MISC'd Opportunity

In the middle of the last century, the Miscellaneous class was the "stepchild" of breed judging.

It took years, if not decades, with intense dedication from multiple enthusiasts and a parent club, for a breed to even be given entry into Miscellaneous, much less regular status. The breed list was small, and the few Miscellaneous classes were assigned to newer judges, usually at lunchtime, when no one paid much attention.

Now it seems breeds are easily accepted into Miscellaneous (and it seems without much scrutiny of the standard description), then jump almost overnight into regular status. Some new breeds have "caught on" — Biewer Terrier, Miniature Bull Terrier, American Miniature Shepherd — while others remain few and rarely seen — Entlebucher, Plott, Cesky … This puts an expensive and difficult strain on non-group judges to find learning opportunities to gain group approval.

I recently perused the statistics regarding numbers required for majors and "Top Ten" listings. Here in California, even where there are many shows, more than 85 percent of the breeds need only FOUR class dogs for a major.

The WHOLE Terrier Group was four ... For several breeds, there wasn’t the quantity in low-entry breeds to even have 10 dogs to list in the Top Ten. (And even some of those were still class dogs.)

If AKC wants to continue to rapidly accept new breeds, maybe a statistician needs to be involved. They could then calculate algorithms using numbers registered, shown and majors within a certain time frame. The new breed could be given a limited period to determine an acceptable presence from that data. If the new breed doesn't reach the quota in, say, five years, it would then go back into Miscellaneous. As the low-entry breed list keeps expanding, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use these same calculations to even put some longer-time regular-status breeds back into Miscellaneous, too... such as Norwegian Lundehunds, Chinooks and Neapolitan Mastiffs.

BUT then the Miscellaneous breeds deserve more respect and recognition. Would I spend almost $40 per entry, plus parking, gas and hotel to show to someone less familiar with my class of dog for a little orange ribbon? NO!

So, instead of assigning all of them (at noon) to only one, less experienced judge, give them to one of their appropriate and approved group judges throughout the day. A Hound breed to a Hound Group judge, etc. The exhibitor would receive a more qualitative evaluation and make scheduling easier. AND then have the BOB winner show in its assigned group! These rarer breeds would at least then have more opportunities to be seen by a second judge and draw interest from the gallery. Previous regular-status breeds could still be recognized in the group, too, as they are now.

This system would also pare down the official number of breeds in each group. And, hopefully, the proposal of splitting groups again would stop raising its ugly head ...