and now has mul- tiple breeds, we have both attended many judges’ education seminars and training. We’ve had the chance to get to know other judges and get a reality check about the world of an AKC judge. More than one judge has talked about the fact that it took years and tens of thousands of dollars to get to the point where they started getting regular assignments. New provisional judges get paid practically nothing if anything. Instead, a new judge flies across the country to get the hon- or of paying their own expenses and maybe get a free meal, and hopefully an entry big enough to be observed by the AKC rep. The next time you see a person judging at any show, much less the big ones, appreciate that they spent years in the trenches getting there. There are over 3,000 AKC judges in the country but only a few hundred have been approved to judge a group or a best in show.
SO, YOU’VE DECIDED TO MAKE THE LEAP…
By the time you have decided to compete at a high level at the big dog shows, you’ve already abandoned logic and rea- son and have drunk the kool-aid of the lure of competition. Ok, maybe a little dramatic, but not much. All of us started at some point on a fairly basic level. We loved our dogs, had fun with them, played with them, perhaps watched a dog show on television and sensed there was a whole other world out there that had to do with dogs. One of the many great positive elements of purebred dogs and the shows is that everyone can find their own level of involvement and enjoyment. There are thousands of owners of purebred dogs who never compete with their dogs and are very comfortable and happy to live with their wonderful creatures. We never call our dogs “dogs”; we refer to them as fur-people and talk to them in sentences because we believe that PWDs are that smart. We work as hard to communicate that belief with our pet owners as we do our show homes because we want to owners to have a fabulous experience, no matter what level they have decided to play. For many owners, showing their own dogs and compet- ing just enough to get a championship is more than enough. The dog world is a big tent with an activity suited to every desire and need. Whether it’s conformation, agility, water tri- als, obedience, tracking, field trials, carting; you name it, it’s all there for the new enthusiast. Even when you have made the personal commitment nec- essary to succeed at a high level in dog shows, you know it’s not going to last forever. After a wild ride with Ladybug for three years, the existential questions loomed: “Now what!” Because we’ve had the chance to be involved in dog breeding and shows for over 30 years, we now have an opportunity to continue to be involved in other ways. While we continue to breed dogs and compete, the AKC provides many opportunities for judging, ring stewarding, involvement with breed and all-breed clubs, writing, being mentors to our owners and others in the business and build- ing a positive legacy from the success we have enjoyed. An important part of the commitment to participant in dog shows is an understanding that the sport cannot survive unless we recruit, retain and mentor new owners. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the greatest show on earth! In the center ring…” The world of dog shows is a community much like the circus. Every week a collection of performers from the AKC, dogs, dog clubs, breeders, pet and show owners, judges, professional handlers, show superintendents, the media, and
64 • S how S ight M agazine , J uly 2018
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