POINT/COUNTERPOINT
TOPIC
OF THE
MONTH
Are you comfortable with the AKC’s
80 percent policy that governs judges
applying for a Group?
BREEDER-EXHIBITOR
Cindy Cooke
I have to confess that I do not pay much attention to AKC’s ever-evolving system
for approving judges and awarding breeds/Groups. I think AKC is struggling to
fi nd a system that weeds out the incompetent judges and still provides a suffi cient
number of judges to meet demand. The AKC’s job is made harder by declining en-
tries in many breeds already plagued by low population numbers. It’s my personal
belief that no matter how people are selected to become judges or approved for
breeds, they will eventually fall into a bell curve with a small number of outstanding
judges, a small number of awful judges and the rest in between. As an exhibitor, I
believe that the best judges keep learning and generally improve with experience.
PROFESSIONAL HANDLER
Arvind DeBraganca
I am not comfortable with AKC’s current judging approval system. The 80 percent
rule is part and parcel of my unhappiness. Judges are allowed to point, in a Group,
to breeds they are not approved for or may not have even put paperwork in for.
How do you appreciate and reward breeds you know nothing about? Maybe have
never even seen or touched? How is that fair to the exhibitor or client spend-
ing their hard-earned money? We need to re-evaluate the system. We need truly
qualifi ed individuals who are judging to promote the sport and the integrity of
purebred dogs.
JUDGE
Elaine Lessig
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have been an “80 percenter.” For me, this unique opportunity
enhanced both my competence and confi dence. The opportunity to judge breeds
in a Group that I was not yet approved to judge at the breed level allowed me to
improve my judging skills on those remaining breeds. When I did attain permit
status on those fi nal breeds, exhibitors had the benefi t of the many decisions I
made while I was judging them at the Group level. The dogs that came into the
Group often were sent by breed experts and judges with years and years of ex-
perience. Truly, it added another dimension to my knowledge base, for which I
am most grateful. Like so many things in judging, the use, misuse, and abuse of
the 80 percent Policy is a refl ection of whom we are as judges and who we want
to be. No rules and regulations will ever change that. DIR
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