Why show your dog?

Here's a question that gets asked frequently. Why show my dog? It’s a great question and I will try to share some ideas to the benefit to showing your dog(s). First, let’s discuss a dog show and what it is. A dog show is an event held by a superintendant or an

organization for the showing of purebred dogs and are held for different kennel clubs such as the AKC, UKC, ENCI, FCI, USBR and ABKC. This event is a place with rings where different breeds of dogs are shown together by breed to be displayed, compared amongst themselves to see which one represents the best of their particular breed. This is done by stacking, moving the dogs and allowing a professional judge to evaluate them and judge which one overall is the best on that day among those that have shown per the breed standard. The judge will look at each dogs overall type, construction, gait, teeth, eyes, top lines, confirmation as well as over all condition and ring presence.

Now that you have a basic idea of what a dog show is and what happens, we can now dive into the why show? If you are a pet owner and love your dog as a wonderful part of the family this is overall most important and showing may not be of interest. In some cases, pet owners have purchased a very nice purebred dog that has show potential and the desire to compete or see how their dog does at a dog show. If this is you then this could be the answer to shy show?

You may be a breeder and have asked yourself why show? As a fellow breeder I feel it is of significant importance to show your dogs periodically. It can be very fun and rewarding but more importantly it is great opportunity for you to display all your hard work. If you feel your breeding program has produced a fine specimen and a great example of the breed standard, showing your dog at a dog show can be very rewarding. Several reasons it is beneficial is it gives the public a chance to see your dogs up close and personal. It gives them the chance to see your dog beyond a photo on a website but their true beauty. They can see their personality, their temperament, construction, movement and overall look.

This also can be a great moment to see what you have produced compared to your fellow breeders and what they've produced to see where you are in your breeding program compared to the breed standard. Sure a win is quite impressive and can lead to a future championship though enough wins and major wins but to have a comparison to what else is out there can be very encouraging and can give you some great feedback on where you are and what you might want to improve on. Sometimes if you go with the intent on learning and if you can have the discipline of self critiquing it can have an incredible positive impact on where you go moving forward.

Showing is not the most important thing. Companionship, health and function are most important but make no mistake about it, if a dog is a great looking specimen and has all the attributes to be shown in a dog show ring, in front of large crowds, under a judge and can win, it’s truly important as well. It’s very rewarding, it is very satisfying and it is very important. It also can be very educational and impactful to a breeder with an open mind on improving.

I hope this gave a little insight on why show your dog and I hope to see you in the ring 1 day. :-)