First of all, I want everyone to know that an Award of merit can be given to the winner of other ribbons including Best of Breed, BOS, Select and winners. Please make a note of this. I always want an Award of Merit. It is not exclusive of other awards also being given! This information js straight from the mouth of AKC's own Tim Thomas and the seminar for aspiring judges. Even though he also says that select is a higher award than an award of merit, it is my opinion that an Award of Merit is always best but I get a lot of push back when I say that so let's just add it to the other awards so we can all be happy! This needs to be a thing so I put it out there to raise awareness!
There is a lot of confusion, division, derision, precision and collision in dog shows. Not everyone was born into and raised in the system. In fact, I think most were not. However, those who are newer can quickly become as obnoxious as those who were already here. Possibly dog shows attract a certain type, well, certainly they do. They also attract many others. I like to think if you are playing, say, well, golf, maybe? Admittedly I know nothing about golf. In fact, I don't know much about any individual, as in non-team, sport which has been a large part of my failure to understand dog shows.
So let's talk about dog shows not golf. It is a huge subject, surprisingly, for a small sport.
1) It isn't a team sport!
If you are like me, you might think oh yes it is. The breed is the team and the breeders are working together to keep the team strong and healthy and competitive. All breeders of a particular breed are teammates and working together with one game, one gene pool, to build a strong, enduring and successful game piece. Well, the slightest acquaintance with dog shows should disabuse any observant person of this notion rapidly. Sadly it took me 20 years of ever increasing perplexity to figure that out. This isn't that sport for most people.
2) It isn't an evaluation of breeding stock.
I know, I know. That is what is said. For some it is true. For some it was true. For some it might be true again one day. But really, how is it appropriate to think that crippled up, slack-jawed, wallowing caricature of a poor excuse for a dog is good breeding stock because it beat some other dogs? If you need an all-breed judge to tell you if a dog of your breed is worthy of reproducing, you probably need to study the breed much longer before making decisions resulting in puppies. Sorry if that sounds too much like work. Ribbons don't mean quality. Ribbons mean you can say you have quality and other people who also don't understand the breed can be impressed with you. It's different from actually having good dogs. Oh, elitism and gatekeeping, that's a subject for another time.
3) It both is and isn't as political as you hear.
Owner handlers, professional handlers, breeder handlers - which game are you playing? Which game is the judge playing? Do you know? Can you tell? Is it political or they playing a different game than you? Underlying all of that, of course, are the dogs and where they fit in to each game. That is, again, a function of each game.
Which brings me to what I think is the heart of dog shows. Imagine you were playing football but the quarterback was actually a center playing basketball. Meanwhile, Joe, over there, is playing tennis, the opposing quarterback is running track, the kicker is playing soccer and the tight ends are playing hockey. Those are all games. They all have different rules and different measures of success. Conformation, as we know it, is not a team sport. That is exactly the chaos that is happening at any given dog show and the confusion that arises from thinking we are all playing one game is the source of much of the division and accusations and drama that abound. Understanding there are various non-linear, non-equivalant games is really the key to everything.
For many, their understanding of the games is limited to thinking their version of the game is the best or the only game which leads, naturally, to accusations of politics and bias and then ends in anger, despair, quitting or bitter complaints about the unfairness. If you think it is one sport with one set of rules and everyone is competing for the same thing, then from many perspectives, it does look biased. Those who are most convinced of the bias generally are the ones who are trying to make all the evidence fit only their version of the game but there are so many versions.
Why does it matter that someone who is playing with their pet wins sometimes? Is it so unfair that a professional handler beats your dog? What if the ribbons aren't the same size?! It is like someone intercepts the football being thrown for a touchdown and takes those six points and uses them for their badminton game instead. How upsetting to the football player to lose the score to a badminton player. It is just wrong and that judge was crazy or owed a favor or the refs are biased or, insert excuse here. The fact remains those points are no longer available for the football game. Like any competitive sport, people care deeply about every scoring opportunity and want to have the points available for their sport not lost to badminton. Meanwhile the badminton players are jubilant at their scoring and finally getting a fair look (and they know it was fair because they won!) because they thought everyone was playing badminton also. The upset football players must just be jealous.
It has taken a lot of head scratching, observation, study, discussions and arguments, but there is an analogy that brings it all together for me and that is the silver bowl.
We all have our quirks, ok? Mine is I love Awards of Merit over all other wins except one and that one is whatever wins me a silver bowl. A silver bowl is shiny, desirable, impractical and empty but full of potential.
The outside of the bowl triggers the crow brain that wants the sparkle. Inside the bowl, people can put whatever they want. A lot of people leave it empty and that's enough. They want to chase after and possess the shiny bowls, there is always another one to possess. Other people want to put things in it. The bowl looks the same on the outside and the empty bowls are all the same until you put something inside.
That's it. That bowl contains all the games, every one of them. The trick is to decide what, if anything, you want in your bowl - a top winning dog, a strong consistent breeding program, a social event with your friends, a game to play with your pet, preservation of a breed, admiration of other bowl seekers, validation of your worth, delusions of grandeur, feelings of superiority, feelings of inferiority temporarily blinded by the shine, jealousy, pettiness, nobility, generosity, football, soccer, tennis, golf. It is all in there.
Focus on your silver bowl. Work towards your goals. The system is the framework. In most cases, it isn't as rigged as you might like to believe. If you aren't as successful as you would like to be, talk to people who are successful in your game. Make friends with people in other breeds. If you come from a smaller breeds, there may or may not be anyone there who is truly capable of success in a more competitive breed, who can point you upwards. You want people who understand dogs first of all and who understand the version of the game you want to play. Look beyond what you know and reach for what you want. There is so much room in dog shows for so many winners.
In the end, all you can do is glory in the complete and utterly chaotic irrationality of it all. It isn't going to make sense. It isn't supposed to make sense. Everyone is chasing a different ball. This is dog shows. Keep learning, keep playing and enjoy your dogs.
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