Going on now and today. Available this year free live streaming from Fox.
2 Likes
Yes!
My puppyâs sire will be shown tomorrow. Only 15 entries but they are the âwhoâs whoâ of the breed lately. Should be exciting!
3 Likes
I have time blocked on my work calendar to watch the Dobermans tomorrow. The favorite, Wicked, has 57 best of breed wins in the last 60 shows, with 10 BIS. Last year she won G2 in the working group at Westminster. Sheâs on fire right now, so good chance to go all the way.
3 Likes
@Rackonteur well, itâs not live right now because the day is over. I think the free part is the breed judging. Yes, the groups might be on Fox sports, which probably requires a subscription to FSN1.
We know your feelings about Westminster, you made it clear last year. Just let us enjoy watching some nice dogs show.
Signed,
An elitist dog fancier
6 Likes
So why donât you elitists take some sort of action to influence WKC to bring the show back so EVERYONE can enjoy it?
No. You just want the rest of us to shut up. Yep. Elitists.
Canadians are NOT happy that this year they cannot watch it because they donât have FOX Sports.
If you really cared about dogs, and dog people, youâd do something to get it back on TV for your fellow dog lovers.
Face it, dog shows are not a big enough draw to entice advertising money to allow for free. I do not want you to shut up, but your responses so far have been quite rude and inflammatory. I do support dogs and dog shows, by rescuing, supporting responsible, preservation breeders, competing at dog shows/events and supporting newbies to the scene. Are there elitists at dog shows? Sure, but I ignore them and concentrate on my own dog, who I happen to think it the best in the ring every time we go in 
14 Likes
How does this help dogs?
I agree that dog shows arenât going to draw enough advertising to have free TV viewing for one show a year.
The FB dog show forums are whining about this as well - and yet they are the first ones to gripe about entry fees, superintendent fees, and the general cost of showing dogs. Exactly who do they think pay for the live streaming, which is far more interesting in my opinion than the group competition?
I canât even imagine the cost to put on WKC, and the entry numbers are really not that high. As I said - 15 dogs in my breed. My club will hold a specialty show in July with at least double that and weâll still struggle to cover our costs at a little obedience facility in upstate NY.
I was sorry to see that there are only three entries for my current breed. There have been larger entries in the past, so Iâm not sure what is going on but many long time breeders are winding down their operations as they face retirement and there are not a plethora of younger owners interested in absorbing the very high costs associated with competing at Westminster.
You can see entry lists and results of breed judging here.
And video replays of breed judging is here .
Breed judging for Sporting, Working and Terrier groups is today so those results will be posted later.
3 Likes
Bahahahahah! There are a lot of great ways to help dogs, but this is a new one for me! Iâm sorry, maybe Iâm being rude and donât know the facts. Do they donate money or something?
2 Likes
Thatâs the real issue - showing at Westminster is so expensive. My dogâs sire didnât win (but was Select Dog); he flew in from California.
Most of the competitors are in their breed top 10, and professionally handled; and the top dogs are definitely gunning for group placements rather than breed wins. So unless youâre local, itâs really a long, expensive week to do Westminster.
I would spend the money to show at my breed national over Westminster 100 times over.
3 Likes
Yes, dog showing is expensive but still no way as pricey as USEF. My first USEF show was HITS almost 15 years ago. And that was close to $5k then, with fees, splits, hotel, food, shipping, etc. Partly why I switched from horse shows to dog shows 
I think many pro handlers charge between $500 and $1000 per week to campaign a dog. Meeting a pro at ringside with your dog is cheaper, many charge between $25 to $100 per class. A rule of thumb I have read is it costs $15k to put a championship on a dog.
Agree with @S1969 that many folks go to WKC only if they have a chance to get group placings. I would only do it once for the experience.
There must be a North American market for coverage of Westminster. In the UK, Crufts is prime time terrestrial TV with coverage over three nights, with famous presenters commentating on the agility or fly ball or service dog of the year. The audience this year was 4.3 million on TV and 110,000 people attended the show.
1 Like
LOL yes - letâs talk elite sports for real. Most peopleâs lifetime expenses on one dog donât even come close to the annual expenses on a horse being shown (not even getting into the purchase price). Only a handful of dogs are campaigned full time for a year or more, which might run $100K for the year. Most pro handled dogs donât do a national circuit like the ones that are at WKC.
2 Likes
Meeting your handler at ringside is generally not a good option if you have a breed that requires extensive grooming such as stripping, clipping, scissoring. For example, most terriers that are being campaigned for top of the ranking lists need stripping done at regular intervals (every couple of weeks or even weekly in many instances), and that type of intensive coat care generally requires that the dog live with the handler. Those owners are typically paying at the very high end of the scale - and especially so if the handler is a top, top pro.
1 Like
There is a North American market for Westminster. The night time competition (groups and BIS) are shown on TV to a wide audience. The poster above who complained about lack of coverage doesnât subscribe (or have access?) to the channel on which the show is shown. The breed judging is available streaming online for anyone who has a computer and internet access.
4 Likes
Yes, I did not include additional grooming costs for those breeds. Luckily I choose a breed with low grooming requirements, plus handled and finished him myself as Owner Handled.
2 Likes
Some pros charge more for ringside handling to discourage it. Because too many owners show up late with a dog thatâs not ready for the ring and their whole day is blown. If youâve ever crated with or alongside a pro, you can see them mapping out their entire day in advance to manage dogs in multiple rings.
$15K is an average so it could swing wildly from high to low - for my breed that would be a lot unless youâre traveling or using a pro. We have enough to make majors pretty easily without having too many in the ring it takes forever. And I personally live within 90 minutes of the Big E, so I can enter shows all the time with just gas (no hotel). Not everyone has that luxury, though.
I would never own a rare breed for this reason - I canât imagine having to build majors every time you need one, and drive three states to compete. I like dogsâŠbut not dog shows enough for that.
1 Like
Congratulations! I understand that itâs very hard to finish your own dog in this breed. I love my breed RH(âdobesâ) and canât imagine owning another breed despite âfalling in loveâ with others when I watch Westminster every year.
It would be my dream for an âunusualâ breed to win Best In Show at Westminster. I just can NOT believe that there are, for example, So Many GSDs, Poodles, Pekingese, etc. that are superior to the best Otter Hound, Canaan Dog, Samoyed, etc. It seems to me (and I MAY be WRONG!), a lot of this is the exposure, the number of shows that a dog is taken to, the âThank You To Judge So-and-So for awarding our âMopsyâ Best In Show atâŠâ ads in dog show magazines that HAVE to influence the judges, however supposedly âanonymousâ they are presented as. I mean, how could a dog professional NOT know who this yearâs Australian Shepherd Best Of Breed is?
On the other hand, they are ALL beautiful examples of their breeds. And maybe, some breed owners may NOT want their breed to win. Because that can create a run on their breed, with backyard breeders and puppy millers trying to make a buck (or lots more!) from that Westminster win. For example, the French Bulldog has replaced the Labrador Retriever as the #1 breed registered in numbers. There are a LOT of ads for this breed/puppies for sale in my area currently. Well, I have to say this happened to with Dalmatians and St. Bernards because of the movies they were featured in, too. (Saw a LOT of them end up in the animal shelter next to where I worked at the time.)
I am all for responsible breeding, but all of my Dobermans were either from a shelter or from a rehoming situation. Darcy (black, all-natural girl) from a shelter 3 hours north of me, Dickens (fawn, natural ears, docked) re-homed to me when his owner died, and Brooklyn (blue, natural ears, docked) due to a divorce. Darcy is very healthy at 13, Dickens has Wobblerâs at 9, and Brooklyn, also 9, is doing very well despite having heartworm when I got her five years ago and having only 3 1/2 legs.
I am thinking of my next Doberman, as Dickens is on borrowed time. The vet specialist said that a $12,000 operation could have been done on him but there was no guarantee that it would stabilize, let alone improve, his condition. For one quarter of that amount, I could get a puppy (if I were approved) from two breeders that test for EVERYTHING the breed is known to have a problem with. However, there is that black/rust (cropped) male that needs a new home due to allergies, that blue (cropped) male that is good with dogs AND cats, that (uncropped) 10-month old fawn male misidentified as a Doberman/Weimaraner cross in a shelterâŠ
Sorry to ramble on like this. Anytime someone mentions that they (plural pronoun) are a Doberman owner, I just canât shut up. 
Edited to say: It wonât help if you canât get Fox, but I noticed that last yearâs Westminster was replayed about (I kid you NOT!) 100 times this past year.
1 Like
@S1969 yes, I also live in a major metro area and can access many dog shows within an hour distance.
@RHdobes563 nice to meet another dobie enthusiast! My female is a rescue, the absolute love of my life, pandemic puppy. My pup is from a preservation breeder, ie producing dogs that can can meet breed standards for both form and function. So we are now working towards Schutzhund titles, but still dabbling at AKC shows. That is one thing I donât like seeing in the Doberman show ring, many are smaller and finer that I think a Doberman should be.
2 Likes
Truant ~ Agility ~ 
1 Like
