Posted on 01/25/2014 6:52:56 PM PST by digger48
NEW YORK - When the nation's foremost dog show added an event open to mixed breeds, owners cheered that everydogs were finally having their day.
They see the Westminster Kennel Club's new agility competition, which will allow mutts at the elite event next month for the first time since the 1800s, as a singular chance to showcase what unpedigreed dogs can do.
"It's great that people see that, `Wow, this is a really talented mixed breed that didn't come from a fancy breeder,"' said Stacey Campbell, a San Francisco dog trainer heading to Westminster with Roo!, a high-energy -- see exclamation point -- husky mix she adopted from an animal shelter. (You can see Roo! in action in the photo attached to this story.)
"I see a lot of great dogs come through shelters, and they would be great candidates for a lot of sports. And sometimes they get overlooked because they're not purebred dogs," Campbell said.
Roo! will be one of about 225 agility dogs whizzing through tunnels, around poles and over jumps before the Westminster crowd. And, if she makes it to the championship, on national TV.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
Mutts make the best dogs!
I’m a member of the AKC and I support this.
Anyone enter His Arrogance per chance?
ping
My bichon frise shih tzu mix loves me and is hypoallergenic. I could not care less if any dog show appreciates him. :)
Love corgis!!!!
What fun!
Try a Mastador, they are not little dogs being a cross of Mastiff and Labrador, but the Mastiff eliminates the hyperactivity of the Labrador and leaves you with a big cuddly couch potato that is loyal as the day is long(admittedly that goes for all dogs).
If it’s not a bluetick or black and tan coonhound, it’s not a dog :P
All kidding aside, my seven year old wants a Yorkie and now so does the wife. Luckily, I reminded them that I was the CEO of the family, and no further badgering was applied. However, I think there is a conspiracy happening behind my back.
To be continued...
One of the Ladies at the dog park I go to had a Yorkie, and it was a champ at hunting squirrels, sometimes the lineage comes through no matter what.
My mother raised Rottweilers, but considered Yorkies to be “real” dogs.
Growing up we always had AKC registered purebreds, but for the past 30 years I’ve only had mixed. We lost our chow/lab this past summer and just recently brought a new member into the family. Papa is a King Charles/chihuahua mix and momma is a true Heinz 57 and the only discernible breed we have been able to pinpoint is boxer. Everyone of the 6 puppies looks different than the others! We absolutely love her!
“One of the Ladies at the dog park I go to had a Yorkie, and it was a champ at hunting squirrels, sometimes the lineage comes through no matter what.”
Yorkies were bred in York, England, to dig into tunnels and catch rats. I got my Yorkie when she was six weeks old and within a short time, she started digging into a sheetrock wall just inside the front door. I tried everything to stop her, spray stuff for dogs to stop them from licking and nothing worked. She was going to dig in that wall and hunt for rats. I gave up and had a contractor put up a wainscoting of material that was slick like you see in showers. She knew she was done and never tried to do anything to the new wall.
I gave her cardboard boxes and she would dig into them; she finally got over that stage but I’m sure if she smelled a rat she would go after it - luckily I do not have rats in my house.
There goes the neighborhood.
Seriously, when is this society going to ever hold the line on anything anymore? Even the only remaining benched AKC show has to “break down walls” and allow something it has never even had? Never has Obedience been at Westminster, yet now we have agility, with mutts to boot?
Are they serious about maintaining any kind of integrity?
This basically promotes irresponsibility. It condones random breeding, as surely as “get a shelter dog” does, ironically.
Mutts could be allowed in match shows. Official sanctioned shows, not a good idea.
Flame suit on. I know it won’t be popular and I’ll be called all kinds of nasty names, but the old-fashioned view needs to be aired.
Judge that!
Hopefully they have some Pomeranian/Maltese mixes like my little Nemo..so adorable..also some Shih Tzu’s would be nice
The AKC jumped the shark *years* ago with the new “Yellow Paper” registrations for dogs of questionable/fraudulent/unknown parentage.
Not that I had any respect for them before that, with their carte blanche attitude towards puppy mills.
The AKC is all about the money, now; send your money, get your papers, no questions asked.
There are gazillions of agility/obedience matches every year with no “breed restrictions”.
Just more of the usual “everybody is equal and fabulous!” liberal crap.
This “feeeeeeels good” and that’s all that matters.
Mutts are wonderful but not at WKC.
[and if somebody mentions the mythical “hybrid vigor”, I’ll scream]
:)
Is it a pig in a dog suit? I can’t imagine what it is. Poor deformed thing. Tell us what it is.
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