OK, now I really feel green (as in newbie, or maybe I really am sick to my stomach). Maybe I am still too naive. I always thought that judges had to work their way 'up' in the amount of breeds they judge, then on to the groups and such. I even thought that they really had to have bred and shown dogs somewhat recently, prior to being approved to judge.
I was looking at some upcoming judge panels and found a judge for the Toy Group that was provisional for the entire group, plus Manchester Terriers (her breed, I am guessing). For one of this judges first assignments she is not only judging some of the Toy Breeds, but the Group as well. I find this odd and a little disconcerting as this judge may never have even had her hands on some of these breeds before. Yes, that happens everyday, and I will tell you later about the first time I was aware of that, it involved a Dandie Dinmont and a BIS judge. I know that they are 'supposed' to have breed mentoring, testing, and such, but that many breeds at once still seems a bit much, so I was curious. If she was a Toy Breed Handler, surely we would have met up with her a time or two in the past several years. I questioned AKC about this judge and this particular assignment, and got a defensive, snooty, yet cordial, response, plus a long letter/article about 'fast-tracking' judges being an urban legend. Here is a portion of their email response. If anyone is interested in the article I would be glad to forward it to you but will not take the space here to post those two pages.
" is a former member of the American Kennel Club's (AKC) Executive Field Staff from 1994 until 2010, former professional handler and in addition meets/exceeds the requirements to judge these breeds. In her role with the AKC she would have observed the toy breeds and group well in the excess of 1000 times, completed judges' evalua-tions and interviews on the various breeds."
I was looking at some upcoming judge panels and found a judge for the Toy Group that was provisional for the entire group, plus Manchester Terriers (her breed, I am guessing). For one of this judges first assignments she is not only judging some of the Toy Breeds, but the Group as well. I find this odd and a little disconcerting as this judge may never have even had her hands on some of these breeds before. Yes, that happens everyday, and I will tell you later about the first time I was aware of that, it involved a Dandie Dinmont and a BIS judge. I know that they are 'supposed' to have breed mentoring, testing, and such, but that many breeds at once still seems a bit much, so I was curious. If she was a Toy Breed Handler, surely we would have met up with her a time or two in the past several years. I questioned AKC about this judge and this particular assignment, and got a defensive, snooty, yet cordial, response, plus a long letter/article about 'fast-tracking' judges being an urban legend. Here is a portion of their email response. If anyone is interested in the article I would be glad to forward it to you but will not take the space here to post those two pages.
" is a former member of the American Kennel Club's (AKC) Executive Field Staff from 1994 until 2010, former professional handler and in addition meets/exceeds the requirements to judge these breeds. In her role with the AKC she would have observed the toy breeds and group well in the excess of 1000 times, completed judges' evalua-tions and interviews on the various breeds."
We all know that the field reps have nothing better to do than stand around and observe breeds that they may want to judge after they are let go from the AKC. Yeah, right.This judge has been a field rep since 1994. This means that she hasn't handled dogs for 17 years. With this still on my mind, I was working on something else and came across a Judge for a NonSporting Group that I had never heard of. Not that I would even presume to know everyone. But what really caught my eye was that she gave an 8 month old Bulldog Puppy a Group 1, over what I know to be some very nice mature dogs. Looking at her information on the AKC website, she is not approved to judge the Non Sporting Group, in fact the only Non Sporting breed she is even provisional for is Poodles. She is approved for the Hound & Sporting Groups, though she does not have all of those breeds, and for Best in Show. So, how did this judge get to judge a NonSporting Group? If a judge becomes ill and must be replaced, the clubs and superintendent do what they have to. If this was a judge change,evidently the 'powers-that-be' at this show thought there were no other judges 'qualified' to judge this group. However, looking at the panel for this 4 - day show, there were definitely other more qualified judges there who had not judged the Non Sporting Group any of the other days. This judges qualifications: She was another of the many 'downsized' AKC field reps. Watch for this, people. This is a slap in the face to those judges that worked so hard for so many years to get entire groups and assignments. These ex-Field Reps have been every where and know a lot of people. Now that judges can solicit assignments, who has more contacts? The people that worked hard in the Fancy to get there, or the people that quit showing dogs to work for the AKC?
Some of the new provisional judges we are seeing had to work their butts off to get that far, others worked for the AKC and were downsized.
This is AKC's gift to them on their way out the door, but what does it do to us?
