Westminster: The Non-Sporting Group
By Kim Campbell Thornton
February 11, 2008
I took a Coke break and have come in late to the Non-Sporting Group. So the first dog I see is the Dalmatian, who is lovely. Following him is the Frenchie. I believe this is the same French Bulldog I saw earlier in the day who was demanding to be let out of his crate. Maybe that’s a portent for his success in the group. Nah, it’ll be some Poodle. Probably Kaz Hosaka’s Ch. Surrey Sweet Spice, a black miniature Poodle.
If it were up to me, I’d redistribute all of these dogs. Many of them would go into a Companion Dog group, with the toys. The Finnish Spitz would go into the newly created Nordic group, and the Dalmatian into the Working Group.
Thumbing through the catalog, I see that the judge for the Keeshond breed was Fred C. Bassett. I guess with a name like that, you just have to go into dogs. Sort of like a couple of guys my husband went to college with: Mike Butcher became a surgeon, and Randy Toothaker, well, I’ll let you guess.
Standard Poodle takes it, followed by the Bulldog, Bichon and Tibetan Terrier. Again, this Group winner also won at Eukanuba. It’s quite the topic of conversation.
I can just hear my friend “The Source”:
“Oh no! Not another frou-frou poodle!”
:)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — February 11, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
Oh dear.
Don’t let any Finnish hunters know that the Finnish Spitz is in the non-sporting group there.
It is, like most Nordic breeds, still actively used in hunting. So much so that the Finnish Spitzes (sp?) shown in Finnish dog shows are almost all hunting dogs that are there to get merits for their hunting titles.
Comment by ramin — February 12, 2008 @ 2:12 am
I don’t get the “Non-Sporting” Group at all. Dalmations are definately a working dog. Shiba Inus hunt.
I like the idea of a “Companion Dog” Group — it’s more acurate as to what these dogs are and might encourage folks who want a campanion to look at this group first. Just take out the dogs that MUST have a job (Dalmations would be first on my list, but it’s best to keep Shibas busy also) and place them in their preferred “job” Group and then encourage folks who are looking mostly for a friend to look at the “Companion” Group.
Comment by Dorene — February 12, 2008 @ 6:48 am
The “non-sporting” group has that name because when the AKC started, it was for the judging of hunting dogs — a/k/a “sporting dogs.”
So they started with two groups: “Sporting” and “non-Sporting,” as in hunting dogs and everything that wasn’t a hunting dog.
Things just kind of went on from there, with groups being added over the decades (Herding was the last), and Non-Sporting being kept as a sort of “miscellaneous.”
They ought to realign it all and most several breeds where they belong. For example, the dachshunds belong not in hounds but in terriers.
And a case could be made that the Standard Poodle belongs in sporting, but oh! not groomed like THAT! The pointers, setters, retrievers and spaniels would laugh and point.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — February 12, 2008 @ 7:14 am
I suggested once to a Dachshund person once that the breed belonged in the Terrier Group, and she was quite insistent that they were hounds.
Comment by Kim — February 12, 2008 @ 7:24 am
Yeah, whatever. Ask the rest of the hounds. :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — February 12, 2008 @ 7:33 am
The Standard Poodle is cut like that for a reason! The cut protects vital organs and joints, so let the others point and laugh as much as they want. I too think Standards should be in the sporting group since they were orginally used for hunting.
Comment by Judy Sumpter — February 12, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
Yes, so it’s said every year. It’s still nonsense. Poodles who compete in hunt tests do so in a puppy clip (unless they’re trying to preserve show coat).
And what part of a hunting dog needs hair extensions, pray tell?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — February 12, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
Hair extensions….lol
They really do that? My Collies knowledge bump is too big for the show ring (and of coure breeding to!)and my 10 year old daughter joked that we could disguise it with hair extensions. Guess she wasn’t far off huh?
My son had a doctor named…get this Dr Doktor and you guessed it, his father was a doctor to.
Finn has been growing into his noggin’ and it doesn’t look as big as it used to. We joke that his mother dropped him on his head when he was a puppy and all the brains got stuck in the bump and now they are slowly trickling down.
Comment by nancy freedman-smith — February 12, 2008 @ 3:04 pm
Adding anything fake to the coats of a show dog is against AKC regulations, but … well … it happens all the time.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — February 12, 2008 @ 3:18 pm