Times – They Are
Changing
As time goes along things change. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not. When we talk about things being
different than they formerly were, I like to differentiate between change and
progress. Change just means not
the same as it was and progress means it’s changed for the better. As usual I’ll let you decide which is
appropriate.
Over the years it’s been my pleasure to judge the CC of A
National on three occasions and my good fortune to go Best of Breed twice. On all five of these occasions it was a
one day show with judging going on for dogs and bitches at the same time. You tried to stagger your entries so
you didn’t get caught with two in different rings at once. In early shows we had futurities where
you nominated a bitch’s litter before the pups were whelped. This was eventually replaced with
sweepstakes and now we have puppy class awards.
The point of futurities was to have enough faith in your
skill as a breeder to put your money where your mouth was. It was similar to horses where they
nominate for the Kentucky Derby, Breeder’s Cup, etc. The sweepstakes was something where you could enter any
puppy without pre-nomination and gave people a chance to evaluate their pups
until entries closed. Both systems
had their supporters.
The National has now grown to a week long event if you want
to take in the whole thing. In
addition to the conformation classes and obedience, we now have herding,
agility, and a variety of activities with something for almost everyone. The size of the entries have grown to
the point where it takes multiple days to judge and the social aspect has
exploded. In addition to the
annual meeting and dinner, we have the Quarter Century Group the Collie Health
Foundation, The top Twenty Competition and breeders, judges, and/or grooming
seminars.
The CC of A at one time hosted yearly seminars with speakers
from allover the country. Held in
the summer when most dogs were out of coat they gave us a chance to learn while
not having to worry about the dogs.
Acconeus Collie College in Connecticut and the CC of MD also offered
excellent chances to learn and talk about breedings, judges (Oh,boy) and many
other things. Alas these have gone
the way of the Dodo bird.
When I first got serious about Collies my mother bought me
as a Christmas present a subscription to one of the best dog magazines at the
time: Dog News. This was not the Dog News of today, but
was published monthly by Alice Rosenthal from the same building that housed the
Foley Dog Show Organization. My
first issue was the December 1953 issue and had a blue merle Collie and blue
merle Sheltie from Ronas Hill Kennels in Canada on the cover. If my memory is correct the Collie was
Ch. Blue Minstrel of Ronas Hill and the Sheltie Ch. Blue Flag of Ronas Hill.
Dog News featured different breeds each month and Collies
(which were very popular) always got the Christmas issue. They had excellent columnists such as
W.R. Van Dyck (Honeybrook) and Oren Kem (Lodestone) and had numerous
advertisements. Though the Collies
were always first with me, I got to see the best of many other breeds, the
breeders, and the handlers. You
also could see who was judging and read about their opinions. The ads featured stud dogs and litters
of puppies for your consideration.
Today’s magazines (of which I get many because of being a judge) seem to
be geared toward influencing judges more than anything else and some of the
wording is ludicrous. The idea of
describing a judge as the “esteemed” so and so is a bit much. Most pictures show the judge smiling at
the camera as is the handler and some of the handler’s outfits are skimpy to
say the least. It would be nice to
see judges and handlers looking at the dog instead of posting as in a screen
test.
In addition to some weird outfits on handlers, the judges
also have gone over the top. Male
judges are often seen in tuxedos and the ladies have evening gowns slit up the
side no doubt to look sexy. Pardon
this old dinosaur, but the focus is supposed to be on the dog not the
people. It may be time to
re-evaluate some of our priorities.
Do we want a social event for the enjoyment of people or an experience
that promotes better dogs? Years
ago I learned that the best handlers were those who knew how to do the little
things that help the dog take center stage while they hid in the
background. Which are you?
Think About It!
