Your best bet would be a rare breed.
Not only do you face less competition, the points system is based on the number of dogs you have to beat and if there’s only 2 other dogs of your breed in the ring, you’ve got a great chance at having a ‘champion’.
Try a Finnish Lapphund.
Very few of those around.
FYI, I’ve seen seriously flawed dogs win their title simply because they were heavily campaigned and a -lot- of money was behind them.
Or you could show your dog in Canada only and get what we refer to as a “cheap champion”.
The points/grouping system is different up there and an Ibizan can be finished in a matter of months.
One of my dogs’ sister finished her championship at the age of *10* after being dragged to every show possible.
The dog’s final show picture was of an elderly, miserable dog who’d been mercilessly hauled to every show on the east coast until some judge finally took pity on her and gave the “big win”.
That was only done so that her children and grandchildren who were born late in her life and also being shown at the time would have more ‘gravitas’ in the ring.
Pitiful.
My breed is the Papillon. It takes, at present, a minimum of 9 entrants of the same sex for a major. For a 5 point (the max points available at a show) win there must be 19 males or 21 females in competition excluding the dogs entered in the “Best of Breed” class. Needless to say, it takes more than entering any dog of that breed “more than once a month” to finish it, at least by the average owner/handler. All bets are off if you’re a judge exhibitor (who can only show his or her own dog) or if you have the disposable income to hire the right professional team.
It currently takes far more Papillons in competition to qualify for a major than it does German Shepherds just for comparison.
The story of this little Shih Tzu rips my heart out. Did the little dog’s owner, after losing his wife to Alzheimer’s, just have no energy left to care for the dogs? Perhaps he was nowhere near as involved as his wife, so he sold to a commercial breeder (the only type liable to purchase a kennel of dogs) out of naivety or out of sheer defeat. Maybe he knew but didn’t care. We’ll never know.
The number of people jumping on the dog show hate bandwagon is somewhat amusing. I have no interest in horse shows or racing, but I sure wouldn’t glom onto a thread to bash everyone who participates in or who watches the sports.
I’ve been involved in dog showing (breed and companion events) for most of my life. I know a whole lot of people who share my interest, because they love their dogs and they’re passionate about their chosen breed. They would NEVER sell their beloved dogs as a group, nor would they sell a finished champion without spaying or neutering the dog prior to offering it to another person.
Are there people involved in every competitive sport imaginable who are less than reputable? Sure, but they are NOT the majority.
The problem with a rare breed is finding other dogs to make points. I know, since I had one.
And if you show in Canada yeah, but then you get a Canadian CH. Not an American CH (which, sorry, my Canadian FRiends, the American CH has more cache...)
I’ve known a few people who could not let it go and did *drag* dogs around forever to finish them. Usually it’s an owner with ONE dog and they just really loved that dog and thought it deserved the title. Well, who am I to say they shouldn’t? Personally, I don’t want to spend a gazillion dollars on it. It’s why I’ve been doing this a long time and don’t have a million of those dime a dozen CHs. And I don’t keep them out to get SDHF points after they finish or send them to Westminster or Eukanuba etc.
But I don’t begrudge the people who do. In fact, they spend money and keep the economy humming.
And btw, unhappy dogs don’t win. I know, I’ve had a few who hated to show. And so, they were not shown. They became happy pets.