I have a basic problem with the futurity system - I loved the original futurities where you would have entire litters shown within the region they were born in. You could see what the different local breeders were producing with the various dogs available loclly and an occasional litter produced by flying a bitch to some big name dog elsewhere. You got to compare regions. There were large classes, novice handlers (heck, anyone at ringside could be handed a lead and went in) and it could help a breeder. Now it is a very few participants, dogs fly to wherever they have the best chance of winning, and generally there is no longer a way to see what is actually being produced other than maybe the one or two best of a few litters nationwide. I wish someone would explain to me what the current purpose is. Why is it so important to spend a fortune to show a few dogs in a match? There are a few classes with competition. Often there are single dog classes and people crow about "getting wood" when all they actually did was walk into the ring, or more truthfully, pay someone to walk into the ring. I believe if this is a valuable program then someone should be able to explain it in nice simple that tell me why this is a better indicator of anything than the regular shows are. I get that it increases entries at the accompanying shows. But is that the reason for all this? Ruth ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2011. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in any post. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org SUBSCRIPTION:http://showgsd.org/mail.html NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================