The National Dog Show - a Thanksgiving tradition!!
Along with the turkey, stuffing, football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, there is the National Dog Show. That’s right, the dog show is now one of the traditions of Thanksgiving Day. For two hours following the great parade, families can continue the fun by watching over 2000 of the top show dogs from across the country compete for “Best in Show”. This year the show was hosted by the Philadelphia Kennel Club. The club will use the show to help raise money for the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. This show is sponsored by Purina and sanctioned by the AKC, the American Kennel Club!!
Evaluating these dogs is not always easy, because breeds are very different for different reasons. So to judge the dogs fairly, they are broken up into 7 groups. The groups include the Terrier group, the Toy Group, the Working Group, the Sporting Group, Hound Group, Non-Sporting Groupand the Herding Group. Included in these groups are about 200 various breeds that are judged. The competition can be extrememly tough.
So how are these dogs judged? As quoted by the National Dog Show itself, “The judges examine the dogs and place them according to how closely each dog compares with the judge’s mental image of the perfect dog as described in the breed’s official standard. The main consideration is the dog’s conformation or overall appearance, temperament and structure. The judges are looking for characteristics that allow the dog to perform the function for which his or her breed was bred.”
I bet you are just waiting to hear about the winners of this competition. Well, placing Best in Show is named MBIS & MBISS Ch. Cookieland Seasyde Hollyberry and she is a beautiful pointer. She is only three years old and probably has some good show years left. It will be interesting to follow her career and I plan on making the National Dog Show one of my yearly Thanksgiving Day traditions (since I don’t do the cooking for that holiday!!!)
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