Flying Poodles

The Demands of Conformation Showing…

Dancer’s breeder, Vikki, shows Dancer’s sister Nickel in conformation. She went to a big show last weekend and left me thinking about the differences between conformation and other dog sports. I adore agility–but I’m never going to show in conformation.

Years ago, when I contracted for Elly, her breeder wanted me to show her to a Championship as part of the contract. I went to the Seattle Kennel Club show and talked to a few of the handlers and immediately figured out that the grooming alone made it out of the question for me (as any of you can tell from my naked poodle photos, grooming is definitely not my skill). But I also watched the handlers for a while and figured out that it takes quite a bit of skill to make a dog shine for those few minutes in the ring. Not just the stacking, but helping the dog to gait nicely on terrible footing (I much prefer watching conformation on grass when I can), and teaching them to be friendly during a rather intrusive exam… Precision really matters. I would think Obedience would be similar in its demands.

By comparison, agility has a lot of slack. I can whistle for the dog, what I wear doesn’t matter–and there are three or four different ways to do everything.

I do wish the AKC would encourage the poodles to show in retriever clip (a short clip, for those of you who don’t know the names)–it’s taken me four years to learn to see the shoulder structure under all that fur!