Last week I posted Dog Show Basics–Entering A Show.  This is a follow-up post about what happens in the ring.

Every AKC breed has a written standard that describes the characteristics of the breed.  These characteristics include such things as appearance, movement and temperament.  The standard for the Chesapeake Bay Retriever can be found here.  Some people mistakenly think that at a dog show, the dogs are judged against each other.  That is not exactly true.  Dogs are judged against the standard for their breed.  The judge’s job, whether judging breed, group or best in show, is to select the dog that most closely matches the written standard for its breed.  That is not to say that politics do not enter into the selection.  Sadly at times they do.  It can be a challenge for a novice handler to beat a pro in the ring, but luckily in our breed it is still possible.  That is not the case in every breed.

When a class of dogs, (for an explanation of classes see here), enter the ring, generally the judge will have them move around the ring as a group.  As a handler, you want to show your dog to their full potential but you may only have a few seconds to catch the judge’s eye.  Once the dogs have moved around the ring a time or two, then the judge will inspect each dog.  The judge is checking things such as bite and structure.  The judge will then ask the handler to move the dog “down and back”.  The judge is looking at how the dog moves away and then towards them.  When the dog gets up to the judge the handler will usually “free stack’ the dog so the judge can see the way the dog naturally stands.  This is a good time to try to get the dog to show the judge “expression”.  Finally, the judge will have the dog “go around” so he/she can see the side gait of the dog.  After the judge has gone over all of the dogs, he/she may have all the dogs move around as a group and then it is time for placements.

There are times when there is only one dog in a class, but the judge will generally follow the same routine to go over the dog. If the dog is awarded first place in its class it advances to the Winner’s Dog or Winner’s Bitch competition to compete against the other dogs/bitches who have placed first in their classes.  A judge is not obligated to give ribbons if the judge does not feel a dog merits one.  That does not happen often, but it can happen.

The dogs who are selected as Winner’s Dog and Winner’s bitch then proceed to the Best of Breed Competition where they are eligible for Best of Breed.  Even if they don’t win Best of Breed they are eligible for “Best of Winners” which can be important in calculating the points earned toward the dog’s championship.

To further illustrate the progression, here is a video of Thunder going “Winner’s Dog” for his first points which happened to be a 3 point major, (dogs need a total of 15 points and 2 majors to earn their championship).  The video is not the greatest because I took it with my old pocket camera and really it was just a way so that Thunder’s handler could see his performance to improve his handling.  This was Thunder and his handler’s fifth show and it was quite a surprise for them to win.  The first section is Thunder in the 12-18 month class, (he was the only dog entered in that class).  The second section is where he is awarded “Winner’s Dog”.  The dog ahead of him in this section is his brother, shown by his breeder.  The third section is Thunder in the Best of Breed competition.  The second dog that the judge goes over is Thunder’s grandfather, Joshua.  As you can see Thunder and his handler were not even close to perfect in the ring, but it was enough to earn him the win.

If the video won’t play, try here.

There are a lot more nuances to dog shows, like Reserve Winner’s, counting points, earning a Grand Championship, and the Group and Best in Show competition.  This is just the very basics.

You may have noticed that I changed my theme again!  There is a reason more than I didn’t like xyz of the theme that I was using.  I cannot promise that I won’t change my theme again.  🙂  I will share the reason for the change next week.