Did all the Jack Russels run off or something? I didn’t see one this year.
Westminster issues invitations each year to the dogs with the most points in each recognized breed club. I thihnk it’s the top 5. The number of dogs your dog has defeated in AKC breed competitions determines the points. The standings are determined for points earned from January 1 until October 31 of the year before the show. If you didn’t get an invitation, then you can complete an entry form for your dog to get in.
What this means is that basically, your dog has to be on the road attending shows pretty much all year long, and winning. A small fortune is spent traveling, advertising, usually paying handlers, etc. to get enough BOB’s to get enough points. The BEST of the breeds are more often than not, staying home, laying beside their owners while they are watching Westminster. I can assure you that in my breed, the ones at Westminster are almost always not the best. Also, several were pulled this year for political reasons so they wouldn’t compete against this one woman’s dog. She even pulled her bitch hoping she could win with the boy that she herself bred. He was all dyed up and too long in body, movement not good at all, not nearly enough bone for a dog.. luckily the judge saw it.
Her dog lost and it was sweet to see him lose and a very nice dog beat him, one that wasn’t dyed and altered. I think her glory days of wins with dogs with bad fronts, dyed, and trimmed(no trimming is allowed) are over, thank God. Hopefully she moves on to another breed which is what she has done in the past. She thinks she can buy the wins at Westminster by spending thousands of dollars in advertising and thousands more by using top handlers. I feel bad for her dogs, they never go home and I mean never. Once in a while after they get the points she lets them come home for a few weeks in December but they basically live with the handler.
Westminster says these dogs are pampered. Far from it. If by pampered they mean groomed, fed premium food, etc., sure they are.... but being on the road every week of the year, being in crates, showing every weekend, traveling all week to the next show, that’s not pampered, it’s grueling. The real pampered show dogs are usually the ones that are owner handled and shown when they feel like it.
Sounds like a bunch of snobs to me.
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They are and like I said in my other post, they aren’t the best, they are the ones that won the most because they were showed the most. Westminster is a political dog show and there isn’t a single person who shows dogs or breeds dogs that doesn’t know that.
Granted, most of the dogs there are nice examples of the breed, BUT are they the best out there? ABSOLUTELY NOT! For every dog that is aiming for Westminster, there are thousands that get their championships and never shown again, or only specialed when the owner feels like it.
When a dog with a horrible front wins Best of Breed twice in a row, something is rotten in Denmark.