AKC/Eukanuba National Championship
photos by Eugene Zaphiris and Matthew Stander
As acting president of the AKC Canine Health Foundation, I would like to thank you (DOG NEWS) for the positive support you’ve shown our organization during the past few weeks. I think your reporting has been accurate and fair-minded, and we appreciate your in-kind donations of advertising.
In particular, many thanks for all you did to promote the Gala By The Bay, our biggest annual fundraising event. The final figures aren’t in, but I am delighted to report that we raised in the neighborhood of $83,000, which will help ensure our contining efforts to improve canine health and well-being. AKC/CHF is the largest foundation exclusively devoted to canine health research. Currently, we are funding $9 million in 193 active grants worldwide. These grants cover a wide range of topics, from cancer and heart issues to bloat and behavior.
As new AKC/CHF board member Dave Merriam and I reported at the recent AKC Delegates’ meeting, we are entering into a new era for the Foundation. The AKC/CHF Board is unified in its pledge towards total transparency as we move our organization forward. An independent audit is currently underway, and we will be sharing the results when available; all those with donor-advised funds will be given timely updates. We want to work closely with the AKC dog community in an effort to enhance the lives of dogs everywhere. Our mission is clear and we’re on track. It’s all about the dogs.
— Cindy Vogels, Acting President,
AKC Canine Health Foundation
The five days of dog shows combined with two days of delegate meetings resulted in at least seven straight days of dog-related happenings in the city of Long Beach, California, for many within the fancy. Over 30,000 visitors from the worldwide dog community pumped a good $25 million into that city’s coffers, a fact which should not be lost by Long Beach State Assembly people when AB 1634 rears its ugly head again in 2008! Eukanuba offers a total of $225,000 in cash prizes, to say nothing of paying the expenses for up to seven days for the competing dogs and two people traveling with them from 40 countries competing in the World Championship competition. Additionally, Eukanuba underwrites the show for an undisclosed amount of dollars, so that its involvement in this mammoth enterprise is an enormous one. It is my understanding that next year’s show will once again be held in Long Beach, but this time from December 10-14. Presumably the Delegate Meeting will follow on the third Tuesday, not the second, as written in the By-laws. This date move, of course, puts the event in conflict with the usual end-of-the-year shows, a fact which already is being unhappily discussed by at least the Cleveland Ohio Cluster contingency with representatives of AKC.
Now for the abbreviated report of the seven days, as seen through my eyes. The two-day delegate gathering and meeting I am not invited to attend, nor is any of the press, to my knowledge. I am told, however, that they passed everything but the elimination of the term limit proposal. So now look for absolute chaos in the 2009 election, as four seats will open. Three of the four people kicked off in ’09 will run again and probably win in ’10. Some term limit, eh? One year off then back on.
Sunday night, of course, is the biggie for most everyone. The after-show party features the arrival of the great “Good” Sealy, which earlier had been crowned the victor of the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship. Shown impeccably in Best in Show and earlier on in the Group competition by 
Margery Good, this Canadian-bred dog (whose brother, I am told, is top dog all breeds so far this year in Canada) is owned by Margery with Richard Good and Sandra Middlebrooks. Margery, of course, has a long and illustrious history with the breed itself, so aside from the money she won, this kind of victory had to be particularly satisfying and certainly a well-deserved one for her. Following this “team’s” introduction was the totally inappropriate and annoying speech by the Best in Show World Challenge judge, Karl Reisinger from Austria, who is vice-president of the FCI. Hailing the event as being FCI in nature, which of course it was not—and why the FCI was even involved continues to bewilder and amaze me. His alleged instructions to the three foreign judges who adjudicated on the internationally divided geographical sections “to judge the dog by FCI standards” was an incorrect and blatant interference of an event he was merely asked to personally participate in. Why FCI had any role whatsoever in this event is difficult for me to understand. I asked that very question when I was first told about the competition (which, by the way, I totally like and thought that for a first try went off spectacularly well logistically) and was told with words to the effect that FCI’s encouragement was necessary to get the foreign kennel clubs to agree to participate at all. Personally, I rejected that argument then, and I still do. But now that the event has been run so well and seems to have been accepted by most in the dog community, there is no more reason to continue to include FCI involvement in a show in America. Dealing with the individual kennel clubs of each country directly certainly seems the option for AKC and Eukanuba to take in the future.
Earlier on BIS judge Maxine Beam had, in her final line-up, in addition to the Sealy, the Weimaraner handled by Alessandra Folz, the beagle handled by Aaron Wilkerson, the Akita handled by Laurie Jordan, the toy poodle handled by Kaz Hosaka, the black standard poodle handled by Tim Brazier, and the German shepherd handled by Jim Moses. This was a good, strong line-up reflective of many of the top-winning exhibits in the U.S. today. The groups were strength-wise okay on Sunday night. The Working Group, suffering perhaps from questionable breed judging in some major breeds by a judge just not up to snuff for the occasion and the alleged non-existent conflict of interest that a judge claimed in Smooths between a handler and himself. This was the major contretemps of the entire five days. I think this judge should be called in to explain his attitude to AKC. This is no way to judge dogs. True, a judge can, at his or her will, choose to let anyone in or keep them out of their ring, but why did he let the handler in the ring only two days earlier? The same alleged conflict existed. Either a conflict existed or it did not, and believe me, unless someone outside of the ring dropped “the hemlock” into this judge’s ear, there was no conflict whatsoever. The conflict revolved around a letter he wrote on behalf of the club, asking the handler to judge sweepstakes at a Specialty in Boston the following week. Have you ever!
Prior to Best, the ever-popular ACE Awards were handed out, and the jammed but not sold-out arena spectators roared their approval with one standing ovation after another. Frank Sabella awarded best Bred-By-Exhibitor in Show to the Golden Retriever co-owned by Sandy Hoffen, the Ovalles, and Amy Booth and shown by Amy, to the applause of the crowd. I must say, the idea of having all bred-by groups judged by foreign judges was a novel one. One I did not necessarily agree with, though, as I’m just not too sure which standard some of them went by, although by and large the results of the group winners was acceptable—“by and large” that is!
The first (with more to come hopefully!) World Challenge event was held. Herr Reisinger awarded the Eukanuba World Challenge to the American Cocker from Switzerland. A pretty “dog”, which made a lovely bitch, I thought. I really like the idea of the competition and for a first-time effort it went off truly nicely. The flags of the country parade was fun, but a more significant place for both the parade and the competition should be found in the future. Also, Section I of Europe and Africa was top-heavy in numbers competing compared to the other two sections. That has to be re-done.The full-page Thursday report in USA TODAY was really great publicity, which duly and properly praised the role of Mr. Menaker as the visionary who came up with the idea. It was, of course, totally incorrect in the report to attribute the breeds that represented their individual kennel clubs and countries as representing the “recognized registries” of FCI. FCI has no registry whatsoever, and all 40 countries represented had their own recognized kennel clubs! Furthermore, the practice where entrants were eventually selected to represent their countries needs refinement for sure. There was a known and expressed unhappiness with the way in which selections from the U.K., Sweden, Germany, and France were made. Hopefully as the event matures these problems will be resolved.
Best Junior was the first event of Sunday night and was awarded to a young man from Maryland, Tanner Norris. We hope to hear a lot more from him and we probably will, as in his after-show interview he said his goal in life is to become a future president of the AKC. Watch out, Dennis, is all I can say!
Saturday is basically reported on above except to say the AKC Breeder of the Year awards were presented that night, with Barbara Miller getting that distinguished honor. Perhaps the winner should be announced on Sunday night in order to gain additional recognition, but this attribute is truly the highlight of the Saturday affair. The “Meet the Breeds” area was packed both days, and both Obedience and Agility were heavily attended and highly competitive.
All in all, I would give the entire affair a 9.5 on a 10-point scale. Where and when else can one find every kind of dog-related action on display? From survivor dogs to dancing dogs (whatever one may think of them), every dog activity in America is represented. No wonder PETA picketed the Convention Hall—albeit ineffectively and for a short period of time. They were and should have been overwhelmed by the actions and purity of purpose of the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship event! Oh, yes, at the three preceding conformation shows, the White Standard bitch won the first two days and the Sealy won the third show.
Two other thoughts I should have expressed: One had to do with the extremely good meeting held by the AKC-CHF board members during the festivities. See Cindy Vogels’ sidebar attached to this story. The “Gala By the Bay” was a huge success, both financially and as a party. Many people met at the bar afterwards to regale the success of both the Judges’ dinner, held on the Queen Mary and the CHF gala. Why some people, it is said, topped the night off by attending, or was it crashing, a wedding downstairs in the hotel. Also saw three new exhibits at the shows I had never seen before, which were outstanding. The Kerry Blue from Ireland, representing the “old sod” was extremely competitive. The greyhound class bitch which won possibly two groups and placed at the National was outstanding, too. She’s English-bred and American-owned. Also the Siberian Husky from Australia, bred in the U.S. All making these kinds of shows so worthwhile and putting the finishing touches on the importance of international competition and exposure. •
