Westminster-Ultimate Goal For Breeders?

[doggiedad]

lol.

Originally Posted by doggiedad

my dog went to Westminster several times.
Westminster Maryland and Westminster Pa.

Originally Posted by dogfaeries

LOL doggiedad. Reminds me of the time I spent in Paris. Paris, Texas.

[wolfstraum]

I don't even bother to watch it.

the purebred AKC show fancy is not large in terms of percentages of litters bred in GSDs - of which I believe the largest segment is BYB - the Euro breeders don't aspire to this show as it is apples and oranges to be polite about it....

Lee

[martemchik]

I have plenty of AKC focused breeders at my club. They produce very nice dogs and recently we've had more than a few dogs go select at the nationals and also a few grand victors/victrix.

A lot of them really just want to do well at nationals and if they get invited to the big show they'll go. It must take a lot of time and money though in order to do that and since most of their points are made regionally they don't get that much recognition nationally.

I'm not a conformation person, but I understand that its just a part of the dog world and sadly that's where the big bucks are made when it comes to breeding dogs. Most of our breeders do make it down to the nationals every year and do pretty well, its nice to have a club that is quite successful. But I don't believe they really focus their breeding efforts to making the big show, probably more towards winning grand victor/victrix but that's really a goal of any breeder that is looking for correct conformation.

[Andaka]

I had a dog win an Award f Merit at Westminster in 2005. I planned for the campaign to get him invited and made sure we attended enough shows and defeated enough dogs. We ended up as the #2 dog in the country for GSD's defeated and #4 for all-breeds defeated. It was my one year to do this, and then I went back to my obedience training. The chase was thrilling, but I'm not sure I would ever do it again.

[wolfstraum]

??? So going to Westminister is based on statistics??? I know a Viszla breeder here locally, who has done well at the National as a breeder, and her sometime handler (also a breeder) goes to Westminster every year and has gotten as far as a Group placing....I did not realize that getting there was more the result of how much you could travel and show (and of course place - Winners or BOW???) ... One horse show circuit I used to do pointed on numbers of horses in class and I thought that was very fair.....a 15 horse class gave 15 - 14 - 13 -12 - 11 points for first 5 horses, and a 3 horse class gave 3 - 2- 1 points.....

Congrats Andaka, quite an accomplishment!

Lee

[dogfaeries]

You have to get out there and campaign your dog to get it ranked. You need to have a lot of Best of Breeds (BOB) and Group placements, etc. Dogs that are in the top 5 of their breed, and the winners of their national specialties are automatically invited to Westminster.

It's incredibly expensive to show dogs, so you can only imagine how much it costs to get a dog ranked. The travel expenses, entry fees, handler fees. I know I don't have that kind of money, lol! I'm going to special (show in Best of Breed competition) Carly and try for her grand championship. But we stop there. She has a litter sister that is a grand champion, whose owner is working on getting her ranked. I talked to her owner last year and she was eligible for Westminster then, but didn't go. She said her handler fee alone would be $1500. Yikes.




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[MichaelE]

Even if I had that sort of cash I wouldn't be interested in any sort of conformation competition.

I'm not sure why, but this sort of competition seems so cold and impersonal to me concerning the dog.

[dogfaeries]

I don't find it to be cold and impersonal at all. I guess if you just send your dog out with a handler, and don't participate yourself, then I can see that. But we go to the shows with our dogs. My girls have a good time.


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[Andaka]

Westminster KC has a limited entry, so the top 5 dogs of each breed are invited, then the entry is filled with dogs that enter after that. I wanted the invite so that I didn't have to worry about getting in later.