Going for the Blue

by Roger A. Caras

  Ribbon Colors

  Specified by the AKC

  1st Prize Blue

  2nd Prize Red

  3rd Prize Yellow

  4th Prize White

  Winners Purple

  Reserve Winners Purple and white

  Best of Winners Blue and white

  Special Prize Dark green

  Best of Breed and

  Best of Variety of Breed Purple and gold

  Best of Opposite Sex

  to Best of Breed or

  Best of Variety

  Best in Show Red and white

  Defining a Champion

  According to the rules of the AKC, a conformation champion is a dog that has won fifteen points, including points from two majors, and those majors must be under two different judges. A major is determined by the number of dogs of that breed and sex that are entered into competition on any given day. One show could be a major for bitches but not for dogs of a breed, or the opposite could be true.

  Geography has an awful lot to do with it. A major for Poodles, let us say, will be one thing in Beverly Hills and quite another in Arkansas. In Beverly Hills you are going to have to battle a much larger field of contenders in that breed. And in Arkansas the great Black-and-Tan Coonhound will require more dogs to constitute a major because of the relative popularity of the breed in that part of the country.

  It can be difficult to get the necessary majors, and exhibitors help each other out by “making a major,” showing extra dogs that are not likely to win, increasing the number of participants of whichever gender is needed. On the other hand, pulling dogs at the last minute can break a major and is generally considered bad manners.

  So when Anne Clarke gave Snickers her win at the Upper Marlboro Kennel Club in Howard County, Maryland, she gave her one half of her major requirement for life and the first three of the fifteen points she would have to earn before there could be a Ch. before her name in the context of conformation. It was a giant win. Rhonda was both bewildered and ecstatic. She and Snickers were both learning with every step they took. And each was more willing than the other.

  Although she is not quite clear why she did it, when Snickers had three of her fifteen points, Rhonda withdrew her from conformation competition. The team went instead for a Field Championship from both the ASFA (American Sighthound Field Association) and the AKC. Snickers went on to earn both titles handily. There was no end to her enthusiasm and thus no stopping her.

  It was a rainy afternoon in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, when Snickers reentered conformation competition. She went Winners Bitch, beating thirty-two other Whippet bitches, and earned three more points and now had her two majors under two different judges. She was showing as if a guardian angel were guiding her every pawstep and she was loving it more all the time. Rhonda was jumping-up-and-down happy. Snickers promptly took two more points in Philadelphia. In Bucks County again, a short time later, she went Best of Breed, beating all the Specials, or champions of record, bringing her point count to ten out of the required fifteen. Her next show in Boston took care of that. The beautiful little Whippet who wouldn’t stop showing and couldn’t stop winning became a champion with two more majors than she needed. Majors can be elusive, as we noted, and it takes some dogs years to get the needed two.

  Snickers is now five years old and has had her first litter, five puppies. The sire was Dual Champion Warburton Duke Whittington, FCH, LCM, CD, CAV. It was an entirely suitable match. The puppies were all large at birth, averaging eleven ounces. People across the country have applied to get on the waiting list for a puppy of the brindle-and-white wonder dog. That is virtually always the case when a winner is big-time. Snickers is a known quantity, and a lot of people want to know if her love of the contest carries over to her offspring. Rhonda and John will wait and see. Snickers, the pet, is good at everything she does. Her titles to date:

  FCh ASFA: Field Champion, American Sighthound Field Association

  FC AKC: Field Champion, American Kennel Club

  Multi-BIF: Completed each field title with a Best in Field (equal to a Best in Show)

  CH AKC: Conformation Champion, American Kennel Club

  CGC AKC: Canine Good Citizen, American Kennel Club DC AKC: Dual Champion (conformation and field), American Kennel Club

  TT: ATTS (American Temperament Test Society)

  CD AKC: Companion Dog (obedience title), American Kennel Club

  CAV: Champion Award of Versatility, American Whippet Club (AWC); Won: the three AKC champion titles, Conformation, Field, and Obedience

  CR WRA: Companion Racer, Whippet Racing Association

  TRP, DPC, CWA: Title Racing Proficiency and Dual Purpose Champion, Continental Whippet Alliance

  AWC: American Whippet Club winner, National Triathalon Winner

  In 1998 Snickers was second Whippet finalist in the AKC National Lure Coursing Championship.

  Despite her shortcomings, Rhonda and John have decided to keep Snickers.

  All of that and Snickers is still a pet who rolls on her back with her legs in the air whenever a member of her family comes home. She loves guests whether she knows them or not. She is, and this is generally true of Whippets, incapable of assuming a position or pose that is not elegant. She is like fine porcelain. It just so happens that this magnificent little dog with everything in the world going for her loves to show off what she’s got, and that makes Rhonda a very happy lady.

  • • •

  A postscript to the comparative stories of Snickers the Whippet and Lizzie the Basset: When it became clear just how well Multi-BIF DC Whippletrees Gold Nugget FCh, CR, CAV, etc. was doing (that’s Snickers’s registered name), Rhonda and John decided to start another Whippet on the road to advanced stardom. Leia (Surrey Hill Good Girls Don’t), one of the most beautiful dogs I have ever seen, was brought into the family. She really is magnificent to look at, and like Snickers is very sweet. There the comparison stops. Leia is just like Lizzie: No way, JosÉ. She hates showing, and so the game stops there. She, too, is a princess, a regal couch potato, and you can’t help thinking when you look at her, “What a waste.” But ultimately the dog does decide. Leia has opted for love and not the rest. She is leaving that to Snickers.

  By the way, it isn’t a waste. First in order of importance is that loving part. If some dogs like Snickers have it both ways, that’s fine, but a dog like Leia is at least as worthy a pooch as the best of them.

  Chapter 3

  Class Act

  Conformation Showing

  The AKC licenses or sanctions approximately thirty-three hundred conformation shows a year. There are two styles of show to reckon with: benched and unbenched. At a benched show, to which admission is generally charged, all entered dogs that are twelve months old and older must be “on the bench” throughout the advertised hours of the judging. That means that people who are interested in finding a breed that suits their lifestyle and sense of aesthetics (an enormous number of people attend dog shows for this reason every year) have an opportunity to shop the world of dogs and get to know breeders and handlers personally. It can be a long, tiring day, but an awful lot of dogs, like Snickers, love the excitement of meeting new people and new dogs. It is a highly social event shared by dogs and people.

  The benching period usually runs from about nine in the morning to seven or eight in the evening. It is an outstanding opportunity for people who are trying to learn what purebred dogs of show quality are all about, to pick up a month’s worth of wisdom in one day. In every sense it is a happening. Regulars sometimes have elaborate picnic equipment, even refrigeration units, that are used for just these events. Old friendships are renewed and new ones are formed. Trivia becomes a species of wisdom, and gossip fills every heart with incredible satisfaction. (Trivia, from the Latin, is actually two words: tri via, or “three roads.” In the old caravan days, what did you find where three roads met? A market and probably a well or surface water. Today you find people showing off their beautiful dogs.) I
t must be noted that the benched show is an endangered species. There are only eight or nine of them left. Most people opt for the unbenched show. You can still walk around and meet people and look at dogs. It is just that benched shows have always made that a little bit easier to do. It is kind of sad in a way. People don’t usually dress up for dog shows either. I liked the old traditional ways. This whole thing of making even dog shows more democratic takes its toll in grandeur. At least the dogs are still grand, even if the people are not. That can never change.

  Most of the people who avail themselves of this opportunity to see it all with the hope of one day knowing it all are practically walking on the sides of their ankles by the time the whole thing breaks up in the evening. But leaving, they know a great deal more about dogs than they did coming. If they make a good impression, they might even have managed to get their names put on an important breeder’s list for a future puppy. That can be step number one in a dream’s coming true.

  At a dog show you can avail yourself of vendors’ booths with leashes and collars, stainless steel bowls, grooming supplies, toe nail clippers, brushes and combs and blow dryers; book stalls with nothing but dog books, of which there are an endless number; art and antiques dealers who specialize in dog art and figurines. Breed-oriented T-shirts abound, and bumper sticker artisans and crate-label, flag, and banner specialists are all there to be of service. There are more ways to make a buck off a dog than most novices realize.

  In the larger shows major dog-food companies have elaborate displays telling you why you should use their products. They give out free samples for your dog to evaluate. Free literature that the manufacturers tell you will guide you toward good canine nutrition and their products is available everywhere. There are kiosks with computer games you can play that will call forth breed information and other doggy data. By the end of the day, if you are not selective, you will have instructions on how to do just about anything that is dog oriented, free samples of all kinds, monstrously overpriced cold-cast bronze figurines of your breed, and 1950s ashtrays also depicting your breed. You can also buy bird feeders, although the connection is, I think, vague. It is, you learn, addictive. It is a good idea to bring a folding cloth shopping bag on one of these expeditions. You’ll need it. A caddie to carry it and a therapist to massage your feet and ankles at the end of the day are personal options. You can do this thing, this plunge into dogdom, as simply or as elegantly as you want. However elegant you want to be yourself, all the dogs around you will be—elegant, that is.

  With all of the coming and going, there is a bit of a carnival atmosphere. (Be careful where you step.) As you will probably note, it is amazing how few dogfights there are. That is always surprising to newcomers. People are extremely careful, however, that their dogs don’t get their leashes crossed or tangled with those of other dogs. That kind of mix-up can lead to absolute mayhem. Anyone not completely in charge of his dog is looked down upon by all the other participants. Dogs and people at a dog show are expected to be on their best behavior.

  Of course, there are people-food vendors, too. You can smell your way to them as surely as a Bloodhound or a pack of thirteen-inch Beagles can. There is a lot of tradition here. The cheeseburgers are characteristically vile, while the barbecue pork on a bun is not only poisonous but ruinous to your cleaning bill. People with mustard, ketchup, and barbecue sauce on their chins and shirt fronts are everywhere. Still, traditions are essentially nice things to have, and the dog-show world is full of them.

  Mordecai Siegal is the respected six-time president of the Dog Writers Association of America (DWAA) and very much involved in matters doggy. He is kind of a Wolf Blitzer of the hydrant set. I asked him to define a dog show as he knew it. “It is many things to me,” he said. “It is part competition, part exhibition, and part yard sale. It is part circus, part bazaar, and a good part great entertainment. The show part is a very important, very meaningful social event.”

  Most shows today are unbenched. Dogs arrive in time for their moment of glory in the ring, and if they don’t win early in the proceedings and therefore have no chance to move on up the ladder later that day, they can leave as soon as they are out of the ring. The cheeseburgers are no better than at the benched shows. The dogs, of course, are just as nice; that is a given—splendid companion canines that are variously beautiful enough or handsome enough to make showing them off one of the most compelling forces in the lives of their human partners.

  THE CLASSES

  Whereas groups divide breeds by type (see “The AKC Recognized Breeds” sidebar in this chapter), the class is the entry level, the first stage in any regular conformation show. It is where all dogs start out on their climb to stardom—and unfortunately, it is where a good many end up. It is where enthusiasm, hope, and dreams have to face off with reality and truth, condition, and more than a bit of luck. (I’ve watched a lot of people ringside, and it always seems to me they are praying. I don’t know if that helps or not, but perhaps it’s like chicken soup—it couldn’t hurt.)

  Dogs, except for established champions, are shown in one or more of seven regular classes. Most of the shows you will attend will feature all seven classes, but on occasion one or more can be missing, although that is the exception rather than the rule. Dogs cannot be entered in any given class if they are a day under or a day over the designated age. In such matters in the world of dog shows there are no approximations.

  In the United States dogs (and bitches, of course) are entered in only one of the first six classes. (In England they may be in more than one class at a time.) First is the Puppy Class, for dogs six months old and older, but under twelve months. This class is sometimes further divided into six to nine months and then nine to twelve months.

  Dogs older than twelve but under eighteen months that are not already champions can be entered in the Twelve-to-Eighteen-Month Class.

  The Novice Class is for dogs that are at least six months old but don’t as yet have any of the fifteen points needed for the championship designation. It is another classification for beginners, a way in and, it is hoped, a way to start the climb that in the end will put a Ch. in front of the dog’s name. AKC rules state that a dog can’t be entered in this class if it has already won three first-place ribbons in Novice or a first place in American-Bred or Bred-by-Exhibitor.

  The entrants in the Bred-by-Exhibitor Class (often shortened to Bred-By) must have been whelped in the United States, or if whelped outside of the United States, they must have been registered in the AKC studbook. They must be at least six months old, they cannot be champions, and they must be owned wholly or in part and handled by the person or spouse of the person who was the breeder or one of the breeders of record. It is a kind of ultimate family affair. (A studbook, of course, is, as its name implies, a record of what bitch had what puppies as a result of a liaison with which proud dog. It is a kind of nonfiction romantic novel. Of course, assigning numbers to these things takes much of the romance out of it.)

  The American-Bred Class is for dogs older than six months (excluding champions) that were born (whelped) in the United States from a breeding that also occurred in the United States. (It is all very chauvinistic!)

  The popular Open Class is for any dog six months or older. In the case of a specialty show, the club sponsoring the show can designate that for that one show the Open Class is for American-Bred dogs only.

  Those are the first six regular classes that more or less begin the climb upward toward Best in Show in all conformation shows. The dogs entered are generally younger dogs, but one or more of them may be the most stunning dogs in the whole show. Still, they must go up through the classes until they are champions of record. The “class dogs” cannot be champions, or finished. That is what they are in those six classes for.

  Important point: Which class, since there is clearly very often a choice, does an exhibitor pick for his dog? The class where the dog has the best chance of winning. It would probably be a poor idea to take an imm
ature, puppyish dog and plunk it down in Novice, where it will have to compete with dogs that are more mature and probably more experienced. In American-Bred or Bred-By there may be just a few entries, while in the same show there may be twenty dogs in Novice or Open. I have seen as few as one or two dogs in a class. Unless your dog has his head on backward or his tail in the middle of his chest, he is likely to win if he has no competition—not guaranteed to win, but with a chance.

  All right then, the first six classes have been judged, once for dogs and once for bitches for every breed represented in the show, and you have all those eager winners and their handlers. This is when the Winners Class comes into being. It comprises all the dogs that have won a blue ribbon for their breed and gender in any of the six classes. There will potentially be a Winners Dog and a Winners Bitch for each breed and class.

  From the Winners Class, the Best of Breed selection will be made. At this point the breakdown by sex is no longer in force. Competitors include all the Winners by breed from all classes, plus any champions of record that now enter into the competition. The overall winner gets the Best of Breed or Best of Variety of Breed ribbon.