Interview With 2022 AKC National Championship Breed Judge Victoria M. Jordan

Interview With 2022 AKC National Championship Breed Judge Victoria M. Jordan

First, hats off and many kudos to AKC for producing such a lovely, well-organized show! What an accomplishment with an entry of 5,000-plus!

What does it mean to be invited to judge at the AKC National Championship Presented by Royal Canin, the only all-breed show organized directly by the American Kennel Club?

Victoria Jordan: To be invited to judge this show was a great thrill and a fabulous experience. I was honored to judge so many wonderful dogs on Sunday. This was my first time to offer Awards of Excellence and I have no doubt that these awards were greatly appreciated by exhibitors for their dogs.

Can you share your thoughts on your various Breed assignments? Please be specific.

Victoria Jordan: I had 165 lovely Working Dogs to adjudicate. All were healthy and in great condition, which was so encouraging to see. The Veterans definitely brought a tear to the eye. You could tell they were so happy to return to the ring and they showed their hearts out. Kudos to the owners for taking such wonderful care and keeping their Veterans in such great condition.

Now that it’s over, what are your thoughts on the 2022 show year? Any thoughts on the year ahead?

Victoria Jordan: My thoughts on the 2022 show year? Our club, Citrus County Kennel Club, made history in 2022 when it held the first all-breed dog show at the beautiful World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida. In 2022, we began with two specialties and two supported entries. For our upcoming July 2023 shows, we have grown to seven specialties that will be holding supported entries as well, and three clubs (as of this writing) want to also support their breed entries.

For 2023 shows and beyond, I hope we can all come up with ideas to help breeders find ways to draw majors, especially in the low entry breeds. I’m told many times that it is so hard to find majors. Well, it’s time to fix this and make our own majors. Let’s get creative and invite breeds to come into our shows and clusters to support the entry of their breeds each day of the shows. Show chairs, reach out to those in your state and invite them to your shows. Offer to help them order ribbons or put together media that announces the shows, etc. You will be surprised how many breed clubs are eager to join; every breed club we have contacted to date has been very receptive.

We all need to work together to help accomplish our breeding goals. We show chairs need to help ensure as best we can that breeders will have a venue to showcase their beautiful puppies and adults, in an environment that hopefully produces majors. What will encourage breeders to keep producing their dogs if they can’t find majors to complete their championships? What will happen if we lose our beautiful dogs because they are no longer being bred? Please, let’s all work together to fix this and ensure that this never happens.