David, I do hear your concern and I was trying to think of ways to help an
older exhibitor. What about at Futurities…there could be an option to lunge the
dog in place of an across the ring gait? So, handler would still have to do out
and back but then could stand still and have dog circle around them in place of
a long across the ring gait. or, maybe just do a short across. We don’t need
these super long stretches to see correct movement. But, to be honest, I would
be more interested in seeing all the dogs in the region OUTSIDE of the ring! It
would be a chance to see dogs temperaments and free stance while interacting
with other breeders. I would hope they would not just crate their dogs as that
would ruin it. If there was no “competition” value for the futurity than people
wouldn’t be as stressed about trying to do it perfectly. I remember a local
GSDCA club I went to years ago and it was pretty cool because people brought
their show dogs and we had a potluck and the dogs just stayed with their owners
while we ate and talked. I got a chance to see and interact with the dogs and
you learn more from that then from anything you would in the ring. I think it
would also help with transparency as so many breeders are concerned with trying
to always maintain a perfect public image of their dog. But, that
is….ultimately harmful. Yes, I want to know if your dog is really cow hocked.
No, it won’t necessarily eliminate them but it will help in choosing a proper
mate. We need to put the focus back on the dogs…enjoying them and trying to
breed correct dogs and not so much on winning. There is no perfect dog and
that’s ok.
I am sure people will start saying they have tried owner-handled classes in the
past and they were a flop. But, i think that is because the damage has already
been done and people who didn’t want to play the game moved to performance. We
just have to work harder to change the “culture” of our conformation world. It
can be done! We offer potlucks, Temperament tests, and just a way to have fun
with your dogs and it might bring people back. The old guard needs to change
and innovate to appeal to a younger crowd because they won’t live forever.
This is another idea I had…..what about making the futurities a place where a
dog can get an individual evaluation based on the standard. So, a breeder could
have their dogs evaluated based on a scale of items that would represent our
standard. Kind of SV style. But, say for shoulder..scale of 1-4 with 4 being
the best…topline, head, croup, etc…and the breeder or owner could get a
scoresheet back so they have an independent evaluation of their dog outside of
actual competition. So, instead of wins……dogs would show for evaluations?
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