Florida Circuit photos by Eugene Zaphiris, Matthew Stander, and Vikki Oelerich

Our annual visit to the Brooksville show grounds is usually the second weekend of the dog show year, and this new year of 2008 was no exception. The first week, we were in Palm Springs, California, and in a sense, the venues are rather similar yet truly quite different. Both are on vast grassy, comparatively well-kept fields. One is a private manicured polo ground; the other—Brooksville—is owned by a consortium of AKC clubs in the area. These clubs started out from scratch and have developed an ever-improving, very acceptable dog show site. Brooksville goes on for a two-week period of time in January; Palm Springs is basically a two-day extravaganza. Both get large entries of dogs; both cater to the motor home brigades. Palm Springs can lure a large spectator gate, which it did not seem to attract this year due to the weather. Brooksville is geographically remote but seems to get some local support. For sure, if you’re not in a motor home, finding a place to eat at night is no easy job. Twenty minutes away, in Dade City, is a decent restaurant called Cafe Kokopelli. You really can’t eat at Papa Joe’s every night, can you! Whilst the nearby motels in Brooksville are just passable for sleeping purposes, as opposed to Palm Springs. No comparison there, as the restaurants and motels are on every level exceptional, if you so choose. What Brooksville does offer, however, are basic conveniences at comparatively inexpensive costs, which has great overall appeal for exhibitors. The use of golf carts round the rings in Brooksville has certainly run amok, and I for one think some sort of policing round the rings is in order. Similarly, the individuality of the clubs is hard to define. Each day just runs into the other, and no effort I can see is made by any one club to be different than the other. Nonetheless, I always enjoy myself here. There’s a certain camaraderie amongst the exhibitors which is both exhilarating and more apparent than at many other shows. Perhaps this exuberance is due to the larger-than-usual South and Latin American presence than is found at the shows I usually attend.
The Best in Show winner the first two nights was the English springer bitch shown by Robin Novack, the smooth griffon on Sunday, and the Irish setter bitch on Monday. We left before the Groups began on Sunday, but I must say, the variance in the group judging and quality between Friday and Saturday’s groups was quite apparent. There was little consistency during the three days too, insofar as group judging was concerned—some of the consistency was good, others not so good. That, of course, is my opinion, but then again, what I like is not necessarily what you may like, and that’s what dog shows are truly all about—differences in opinion! I’ll tell you this, though, I watched a judge who I never before watched. This person has somewhat of a questionable reputation in what I consider to be some of the better circles when judges’ abilities are a topic of conversation. As far as I was concerned, the judge was right on with what they did. To the point of finding several new exhibits in the classes and taking them right through to the breed. Impressed was this ringside observer, for sure! Overall, though, I found the panels disappointing, which was something else Brooksville unfortunately had in common with Palm Springs.
Something else disappointing to me is the selective manner in which AKC, in the last year or so, has become in its information processes. When the news is something they want pushed very quickly, the press releases are forthcoming. On the other hand, the “meat and potatoes” news is either ignored or pushed into a delegate portal on the Internet, which is so limited in distribution as to be virtually not publicly announced. The excuse that AKC is keeping possible controversial materials out of the hands of the AR’s holds little water for me.
Sorry, Cory and Rindi, but it has been called to my attention that I left your wedding out of the “I Do’s” of the Year in Review. A pure oversight, as Cory Krickeberg and Rindi Gaudet are two of the nicer people in our sport. •