Quote Originally Posted by rutylr
There are quite a few Borzoi's out showing in UKC.
These you have to be sponsered by a breed club,take a test and apprentice under three Judges before being Okayed to Judge those breeds.Except BSD there requirments to Judge that breed are stiffer so most new Judges don't even try to get them.
Not just that, but the judge must have priorly owned and bred Belgians (used to be just owned, now you have to have bred them). You can't have the same two judges for every show so it's very difficult to find new ones. Most shows will not offer a Belgian class because it is too expensive to fly in judges who are able to judge Belgians. The Belgians get "assisted animation" critiques and they take forever and require a seperate ring -- it takes up too much space, time, and money for all that. By the time that show has ended and the BIS and everything else has been named, often times the Belgians are still not done being judged -- excluding them from winning BIS. It is all because the UKC Belgian club wants the rules to be as close to the original ones in Belgium as they can be. As a result of having only breeder judges, we may get the occasional person being biased and picking a dog by it's lines.

Do you show in the AKC also? Have you ever tried the UKC?
I doubt I'll show Visa through AKC -- she has a bad experience last year at a show and no longer enjoys the show atmosphere, so as for now I'm planning on finishing her with CKC and retiring her from the ring. But who knows, she may have a turn around and suddenly love showing -- then I would definatly do AKC with her. Solo I want to do AKC with for sure. As for UKC, way too much commitment for me. You'll get the occasional one in WA that offers a Belgian class, but they are so far and few between that it would take me years and years before finally finishing my dog unless I went to the East coast. Not only that, but my dogs probably wouldn't do very well in a UKC show conformation-wise. CKC and AKC typically enjoy all types of Belgians, but UKC has the habit of only picking the very typey European Belgians. My dogs are American and Visa isn't typey in the least.

We are considering starting a UKC club locally, and I really do think it'd be a great idea. I don't have anything against UKC, just the UKC Belgian club. They make it ridiculously difficult to finish your dog. I would likely only be involved in the sports.