Orlando Week

The Orlando week is by far the largest of the year anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

The Tuesday show (Space Coast Kennel Club of Palm Bay, on December 12) had 4,764 entries; Wednesday (Brevard Kennel Club), 5,045; Thursday (Central Florida Kennel Club), 5,183, and 5,756 over Saturday and Sunday. This comes to 20,748 entries judged at the all-breed show. And there were more dogs shown on Friday than any other day. I believe it was more than 7,000.

There are several group shows, many specialties and the National All-Breed Puppy & Junior Stakes, which had 1,700 dogs and required extra judges to be brought in. Because of other competitors, the groups for the Stakes were scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Also, the National Owner-Handled Competition was on Friday, with 875 handlers competing. This required 37 rings. The performance events were about as large as the conformation events.

It truly is an exhausting week, but so full of excitement. This was the 23^rd annual show. I missed the first one, due to judging somewhere else. But I have not missed one since. The show was initiated by Ron Menaker, who had the vision to create another event as exciting as Westminster. Besides the Montgomery County weekend, which is the Terrier weekend of the world, the Garden and the AKC show by far are the two most exciting shows we have. These two shows are so different from each other it is impossible to compare them.

The main difference between the two is most of the dogs at the Garden are dogs we have seen before. At the AKC show we see a large percentage of unknown dogs. This is because it allows class dogs, which brings so many great dogs from all over the world. As an example, in just the nine breeds I judged, the foreign exhibits won big time: My BOB in 15-inch Beagles was a visiting class bitch from Chile. She is owned and bred by the same breeder-owner as the 13-inch bitch that has done so well over here the last two years. It was only the second weekend she had ever been in a ring anywhere.

A very exciting surprise was judging Boxers. There was a young male in the classes that was just a few days over one year old. When he entered the ring I could not wait to see his face and movement. I was immediately taken by all his virtues. He was very easily Winners Dog. Going through many nice specials, I realized he might win the breed. When I finished the class, he became my breed winner.

In Bearded Collies, there were quite a few foreign exhibits. The Winners Bitch was from Europe, and she finished. Quite a few of the specials I had never seen, including the BOS male, who greatly impressed me. I believe several were from Mexico and South America. Most of the Old English Sheepdogs I had never seen before.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I got to watch a lot of breeds I was not judging. There were so many Bichons from Korea. One day a class dog won the breed, and several others were really beautiful. There was one class in which only one dog was from the States.

One of the highlights was seeing a very competitive breed being won by a young, unknown teenager. This dog also won the specialty and went on to win BIS in the Owner-Handled Series over 875 entries. In many breeds I saw outstanding dogs I had never seen before. This is what makes Orlando week so exciting.

I always enjoy judging the Puppy Stakes. Here we get to see the future great ones. This year in the Puppy Stakes I judged Labs, Goldens, English Springers and Brittanys. The quality in Labs was exceptionally strong. Several of them won big majors over the weekend. The Sporting Stakes Group was super-strong. I would venture to predict that all four placements in the future might win groups or BIS under myself or others.

One of the things that makes Orlando great is the Bred-by Exhibitor competition. It is one of the very few events that features breeders. With all the ratings systems getting so much attention all year long, we sometimes forget who bred all these great dogs. The only other shows that feature the breeders are the Breeders Showcase at the Santa Barbara Kennel Club and the Montgomery County Terrier show.

This year Robin Novack went BIS Bred-by under “Mr. Sporting,” Terry Stacy. This Springer was the number-one Sporting dog in the country.

The Hounds were won by the Justin Smithey-bred Whippet. This is a fairly new bitch that won the very competitive breed three of the four days in Orlando. In 2018, Justin won BIS Bred-by and the regular BIS with Whiskey.

The Working Group was won by the Amy and Andrew Green-bred Samoyed. They also won this Bred-by group in 2014. They have bred so many really top ones.

The Terrier Bred-by Group was captured by the Wire Fox of R.C. Carusi. This dog was top Terrier this past year and was second in the regular group.

The Toy Group was won by a Pom who was bred by a young breeder quite new to the breed. She has had some very nice wins with him. This had to be a very exciting win for her as a new breeder.

The Bred-by Non-Sporting Group was won by Susan Giles and her big-winning Lhasa. Susan has been such a prominent force in Lhasas for decades.

The Herding Bred-by went to Amie McLaughlin with her Norwegian Buhund. This stunning dog was also second in the regular group.

For Best Bred-by, Terry Stacy had seven great dogs to choose from. All seven have been top-winning dogs this past year. They have accounted for many Bests in Show!

The Junior Showmanship competition is a main feature of the show. The preliminaries were judged by Jennie Hynes and Kasey O’Brien, and they each had 76 Juniors. Dr. Adam King was the judge for the finals. To qualify, the Juniors needed to win five Open classes with competition. They also need to have a 3.0 or equivalent grade-point average. There is no entry fee charged for Juniors. The AKC awards $14,000 in scholarships. First is $5,000, second is $4,000, third is $3,000, and fourth is $2,000. Royal Canin offers a trip to compete at Crufts in 2024 or 2025 with up to $4,000 for expenses. This year at Santa Barbara at the Saturday show, the Best Junior was awarded $2,500 toward expenses to go to Orlando. Alaina Moulton was the generous sponsor. Hopefully more and more clubs will do more to sponsor Juniors.

Quite a few of the top-winning dogs were retired in Orlando. Some will continue to show until the Garden in May. What is more interesting are the dogs that started their careers in Orlando. Many, many countries were represented.

It is hard to estimate how many foreign dogs are shown in Orlando because some of them use a U.S. address. It is safe to say several hundred. Time would never allow for it, but it would be fun to have a competition for visiting dogs. Potomac Labrador held an international competition last year and will do it again this year. I judged it last year and the quality was super high. At Santa Barbara we do have a Foreign Bred Competition, and it is extremely competitive. It makes us realize how many of our top dogs are imports.

It is wonderful that we end the year in Orlando. Besides all the great dogs, the venue is the best in the country for a show. Great hotels within a short walk. Tons of great restaurants, some within walking distance. Great shopping nearby. The airport has tons of direct flights. The “icing on the cake” is the weather.

Michael Canalizo heads a huge committee to manage the show. He works closely with the three all-breed shows early in the week. Dennis Sprung is show chair, and Jason Taylor of Royal Canin is assistant show chair. Paula Spector does judges’ hospitality and the hotel and travel arrangements. It really requires much manpower to stage an event like this. Besides the long list of judges, two stewards are required for each of the 37 rings.

Last year I had the honor of judging BIS. This meant I could not watch any judging before Best. Also I could not spend any social time with any of the exhibitors. I have to admit I enjoyed my assignment much more this year. The Puppy Stakes was so rewarding. The breeds I judged on Saturday and Sunday had great depth of quality. I am sure most judges think it is the most interesting show to judge. Because of the size and depth of quality, Morris & Essex is also very exciting to judge.

There never would have been the AKC National Championship without the great vision of Ron Menaker. His legend lives on through this one-of-a-kind event.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The top placements at the AKC National Championship were as follows: BIS, Shih Tzu GCHP Hallmark Jolei Out Of This World. RBIS, German Shepherd GCHG Kaleef’s Mercedes. Sporting Group, German Shorthaired Pointer GCHG Vjk-Myst Heir To The Throne JH FDC CGCA CGCU TKN BN-V. Hound Group, Afghan Hound GCHG Zaida Bint Muti Von Haussman. Working Group, Doberman Pinscher GCHP Alcher Tmac Witchcraft V Gentry. Terrier Group, Bedlington Terrier GCHG First Class Victoria Berland Empress Of Magic. Non-Sporting Group, Miniature Poodle GCHG Surrey Sage.