Winter Garden Specialties
I took my annual hike up to Rye Brook to check out the 2020 Winter Garden specialties. I don’t blame you for losing track of exactly what, where or when. These shows have moved around A LOT.
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Going Viral
Hot on the heels of that horrifying tidbit, we learned that two more dogs owned by Hong Kong residents had been quarantined, one of which also showed “weak positive” lab results.
AKC Letter About Layoff Decision
AKC President Dennis Sprung set in motion a plan that would achieve the best possible outcome for AKC in both the short and long term
A Response to AKC’s Massive Layoffs
As many of you know, AKC announced that they were laying off a significant portion of their staff today. You may not know that their staff had very little time to prepare as the cuts came quickly without much notice. The letter from Dennis Sprung is copied below. Margaret Poindexter, former in-house counsel for AKC, responded to the layoffs with some very poignant observations and questions. This is something that everyone in our sport should read to understand what is happening at our beloved American Kennel Club.
Westminster – Junior Showmanship Finals
Just before the group judging on Tuesday night, the Westminster Junior Showmanship finalists enter the ring. They had to qualify for the privilege of competing at Westminster. Now, the top eight from the daytime preliminaries compete at the Garden for scholarship awards and the title of Best Junior Handler.
The Westminster Group Winners Their Story…
The Best in Show lineup at the 144th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show didn’t disappoint judge Robert H. Slay of Cary, North Carolina. He called it the strongest he’d ever seen—among the seven were two repeat group winners from 2019 (the Havanese and the Boxer) who also happened to be 2019’s Number 1 and Number 2 show dogs (all-breed), respectively. The Standard Poodle was the top Non-Sporting dog in 2019, and 4th in all-breed points. And, the Hound Group winner was the formidable Whippet Bourbon, the top hound last year, and Number 3 in all-breed points.
Canine Social Behavior – It’s the Same in the Wild
So, let’s get to the pertinent COVID-19 breaking news. Owners are spending unprecedented quality time with their dogs. All that mundane stuff normally relegated to dog walkers, dog groomers, dog minders….to put it bluntly, those days are over.
Frigid Dog Work
Almost everyone who does any work with their dogs outside a temperature-controlled training facility and who lives north of the Mason-Dixon Line has had times when they were cold. Now by “cold,” I don’t mean the sort of namby-pamby cold that can be cured by a hot buttered rum, a cup of Irish coffee or by putting on a fisherman’s wool sweater. No, I’m talking about the kind of cold that no matter what you do, you can’t warm up, when your teeth chatter like castanets, when even your hair seems to shiver and you feel like there’s an icicle lodged in your core.
Looking Around with Lee
I just couldn’t stay away! A bad back can’t stop me now! I’ve found a new venue in which to adjudicate; one that does not include standing out in the rain, on dirt floors, or in the blazing sun ‘til perspiration runs rampant in places I will not mention.
SOS! Clubs Trying to Survive the Coronavirus
So far, the 2020 show year really sucks. And the worst part is not knowing when or if it’s going to turn around. Obviously, it’s for the best. Canceling shows certainly beats an epidemic of viral pneumonia. So we wait it out.
