Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, happening now

[Nanook]

On USA channel.

Helga and I have our eyes glued to the set, I had to tell her not to get any get dog show ideas, I am not going down that road again. Paris says Amen, she was glad to hear it, and put her head back down on the pillow.

[Gen]

Re: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, happening now

I missed it was looking on animal planet for it today, I thought they would repeat it

martha stewart's chow chow won best of breed-genghis khan

and there was the story of the great dane who was sold (looked like he was starving) on craigs list and his new owner started entering him into competition-he didn't place at westminster, but look how far he has come.

I think it was a male

[Nanook]

Re: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, happening now

It is all online Gen, fear not! I was pulling for the lovely Doberman FiFi, but when it came down to the bitter end, the Peke was very nice and won. You just never know what will happen at Westminster. The Standard poodle "London" who has already won I think 7 Best In Shows this year & 60 some BIS total, was beat in the breed judging. London was a 20:1 favorite to win the whole works.

Here is a link to Westminster site:

Westminster show online

On the top bar click on the VIDEO links and you can see the parts of the show you are interested in.

Here is FiFi's Facebook page, she is so lovely...I think she got robbed.

The Fifinator

Malachy is a cute little thing though!

[Peasie]

Re: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, happening now

little Carpet Sweeper

[Nanook]

Re: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, happening now

Yes the little carpet sweeper is cute, and a fine Pekinese and all, but how can you even compare to this? <span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-style: italic">(notice how instead of body becoming merely a broom, FiFinator has all 4 feet airbound!)</span> </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">
FiFi</span>



It is hard to fathom how it happened. It is an upset, but not the only upset during WKC this year. Another notable upset is the Standard Poodle &quot;London&quot;, who I mentioned in a previous post above. Losing the breed win and the chance to go on to Non Sporting Group judging was as unexpected as if the sun didn't rise and set.



London won the prestigious Eukanaba National dog show and has many Best In Show wins, as does FiFi. FiFi is actually ranked above London. You never know what some judges will do. Within all of the breeds there are different &quot;types&quot;. A number 1 dog of one type, will be seen differently in the eyes of Judge A, while Judge B will have his or her own interpretation of the breed standard in their mind's eye. Since there is no such thing as the PERFECT specimen of any breed, the whole idea of the sport of purebred dogs, is to breed as close to the standard as they can get. This includes both confirmation and temperament, it is a total package and everything in a single event is relevant. To make it even more complicated, the standard is interpreted differently by locale. West Coast dogs are usually much different than say, their East, South, or Northern regions counterparts. It could well be a simple matter as the dog or handler making an minute error that nobody saw but the judge, and pity the person and dog who's not perfect pose be caught even in the corner of the judges eye as she is scanning the group. You never know when a judge will glance you way, so the dogs are trained to look and act their best at all times to get this far. For this and of course, many other reasons, it takes a series of points to achieve Championship status, and those points must come from a certain number of different judges and are awarded points per breed entries. In the case of MinPins in my area, for example, it would take my dog wining with an entry of 12 to 15 of them, and do that three times total, in front of 3 different judges, to reach what is called &quot;3 Major wins&quot;. The rest can be single points and there need only be an entry of 2 or more. it takes 15 to win, but those 3 &quot;Major's&quot; are sometimes elusive and hard to get. Figure all of the above factors to get the points and add one more element:

Breeder/Owner/Handlers. Though there are no written rules about this, it is a common sense thing in the world of showing dogs. It can be very political. Judges and Professional Handlers all recognize each other after a time, the celebratory few of the dog world, in the big scheme of things... and this is where the dog owners like me come in. We don't want to make a career of traveling the countryside in search of the shows with the large entries and then show up, as an unknown, and likely passed over by the judge simply because they don't know &quot;me&quot;. In my case, I stayed home and worked weekends to pay a professional handler to take my girl on the road. It is expensive, but I still think it would have cost more in time and gas and hotel rooms to run around the country and do it myself. My dogs went on vacations and I stayed home and worked to pay for them. None of this is anything I do anymore, and it seems funny to me now, but the sport of dogs is rewarding in so many ways. I quit when I started liking my own vacations in Jamaica more than working to pay for my dogs vacation to New York. Though I had a great job that afforded myself &amp; my dogs to take separate vacations, once I achieved my home bred Champion breeder status I up and quit so I could take more of my own vacations. Lest anyone think breeding a or showing to make money is a good idea, let me just say, if you do it right you are only going to lose money unless you happen to have the Lady GaGa or Elvis of the breed world. It is a labor of love, a passionate obsession, and a vision.

FiFi is the # 1 rated dog, all breeds, at this time.

I'm ot sure if London is or is not retiring after this week. Unbelievable money has been spent to campaign this boy so far, by his owners. It just might be time for him to go home and make babies. Then again, <span style="font-weight: bold">P</span>oodle <span style="font-weight: bold">C</span>lub of <span style="font-weight: bold">A</span>merica Specialty Show is right around the corner in April.