The Truth About Making It – Handlers Who Breed Can Be the Key to the Advancement of the Sport

The Truth About Making It – Handlers Who Breed Can Be the Key to the Advancement of the Sport

I recently went to see an off-off-Broadway play called I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan. I went with a friend and her husband, and had no idea what the show was about. It turned out to be a one-man show starring David Greenspan who played four female characters dressed in a pair of pants and a sweater. The set was minimal, with just a long seat. The story was about a young woman playwright who had been struggling for years to make it in the business. She was having a dinner party and invited two other playwrights, one super successful and another who was also struggling—and never showed up for dinner. She’d planned to read her play to her guests and was going to tell them that this was her last attempt at making it in the business. Hearing this, the successful playwright said, “Instead of struggling to do meaningful work on Broadway you could write for TV, because if you can write for TV you’ll make a fortune.” Later, when they started talking about a fourth playwright they’d lost touch with, they eventually burned their dinner. So, they ordered food, and when the doorbell rang… that playwright who had vanished from the industry because she couldn’t make it was standing at the door, delivering Uber Eats.

While watching the play, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels with the dog show warriors out there trying to make a buck, trying to get notoriety, trying to get a string of dogs to pay the bills—and how it doesn’t happen for everyone. After all, a career path in dogs is a challenge, and I think many of us worry so much about people in our sport who struggle to make ends meet. History has even shown us some very successful people who have not been responsible with their position in the sport. They’ve maybe had an illustrious career as a dog handler, but maybe not so much as a business person. There’s a struggle there, I think, with how to balance a career with a solvency for life. All the talent in the world doesn’t always equate to skills in the business department.

I don’t believe there’s a lot of “life business management” mentoring in the sport of purebred dogs, where many people are simply trying to make ends meet. If they could just get two more clients or just finish a dog for somebody, they’re going to be successful. But it doesn’t always happen because, at the end of the day, showing dogs is often costing handlers more than they’re making. You know, the ability to run one dog’s career and be successful doesn’t necessarily translate to a successful career in dogs. It’s the longevity of being successful year after year that brings in the consistent revenue.

In the play, the very successful writer said to her colleague, “Go out onto the street and ask a stranger to name two playwrights. Most people will only be able to name Shakespeare, but that’s it.” They’re generally not going to come up with Nora Ephron. The parallel here with the sport of dogs is obvious. The playwright is such a specific business, and just like in our own little microcosm of the dog show world, everybody knows the successful players. Everybody knew Bob and Jane, and George and Barbara. (I don’t even need to use their last names.) They were couples who were making it. They were the exceptions and they were hugely successful handlers. But then you have others who have struggled—and continue to struggle. Today, the expansion of organizations such as Take the Lead can offer a type of parachute for when something happens in life, but they are not long-term solutions.

I talk about the adrenaline junkies in our sport who love the process and love the thrill of their heart beating a little faster for two to three minutes. They love that rush of adrenaline. We’ve all seen, day after day and year after year, the same people doing the same things. Are they advancing in their career? Some, yes. Others, not so much. For some, there’s an inability to upgrade the level of participation, even though they’ve been at it for a long time. They have just not been afforded that opportunity or break they needed. Well, I have an idea that those people should be more active as breeders. I am suggesting that they get more involved in breeding as a way to supplement their income and feed their passion, all the while doing something responsible to advance the sport.

I actually think many handlers could be the key to the advancement of the sport for many breeds. I think they are the ones who are invested, in the trenches, and have access to other dogs. They see the competition, so they can see potential animals to use, and they can be educated in various breeds to assist at guiding those breeds towards improvement. They are willing to travel distances to do breedings, to get the advanced reproduction work completed, and they have the ability to care for and raise a litter of puppies and perhaps do it often. They have the ability to put hands on a dog and train and present them.

The problem for these would-be handler-breeders is detoxing from the adrenaline rush of showing dogs long enough to do the work of raising a litter of puppies. Can they step away for six weeks to raise a litter instead of showing dogs and never winning with anything during that time? I think they could train themselves to want to bring better dogs to the ring by producing better. (It must get frustrating to not show the quality you WANT to show.) This can provide the opportunity to work with clients to create something better for both the handler AND the client, and the end game is breeding better dogs, which benefits the handler, the client, and the sport.

Some handlers today, I assume, are making $70/dog or $100/dog, who knows, but the clients with poorer quality don’t develop loyalty to them since they are not able to be successful at winning. Those clients end up hopping from handler to handler, attempting to get bend-legged Fluffy finished. Those clients can lose interest very quickly in the sport after not having any success. Generally, after three weeks of shows and $1,500 to $3,000 spent, when the client realizes their handler is not able to win with their animal, they move on to a different handler, generally mad and disappointed, or they flee the sport altogether. It is my hope that we can capture these folks and cultivate a different result. I want them to consider contributing to the sport differently, but it will take handlers to work on getting them to stay and be involved in the advancement of their breeds. I’ve even suggested to some very successful, younger handlers who are starting families to consider going to one show every month and contribute to the breeding pool on the other three weeks by having a litter of puppies. Try breeding Labradors, Goldens, or Beagles. Those breeds are easy to whelp and they are, most importantly, saleable.

As in the play, which featured four different playwrights, there are probably four levels of breeders in the sport today. In our world, they would be the Professional Dog Breeder, the High-Volume Breeder, the Hobby Breeder, and the Backyard Breeder. I think we have to reevaluate the negativity around profiting from selling dogs. Becoming a Professional Dog Breeder is a viable option for many and a good option for a single parent who is looking to have a litter or two (or six) of Golden puppies to supplement their family’s income. I think it would be enterprising and I think it’s constructive. It’s hard work, sure, but I think they should be applauded, especially when they’re doing it from a standpoint of producing better quality. There’s nothing wrong with producing high-quality companions for the pet market today. Someone is already meeting the demand.

We need to think about where people are going to purchase their pets; the newspapers, Facebook, pet stores… and who is supplying them? Professional Dog Breeders are a viable alternative and one that could fill the financial and emotional needs for many within our sport. We need to stop being judgmental about breeders in general and consider encouraging handlers to breed more litters of higher quality companions. Maybe they won’t be show quality litters, but they’re going to be litters to fulfill a list of buyers who have been waiting for a puppy for six months.

I am not too sure that some handlers wouldn’t be better served in life by considering breeding as their main source of income. The hope in pulling them away from the handling/agent force is that they would become financially more solvent, because the expenses of going to dog shows (which can creep up on people and cause some to become more and more in debt) are minimized. If you start not going to shows as often, you start saving money, and you’re utilizing your talent at home to raise and rear a litter of quality animals that can then be turned into profit. And by doing so, you’re also allowing the show dogs you have to mature, to get in better condition. And hopefully, with the breeds you’re showing sparingly, you’re producing better animals so that, eventually, you’re going to upgrade the quality. As breeders, the challenge is always to get better and better and better. To me, this is a win-win-win!

The goal here is to have an intervention of sorts with the dog show junkie who gets caught up in the cycle of showing dogs, weekend after weekend after weekend, and loses focus on some pertinent life circumstances; behind in their rent, no health insurance, needs new tires and an oil change, no dental work, behind on bills, etc.! If these handlers can pull back from the high of showing and get focused on producing quality (instead of showing mediocrity) they can develop a higher reputation and a solvency of income that has nothing to do with the results of a dog show. The new focus could even produce better results at the dog show because they’ve invested and produced quality to begin with.

So, there is an opportunity here to change one high (showing) for another high from a different source (breeding). The handling can become a part-time job and auxiliary income. To many of today’s handlers, I would suggest reevaluating priorities and getting to work on something that’s meaningful, that’s still in your wheelhouse, that’s still in the threshold of your drive and passion, and do something positive for yourself. It’s about making a better choice for the survival of the sport and the survival of your passion.

It is important to always remember that it’s a privilege to show quality animals and it’s an honor to own them. Anyone who has a dog of great exception understands what a privilege it is to experience that animal, because they are truly unique and different. The feeling of amazement around those animals is second to none. The animals that gravitate to the top each time are uniquely gifted. And for those of us who come from a breeder’s perspective, we look at those animals in wonder at how amazing it is that all of those genetic components lined up to make that incredible animal, one that is high in virtue, low in fault, and so, so appealing and correct to the written word. The emotion attached to those dogs that meet the upper two percent is just incredible. For me, I’m always searching for that, and I think, to breed that animal, there’s a tremendous amount of pride and gratitude in knowing you got lucky enough for that to happen with the plan you put in place.

When you witness greatness, not just at a dog show but at a tennis match or an incredible stage performance, it is a moment in time that you will remember forever. Those moments are great feats in anyone’s career, and I think there’s an opportunity for today’s handlers to take their skills and passion and utilize those things to become a full-time breeder of top quality. That can be your bread and butter.