Members
Meet Dale Meyer, Show Chair of the Marshfield Area Kennel Club, leading a fun, welcoming, and well-run all-breed dog show.
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Dale Meyer : Our show is the Marshfield Area Kennel Club All-Breed Dog Show, Obedience and Rally Trial.
Dale Meyer : Our shows are held in Marshfield, Wisconsin, on the third weekend in July.
Dale Meyer : I am not sure, but I think it’s been 11 years.
Dale Meyer : Our club was formed in the mid-to-late 1980s by a group of friends living in the same area who showed in Conformation. We were all members of another club from a little farther away and decided to go out on our own and form a club. We now have over 50 members in Conformation, Obedience, Rally, Agility, and Scent Work. We have shows and trials in all of those areas.
Dale Meyer : We do charge a parking fee. This year it was $5 a day per vehicle. We have reserved grooming available in the historic World’s Largest Round Barn and open grooming available in another building. Both buildings have bathtubs available for bathing the dogs. As for hospitality, we have many exhibitors say every year how much they enjoyed our show, and many have never been to it before. We offer onsite camping with electricity and water, and a dumping station. Every day we have free armband drawings for anyone to enter after they have shown. Prizes are dog-related or snacks, or coupons to restaurants. On Saturday we have a Chuck a Duck competition where you buy a rubber dog duck for $5, and between the Groups, you chuck your duck into the middle of the ring and try to get it in the bowl. The closest one wins half the kitty. The other half goes to the Canine Health Foundation. During Groups we offer cake or cookies and water or lemonade to drink. As for vendors, we do not have many; it seems as if we have less every year. We have had scissors sharpeners, dog show supply vendors, and jewelers as well as semen collectors. It varies every year. The American Legion provides us with a lunch menu and the Sweet Adeline’s sing our National Anthem each day and sell delicious Cranberry Cream Puffs as well.
Dale Meyer : We offer NOHS (National Owner-Handled Series) each day and I believe we have over half of our entries check the box to compete. We offer Junior Showmanship and a 4-6 Month Beginner Puppy Competition. I have had Best Veteran in the past to cover all ages, from four months to senior citizens. This also gets a few more entries from people who would not normally show their older dogs. For the last couple years, I offered a Best Puppy and Best Bred-by competition. We have had some Supported Entries in the past, but no Specialties.
Dale Meyer : We have always had Obedience and Rally competitions in a climate-controlled building. The Rally entries seem to be increasing every year. We offered Fast CAT for a few years, but numbers dwindled. So, we decided to not take on the extra work this year.
Dale Meyer : I am the sole decision maker on the judging panel, though I do request input from the membership. I am a judge myself and when I meet very capable judges, I consider hiring them. If I see that they pull good numbers, I see whether they fit into my “puzzle.” Economically, I can only hire four judges to do the majority of the judging. Based on the previous years’ entries, I assign about 120 to 130 dogs per day and three to four Groups. I look for permit judges to take up the slack in some of our heavier Groups, such as Sporting, Working, and Toy. I also find handlers or longtime breeders to do some of the Group judging for the Special Attraction Groups, like Best Puppy and Best Bred-by or Best Veteran.
Dale Meyer : We have club members who steward mostly, but I often ask friends to help out as well. Sometimes we have people who are looking to apply to judge and need the stewarding hours.
Dale Meyer : We do have an active membership. Besides the annual dog show, we offer Agility, Scent Work, and separate Obedience and Rally Trials. For the general public, we hold Puppy classes, Agility, Rally, Scent Work, and Conformation classes. At each of the classes we give breaks to people if they become members. In order to be members in good standing we do require members to help at our events, and many of the members do work hard at our events.
Dale Meyer : I think picking a date, planning your judging assignments, and having them posted on the AKC (American Kennel Club) website early, as well as having your Premium List done early, helps exhibitors to plan and put your show into their schedule. The only other advertising I do is on social media. I pound the social media posts, warning people of the closing date. People are notorious for waiting until the last minute and then say, “I completely forgot the entries closed today.” If they are looking at Facebook, they’ll see my posts warning them days in advance. This year, I created a public Facebook page, and I think it made a great deal of difference. Our entries were up, whereas many show numbers are down this year.
Dale Meyer : I have an absolutely wonderful group of club members who show up every year and give it their all to make this be a success. The biggest challenges I’ve had were when the fairgrounds have said we couldn’t have our show on our annual weekend, and then had to find a new show site and/or a new date. Annual challenges are finding new Chairs for certain areas, and it’s usually in Camping and Chief Ring Steward (CRS). Finding enough inside ring stewards seems to give me or the CRS the most problems. People are afraid to do it wrong, so we need judges who are capable and willing to help these people through the process. Everybody has a first time doing things, so make it a positive one.
“I have an absolutely wonderful group of club members who show up every year and give it their all to make this be a success. ”
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