Simon Luxmoore and Sassicaia Sun Princess , ‘ Sunny ,’ cover dog on the Siberian Husky book that Luxmoore co-wrote . Sunny passed shortly after this photo was taken , at 16 1 ⁄ 2 years old . |
In a past issue of Dogs in Review , I wrote about the purebred dog scene in the United Kingdom . This is , of course , where the modern concept of dog shows originated in the mid- 1800s . The industrial revolution created a large and financially secure upper middle class with the time , resources and interest to focus on breeding and showing purebred dogs . The far-flung British Empire held sway over almost a quarter of the world ’ s population by 1913 . This had tremendous importance for the dog fancy because British civil servants returning from faraway colonies regularly brought exotic breeds home with them , and these breeds competed with the homegrown varieties to create the colorful array of breeds that you find at most dog shows today . The Victorian obsession with “ breeding and showing ” resulted in specialized and surprisingly large niche markets for anything from dogs and cats to unusual varieties of birds , flowers and fruit , not to mention livestock . There is no question , however , that the dog fancy has always been larger than that for any other domestic pet , and the British have remained in the forefront of purebred dogs for more than a century .
Other countries have on occasion challenged the British supremacy ; we in America often believe we have surpassed the mother country not only in the number of registered dogs but also — frequently — in the quality of the shows , in the handling , grooming and presentation , and even in the dogs themselves . Impartial observers are not always so sure , however . For one thing , it would be difficult for any country to equal the experience and the depth of genuine dog interest that exists in Great Britain .
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Dog Shows in the UK and US
A few figures might clarify the picture . The United Kingdom ( including Northern Ireland ) covers an area of about 100,000 square miles — less than two-thirds the size of California . England
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, where most of Great Britain ’ s dog activity takes place , is about 50,000 square miles , while the US , by comparison , is nearly 4 million square miles — about 80 times larger .
Yet in the area that Great Britain encompasses , more than 65 million human inhabitants live with about 8.5 million dogs and countless other domestic animals in an area that ’ s densely populated yet still somehow surprisingly rural . When it usually takes only two or three hours for most exhibitors to travel to the shows , you may expect large entries , and the dog shows in Great Britain are generally much larger than even the biggest AKC events .
At first , during the late 1800s and early 1900s , the American dog fancy in most respects simply replicated that in England . The shows , the rules , the breed standards — everything was adapted from what The Kennel Club had already established . The Kennel Club in the UK was founded in 1873 , a little more than a decade before the American Kennel Club . But American dog fanciers discovered that what worked in the UK didn ’ t necessarily function as well under the very different conditions over here . The much greater distances and more widely dispersed population makes it difficult to get together for a big dog show in most areas , and the cultural melting pot that was — and is — the United States also made it unlikely that the purely British model would last . However , in spite of all the differences , there are many real similarities in the challenges that the sport faces in Great Britain and in the US .
Speaking With The KC Chairman
A few years ago , I had the pleasure of interviewing The Kennel Club ’ s then-Chairman Ronnie Irving . This past summer , I talked to the current Chairman , Simon Luxmoore , elected to his post in 2015 and with a background that in some ways
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COURTESY THE KC PICTURE LIBRARY |