- is it out of its depth?
During
the past few years the Kennel Club has been floundering around
like a leviathan out of its depth. What has caused this? It
is their inability to address the decline in Open Show entries.
The Kennel Club, to its credit, did notice a drop in Open
Show entries. Unfortunately rather than handing the problem
to a group of people who regularly attend, organise and run
Open Shows it handed the problem to the Judges Working Party.
Its initial remit was to improve the level of judging with
the hope of thus encouraging entries to Open Shows.
What did the JWP do? It came up with a whole new spate of
regulations and restrictions to try and improve the way a
judge judges a dog. Gone were the tried and tested methods
of learning the craft through judging Ringcraft matches, then
onto small Open Shows before progressing to larger Shows followed
by, hopefully, a Breed Show and ultimately being asked to
award tickets at a Championship Show.
The
rise of the ‘professional’ judge
Now
we need to be ‘professionals’, not gifted amateurs.
We need to attend seminars on ‘Rules and Regulations’,
‘Movement and Conformation’ and a breed seminar
before you can be let loose in a ring. Gone are the days when
you learned the ‘trade’ via the school of experience,
hard knocks, stewarding and watching other judges – that
can’t be put on a piece of paper and shown to the Kennel
Club.
Has this improved the entries at Open Shows, or even at Championship
Shows? No it hasn’t because we have ended up with either
the same tired old faces doing the rounds or the ‘new’
breed of judges, the ones who have been in the breed a year
or two, have attended the necessary seminars and got their
pieces of paper to prove that the can judge. Not that they
have been around long enough to see what good dogs look like,
owned a dog that has done a ‘bit of winning’ or
even bothered to go round the rings and put their hands on
a variety of dogs (good and bad). No, they have their bits
of paper and they are a ‘JUDGE’.
Of course this has not had the desired effect! In fact it
has done the reverse, people have stopped entering Open Shows
because they do not value the opinion of this new breed of
judge. Plus, because it has become a necessity to get on the
‘Judges List’ of your particular breed, these people
are accepting judging appointments on a much more regular,
and less geographically spread basis, which again reduces
the likelihood of a good entry.
More
legislation and more rules!
At
the same time as these new rules on judges, the Kennel Club
came out with more and more legislation and regulations regarding
the conduct of Open Shows. Amongst these were the requirements
to have certain size rings, certain size of gangways and,
most pernicious of all, a minimum of three dogs per class.
Because these new regulations and rules were not having the
desired effect more and more were promulgated until hardly
a month would go by without another regulation coming from
Clarges Street.
Did
these regulations achieve the desired effect? NO! They actually
made the situation worse. Because of various rulings certain
venues no longer became viable for showing and the remaining
ones became overbooked, some having two shows a weekend! The
classifications of numerically small breeds were removed to
enable societies to achieve the golden ‘three entries per
class’ target.
All of this had the effect of reducing entries at shows, not
increasing them, and drove more and more exhibitors away from
showing altogether. Amendments to the qualification of achieving
the Junior Warrant award and allowing BIS and BPIS at Open Shows
to qualify for Crufts did nothing to reverse this trend. The
Kennel Club, faced with this continuing decline, carried on
making more regulations.
Some of these regulations came to the fore and, when seen to
be unworkable, were quietly dropped. One such regulation was
the one that a society MUST hold all its shows in its own locale;
if this had been followed to the letter centres like Newark
and Notts. Showground would have been lost altogether without
anything to replace it. In fact the Kennel Club has actually
worked against the original idea insofar as it has allowed certain
shows to move well out of their original area, championship
shows such as Manchester have moved as well as a variety of
Open show societies still concentrating their shows at places
like Newark and Notts. Showground.
Failure
to improve entries
When
all the above have failed to improve entries at Open Shows
what does the Kennel Club do? It makes more regulations and
moves the goal posts yet again. Now a society must achieve
an average of four entries per class to be able to have two
Open shows a year.
The Kennel Club is working on the misguided notion that fewer
are better. To the exhibitor, and it is them after all that
showing is for, all it means is that he will have less choice
and therefore will either go to fewer shows or stop showing
altogether. Not all exhibitors go to Championship Shows, many
only go to Open Shows and reducing their choice will drive
them away from their hobby completely.
A
way to stop the decline
What
can be done to redress the decline in Open Show, and Championship
Show, entries?
After listening to, and talking with, a lot of the grass root
exhibitors and reading the comments in the dog press various
remedies have become evident, something the Kennel Club has
patently refused to do. First of all let’s get rid of
a lot of the regulations that do nothing other than put obstacles
in the way of societies and exhibitors, what is required is
fewer rules not more!
Secondly bring back a society’s right to hold TWO Open
shows a year without any limitations, after all it’s
the attendance of exhibitors and their dogs that make a show,
not the level of entries. A 200 class show, with 150 breed
classes, attracting 450 dogs is likely to be much more successful
than a 100 class show attracting 200 dogs giving 400 entries.
Apart from the ‘feel good’ factor of the, busier,
first show, first entries bring in much more income than second
entries ever will.
Thirdly, The Kennel Club should devolve its powers over all
shows below Championship and, perhaps, the new Premier Show
(which appears to be nothing less than a second class Championship
Show) to Regional Kennel Clubs covering say the North East,
The North West, the South East, The South West, The Midlands,
London, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These regional
‘kennel clubs’ would have the authority to issue
licences for all shows in their area and would have, unlike
the staff at Clarges Street, knowledge of the proximity of
each venue and thus be better able to allow an even spread
of shows. This would be further facilitated by consultation
with adjoining regional ‘kennel clubs’ to avoid
clashes with venues close to their boundaries.
The above would allow the Kennel Club to concentrate on Crufts,
Championship Shows and Premier Shows. It would appear to prefer
to be regulating these types of shows because it seems to
be bent on destroying the Open Show. It would also concentrate
more on the registration and regulation of Pedigree dogs as
well as the working and field trial side of dog ownership.
Societies should have fewer regulations to abide to, other
than necessary ones regarding Health and Safety issues. They
should not be limited to the number of entries per class and
thus allow market forces to operate. If a show is not run
well the exhibitors will not enter and the show will make
a loss, thus the society will have to change or cease to exist.
Help
and advice not confrontation
Furthermore
the regional ‘kennel clubs’ would, through the local
Field Officer, be there to step in and help and advise struggling
societies. This would be a new function for the Field Officer,
being there to help instead of insisting on the adherence
of petty rules and regulations. They would also, of course,
have to ensure the society is complying with its legal obligations
on Health and Safety and Insurance etc. but they would help
and encourage societies, not wield the big stick over them.
The governing bodies of these regional ‘kennel clubs’
would be made up of representatives of the local societies,
General Open Show, Breed Clubs, Ringcraft and Affiliated Societies
(such as Agricultural Societies). They would have full authority
over all Shows in their area except for Championship and Premier
Shows. The funding of these regional ‘kennel clubs’
would be from the Show licence fees plus a percentage of the
registration fees of dogs domiciled within their boundary.
The Kennel Club in Clarges Street would be left with the running
of all Championship Shows, Premiership Shows and Crufts. They
would remain as the registration authority for pedigree dogs
as well as the guardian of the breed standards. They would
also act as the final authority in regard to breaches of the
Show Rules, the regional ‘kennel clubs’ would have
limited powers in this respect, and as a court of appeal in
cases of disputes between the regional ‘kennel clubs’
and exhibitors and/or societies.
Giving
back dog showing to the exhibitors
In
conclusion, the world of dog showing should be given back
to the exhibitors who, after all, are the most important people.
Without them there would be no shows at all. Above all it
should be remembered that dog showing, as well as serving
on committees, is done by amateurs who are there to indulge
in their hobby. If it is legislated to the extent that it
is no longer enjoyable, which is the way it appears to be
going, then we will be left with no committee members to run
the shows as well as no exhibitors to attend them.
The Kennel Club does appear to have seen the error of its
ways because it has recently done away with the need for societies
holding outdoor Open Shows to provide wet weather accommodation.
It has also reverted to the - almost - original rules regarding
the obtaining of Junior Warrant points. Perhaps it just needs
a couple more nudges for it to finally see the true needs
of the exhibitor.
What the Kennel Club also needs to do is consult the general
show going public, not just the few top breeders, judges and
stallholders. It needs to immediately stop these new regulations
and contact ALL the registered open show societies and ask
them what they think needs doing. It also needs to canvass
the views of the Open Show exhibitor by way of a questionnaire
that can be returned to the local Liaison Council. Above all
it needs an agreement by consensus, not the imposition of
diktats by a body that is so far removed from the ground roots
that there is little or no common ground.
Incidentally the last thing we require is an alternative Kennel
Club setting up. All that will do is to cause Clarges Street
to batten down the hatches preventing any further changes.
Also it will not serve the needs of the exhibitor, as they
will not know where they stand with regard to entry in Championship
Shows or even Open Shows and may ultimately cause an irreparable
rift between exhibitors of the two alternative kennel clubs.
Stephen
Clayforth is Chairman of Harrogate CS, treasurer of Huddersfield
CA and vice chairman of West Riding CC. The views expressed
in the above article are the personal views of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the views of any society to
which he is associated.
