UKC shows March 9-11, 2012 Kalamazoo Fairgrounds
March 9, 2012 (evening show)
Herding judge: Kristina Browne (Breeder of: American Staffordshire Terriers and American Pit Bull Terriers)
Weight Pull Judge: Jamie Robinson
Non-Licensed Puppy Class is offered – this class is for puppies under 6 months of age. No points are awarded it is for socialization. Best-of Breed puppy from the non-licensed class automatically gets to compete for Best-in-Show (non-licensed class) with the other Best-of-breed winners
March 10, 2012
Show 1
Herding judge: Melissa Kidd (Breeder of: American Hairless Terriers)
Weight Pull Judge: Jamie Robinson
Non-Licensed Puppy Class is offered
Total Dog Class (must have a qualification in weight pull and a qualifying win in conformation to earn the Total dog)
Show 2
Herding judge: Lynn Martin (Breeder of: American Pit Bull Terriers)
Non-Licensed Puppy Class is offered
March 11, 2012
Show 1
Herding judge: Kathie Treacy (Breeder of: Coton de Tulear)
Weight Pull Judge: Jamie Robinson
Non-Licensed Puppy Class is offered
Show 2
Herding judge: Barbara Marin (Breeder of:American Pit Bull Terriers)
Non-Licensed Puppy Class is offered
Day-of-show entries are $25 per class conformation and weight-pull. Non-licensed puppy class is $5; Pre-entries are due by March 3 at a reduced rate. Pre-entries can be made at www.dogonez.com
To show at a UKC show your dog must be registered with the United Kennel Club. You can do this the day of the show by asking for a “temporary listing.” Or you can register your dog in advance: UKC Registration Form
Next to the conformation judges’ names I put their breed. As you can see none of the herding judges are GSD experts or even come from a herding breed background. However, most of them have working breeds and should be able to recognize a sound dog. Not so sure about a Coton de Tulear breeder judging German Shepherd Dogs, but it will be interesting.
This is why we like to show under SV judges, they know the GSD. Here you have people that may know their breed very well but do not know the GSD. I think they do fine if they just judge the dogs based on their working knowledge of structure and anatomy, where they get into trouble is when they try to judge based on what they think is suppose to be correct for that breed…which is often some extreme trend that is here today and soon to be gone tomorrow.
What I like about UKC is it is chance to get your dog out, get them socialized, give them some ring experience. I love that they promote the “Total-Dog.
Everything you can do with your dog gives them another layer of experience and it helps to “round-out” your dog emotionally.
