CONFORMATION THE ‘OTHER’ PERFORMANCE EVENT?
By Dan Sayers
T he sport of Conformation is all about the evaluation of breeding stock, right? Well, at least that’s what we’ve all been told ever since the first benched shows were held in the mid-nineteenth century. But is it still true today that the typical all-breed show is a place where breed authorities assess the merits of purebred dogs according to a Breed Standard? Or has Conformation become just another Performance event? According to the American Kennel Club, dog shows are about “producing conformity.” (This is a clear nod to the purebred dog breeder.) The AKC website has this to say about the purpose of Conformation shows: “Dogs are not being compared to each other; they’re being measured by how closely they conform to the standard of their particular breed.” Of course, this state- ment is true in theory, and judges with an in-depth knowledge of a breed have always done their very best to sort through the entry of dogs they have in front of them. However, with today’s increased number of Conformation events—with their typi- cally decreased entries overall—the modern American dog show must often rely on “paper adjudicators” who have satisfied the requirements necessary to judge a particular breed but have no “real world” experience with it. This shortcoming in the system encourages a shift in focus from one of conformity to a Breed Standard to one of conforming to a level of presentation; hence, the Conformance show as Performance event. Let’s be honest. There has always been something of a “perfor- mance” element to dog shows in America. Although the very first competitions in this country were organized by sporting gentlemen who gathered their Pointers and Setters together to
“THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SOMETHING OF A ‘PERFORMANCE’ ELEMENT TO DOG SHOWS IN AMERICA.”
20 • T op N otch T oys , N ovember 2022
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