Showsight January 2018

Becoming BY JACQUELYN FOGEL AKC National Championship – An Ordinary Conformation Exhibitor’s Perspective

at these meetings. Delegates become a great source of ring stewards for the weekend shows, and their expenses are covered by their clubs or written off as personal busi- ness expenses. The December shows in Florida negatively impact local shows held in other areas of the country on the weekend before the AKC National. Of the 12 events scheduled on that weekend, I am guessing only the shows in Washington, California and Hawaii do not see significant drops in their entries. I have personally wit- nessed the exodus from the Chicago and Cleveland shows as exhibitors pack up early to make the trek south. These are local shows put on by local clubs who rely upon their entries to exist. As entries decline in smaller shows across the country, many clubs are approaching extinction. This can be bad for local exhibitors who cannot travel long distances to show, though I also heard many comments this year about the pleasant side of exhibiting in Chicago’s excellent show site while most top handlers were absent. Flying into Orlando has its challenges, too. This year all of my flights were full of sneezing, coughing and cry- ing children. Air travel today is not enjoyable in general, and travel with a pet is really tough. If you carry the pet in-cabin, then you do not get to have a carry-on bag and you pay for the privilege of schlepping your dog yourself through the airport. If your dogs fly in cargo, then you have to figure out how to coordinate your flying with air cargo transit. Many airlines no longer offer to fly dogs as excess baggage. The fares to Orlando are OK, but the Orlando airport is not dog or assistance friendly. Carts are nearly impossible to find, and there are almost no porters to help with bags. Travelling alone with a dog, bags and supplies is complicated. It’s a busy airport and nobody wants to provide assistance. You will walk long distances to get from a ticket counter to a departure gate, or to a rental agency, even though they are located within the airport. Shuttles to the hotels are available if you don’t want to rent a car, but then you are very confined. The distances between places is enormous, so you can expect to spend all of your time at the show site and in your hotel. It’s just too exhausting to try going anywhere else. The shows and the site in Florida are not particularly exhibitor friendly. Having two superintendents is awk- ward and confusing. The Florida shows all use MB-F, but the AKC National uses Onofrio. So if you have any ques- tions about the weekend shows, the staff for the Florida shows cannot help you. The buildings are enormous and require a lot of walking to get from place to place. I know a lot of people wearing FitBits who were commenting on their 10,000 plus steps every day. Grooming areas are very crowded. All private x-pens must be taken down

I have attended all but 4 of these shows since they began in 2001. The early shows were strictly conformation shows with few other attractions. Since the shows moved back to Florida from California, the other attractions have grown in number and scope. In many years they seemed to overshad- ow the conformation events. This year seemed to provide a better balance with the return

of public broadcasting in addition to the live-streaming of conformation events. In addition, best bred-by-exhibitor competitions were joined by puppy sweepstakes and NOHS competitions to give conformation exhibitors even more opportunities to show their dogs. In the early years I entered because the offer of a sig- nificant cash prize was always a draw, though the prizes I won were pretty small compared to the expense of get- ting to the shows. The truly big prizes all go to the Group and BIS winners, and with all of the top handlers and number one dogs in attendance, chances of an owner- handler or non-advertised rare breed winning a big award were slim. Many years seemed to have a theme for the winning dogs. One year many of the Best of Breed dogs were “rescue” dogs. Another year owner-handlers seemed to be chosen a lot. One year it seemed to be important to defeat many of the top-winning dogs in each breed so the Groups would have a few top-winning dogs present among many relatively unknown dogs. This was always great for the top-winners and their handlers who were not defeated in the classes because much of their tough competition was eliminated before the group judging ever began. At least the AKC no longer pays foreign exhibitors to come in and compete with our domestically bred dogs. Offer scholarships to average exhibitors with top-ranked dogs, but please don’t pay for foreign dogs and handlers to come in and compete against us. Yet in all the years I have attended, I have always felt like these shows were for the benefit of somebody besides the average exhibitor. I talk with a lot of average exhibitors, some with truly great dogs. Most aspire to attend these big shows, but few have the discretionary resources to allow for the additional travel, food and lodging costs, or the time available to be gone for a week in the middle of December. The shows prior to the AKC National benefit from the huge influx of handlers and local dogs, so they are clearly in the benefit column. I suppose many AKC delegates like the meeting in Florida in December, even if no real business is ever conducted

178 • S how S ight M agazine , J anuary 2018

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