Dania, I have been doing the ROM program since 1975. I can vouch for the fact that the Awards Magazine is at least twice the thickness is was back then, and to make things even worse, the print is smaller. Every year it seems there are new all-breed clubs popping up, with an occasional new specialty club. Doris *************************************************************** > In a message dated 4/15/2005 3:35:22 PM Eastern Standard Time, > Gsdman2@xxxxxxx writes: > Back then, the difference could be written off to > the increased number of shows, but I don't see many more clubs today > than I > did > in 1980. ==================================================================== > > I don't know that we have that many more shows today than we did in 1980 > although I have had handlers tell me that we have too many shows today. > However, the reality is that few people are showing just for the fun of > showing - > everyone that is entering a show today is doing so with the ultimate goal > of > finishing the dog/bitch. Back when I started in the sixties, we showed > for > fun. If we had a litter, we showed every puppy and all our friends > pitched in > and made it a game of who was the best/worst handler, etc. The sport was > not > so serious. We were proud of what we bred/owned and showed them to the > world > - many times owner-handler or handled by a non-professional friend. I > have > movies of some of the old shows in sixties - there were some professional > handlers but there were a lot of owner-handled dogs - and you did have > huge > classes of 40-50 dogs. That is not so the case today where you see few > dogs in > the young classes and mostly professional handlers in the adult classes. > Seldom you will see owner-handlers, particularly at the specialties. > > It is possible that because the cost has escalated that we now must play > for > "serious" - no one wants to just show for the fun of it hence the classes > are smaller. However, the quality is deep - you do not find any fillers. > > JMO. > > Dania ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2005. 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. 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@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://www.showgsd.org ============================================================================