New Pictures of my Smooth Collie!!

[K9soul]

I'll try to explain a little about points since my mom and I were part of the dog show world for awhile with Willie. Hopefully I am remembering the process right.

A dog needs 15 points to achieve championship, and two of the wins must be majors. A lot of shows are 1-2 points, but any show 3 or more points is considered a major. A major is determined by how many dogs are there. There has to be at least a certain number of competitors for it to be a major. I know when Willie won his major, he was up against 8 other males, and that was a 3-point major. The more contestants, the more points it is worth.

First the classes are divided by age, sex, and color. So all the tri-colors go in the ring and the first place of those goes on to show with the first place sable, first place blue merle, first place puppies, etc. But they are still kept in male and female divisions. In order to get a show point, the dog must win over the other dogs in his/her class, i.e. best of all the male winners or best of all the female winners. That is where they get the point. Then the winning male and female go against each other and any other champions enter the ring with them. A few awards are handed out at this point: Best of Breed, Best of Opposite Sex, and Best of Winners. The winning dog of all in the ring gets Best of Breed. If that dog is male, the best female in the ring then gets Best of Opposite, or vice versa if the Best of Breed is female. Then which ever of the two orignal winners is placed highest gets Best of Winners. The Best of Breed goes on to show in their group i.e. herding group, later in the show. But the actual show point comes from winning against the other dogs of their sex.

Hopefully I didn't just confuse people more with my haphazard explanation of things. My Willie had 12 points, one of which was a major, so he was one major short of championship, but dog showing is expensive, and when I started college, we did not have the money and time to finish him. Needless to say, he was sure a champion in our hearts.