The Sacramento Kennel Club and the associated specialties that precede it for two days has evolved into one of the more pleasant experiences in today's dog show circuit. Laid back and pleasant, with good entries both days nearing 2,000 (although, I am told they were down considerably from last year), these are just easygoing and nice shows to attend. Basically headed by the two Terrier Specialties that precede the All-Breeds this year, the same two exhibits which won the Specialties won the All-Breeds too. The first night was the Dandie, then the Airedale, then the Airedale and then the Dandie! The Dandie, of course, being Ch. Robergay's Fineus Fogg; the Airedale Ch. Every-man's High Performance. I missed the first night's final and the Saturday's All-Breed final as well. Interestingly, the two nights I watched the group competitions, I thought both dogs that won should have! They both performed and looked differently on different nights, and really, that is what dog show judging should be about—how a dog performs on a given day. Taking into account, of course, the merits of the dog, and since both are highly regarded within their breeds, the deciding factor should be performance. Since I did not see the Saturday all-breed, I can only comment about the one on Sunday which I made out of the ordinary strong. There were any number of really top dogs in that line-up, all of which performed exceedingly well. I must say that the overall coordination for the success of the show falls into the hands of Rich Vida and Karen and R.C. Williams, with more than able help from the Weiss's—Amy and Lou—and Judy Bloom and Kaye Feickert. There was a slight glitch on Sunday with regard to group scheduling, but that was fast overcome. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would put Sacramento at a high nine. Worth going to, for sure.
There was an interesting feature article on the front page of Saturday's SACRAMENTO BEE. Written by Blair Anthony Robertson, the article was about a judge on the panel injecting an issue I never before thought about. It seems the judge, who is quoted as saying, "I hope to inspire other black people to get involved," is described by the writer as what "might be the rarest breed of all—an African American dog show judge." Now then, I realize our subculture of showing dogs may be, as Robertson describes, "quirky” and even “occasionally snooty,” but I never have thought of it on a racial basis. Years and years ago, certainly, it began basically as a rather Waspy endeavor. But certainly in the 1930s and definitely in the '50s, the doors opened to every variety of American imaginable. Indeed, in the '40s and '50s and ‘60s, African-American judges such as Dr. McCain and Rae Abrams were prominent on the scene, to be joined by people such as Dr. Lewis Bond, Gene Blake, Levi Marsman and Eppie Barney, to name but a few people who come to mind. Certainly it is true that the sport has not appealed to the number of African-American people one might have expected it to, but I always bought this to be a matter of economics rather than social snobbery. Of late, and certainly in the last decade or so, there are ever so many more African-American exhibitors and handlers than ever before! Hopefully, this number will continue to grow. Certainly, none of this could have been easy for any of the African-American participants initially, times being what they were in this country years ago. Bigotry is hardly a thing of the past, either, but personally, I have never seen or heard about people being discriminated against or their dogs not winning because they were African-American. •