Springfield KC photos by Barbara Lounsbury gallery
The day after Thanksgiving we made a sort of mandatory “turkey” trip to Springfield, Massachusetts. You, no doubt, are familiar with the Eastern Fairgrounds show venue—the place clubs in the northeast turn to in droves when they can’t find a locale of their liking in their designated geographic area. And there’s no doubt about it, the venue has a lot to offer for a certain kind of dog show. By this I mean a dog show geared totally toward the exhibitor, ignoring spectator attendance. This weekend, though, is more traditional in nature, as I believe this is the set of foundation shows which began to use the premises originally, and as such does not get a decent spectator gate. From a handler and exhibitor’s point of viewpoint, it is rather an ideal venue if the judging panels are up to snuff. That’s a determination only the individual owner or handler can really make. Certainly with all the new judges, it’s impossible to know everyone, and in fairness, why not give the unknowns an 
opportunity to prove themselves or not. I mean, if you are going for an opinion—any opinion—you are surely going to get one. How meaningful it may be is another story altogether. I mean, I stood open-mouthed in amazement, watching two different judges award breed wins in two different breeds to dogs which were so obviously lame that it defied description. I would hope that if I were in the position of judging such an obvious problem that I would first have seen it and then withheld the ribbon rather than award it. One of the judges involved I knew, the other I did not. It’s possible they missed the limping, but I doubt it. I almost said something to the person I knew but decided to keep my big fat mouth shut. I do know, though, that neither of these people would ever get an entry from me were they to judge the breeds I show and own, that’s for sure, based on their performances.
The registered handlers put on their Junior Handling Program, which I must admit looked to be quite successful. The program may have some critics—that is the overall Registered Handler Program, but this aspect seems quite positive. The critics are basically questioning the admittance policies of the organization and the policing of the members thereof. As an outsider looking in, I don’t know who is right and wrong, or even if there is a right or wrong. But I would suggest to the people running the program at AKC that an introspective look at what is going on never hurt anyone. Sometimes people on the inside fail to appreciate what the outside individual discerns. I would not reject any meaningful and positive suggestions. All they do is to help rather than hurt the situation, or so I think anyway. 
As a last resort and hope, I trust the delegates will eliminate the term limits. I’m less certain about that amateur class. Ours is the only “sport” where amateurs actively compete—sometimes very successfully—against professionals. It’s the dog that should be winning, not the person. On the other hand, the Novice Class is so rarely used, and so do we end up rewarding the person instead of the dog with this new proposal? I’m not too sure about how I feel on this one. On the other hand, isn’t it nice that the people seeking board seats in March now will be speaking to the delegates at the December meeting, so that “the delegates may carry the various messages of those running back to their clubs, so that the clubs may instruct the delegates about how to vote!” That’s the rationale given for moving up the nominating dates. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!
I thought the televising of the Philadelphia KC show (oops, I mean the National Dog Show!) was carried off quite well. David Frei did a nice job (however, his sidekick left me less than satisfied). Candidly, I rarely watch any of these televised broadcasts. I mean, when my own Skye won the terrier group at the Garden in 1996, to this day I have not seen that on tape! You know the quality of the dogs being shown on TV means virtually zilch to the general public, for whom these shows are explicitly geared. Years ago, I remember Chet Collier telling me after a rather questionable Westminster TV presentation—questionable insofar as technical language and technical 
presentation were concerned—to just stop nitpicking those kinds of shows. He said the message is for the general public, not the dog show people, and, of course, he was and remains right on that point to this very day. David did all the proper things—mentioning AKC and Westminster—and basically was quite enjoyable. The other man, forget it, as far as I was concerned.
Many of you will be reading this in Long Beach whilst the AKC/Eukanuba show is going on. Hope you all have a good time there. I am looking forward to the special International Competition. Too bad there is so much of a connection with FCI, but hopefully that will be minimized. The dog representing the U.K. has changed now for the third or fourth time. Lots of confusion on that one, which doesn’t have to be detailed except maybe to say, “I told you so!” I really dislike it when people say I told you so, don’t you? But I did tell you so! That whole situation in the U.K. got out of hand for no apparent reason. •
