I Love Watching Dog Shows

I love watching dog shows. It’s a chance to see beautiful dogs of every breed, and to learn a little about them. One of my favorite things about last night’s broadcast of Westminster (other than the Scottish Deerhound taking Best in Show) was that the announcer made it clear for a number of the breeds (especially among the working dogs) that these are not beginner dogs, that their owners have to be prepared to be strong and take control in order to have a happy home life with these dogs.

I also loved seeing the AmStaff make the “good pile” in the terrier group. I would have been happier if it had placed, but I can’t complain too much. Of my other favorite breeds, the Border Collie and Pembroke Corgi took third and fourth among the herding group, the Beagle (hounds), Boxer (working dogs), and Norfolk (terriers) each took second in their respective groups.

I also loved the ridiculousness of the dogs’ names. My favorite was the Chow Chow who won it’s breed- Liontamer’s Dial 1-800-Hotstuff.

Besides watching dog shows on television, we actually attended our local kennel club show a number of years ago. We had the chance to wander among booths and talk to people about their breeds, meet some adorable dogs, and even watch a couple of events. It was packed with borzoi that year, because they’d just had their breed specialty show a few days before in the local area. Borzoi are not cute dogs, but they’re a lot more attractive in person than you might imagine.

My absolute favorite part of that show was getting to talk to the Mastiff folks. C loves Mastiffs, and I definitely have a thing for the big dogs, even if I don’t think they’re the right dogs for us. He mentioned his love but also his concern that like most giant dogs, Mastiffs tend to have a much shorter life span and lots of heart problems.

Instead of brushing off his concern, or defending the breed/breeding process, the gentleman we talked to agreed with C, and talked about what breeders of the Mastiff were doing to try and combat that problem. He talked about breeding slower growing dogs, so that they didn’t reach their full size for 5-7 years, instead of in 2. That reduced years of strain on their hearts just in size, but also gave their hearts more time to adapt to the larger sizes and grow stronger.

It was absolutely wonderful to talk to a person so devoted to the breed who was willing to discuss problems and what breeders could do to solve them.

I have a number of issues with the AKC (next post), but also things I like about them. These are people who genuinely love dogs, and they do a ton of research every year into common canine diseases and health problems and how to treat them. The breeders really are dedicated to improving the health of their breeds.

In addition, the AKC is both getting tougher and lightening up in good areas. They now have a registration that lets you register your dog, but does not automatically let your dog’s offspring be registered. This helps cut down on the back yard breeder, which is good for the health of the breed and also helps keep dogs out of shelters. In the opposite direction, the AKC has decided that dogs don’t have to be AKC registered to compete in certain AKC sponsored events, like agility. This is wonderful news because we all know mutts are just as good at performance as a purebred, and since dogs compete based on size, not breed, there was no rational reason to keep them out. (This may also have to do with the fact that their long time sponsor, Pedigree, has focused their campaign around shelter dogs for the last few years.)

The AKC is learning and growing, and while I doubt I will have a registered dog any time soon (both of my purebreds have been from the shelter and not eligible), I hope to see them continue in this vein.