Nelly's Daughter Won

[tlwtheq]

Nelly's former breeder tells me one of (Nelly's) daughters, born June, 29, 2016, won 5 points and a major over the weekend.  Maybe those of you who show can tell me what that means, i.e., "5 points and a major".  Nelly won many awards, herself.  She's getting extra scritchies today. 

 

[bradl]

It means she did very well indeed! 

Points are awarded for the number of dogs (or bitches) beaten at a show, based on a table of requirements set by the AKC each year. The requirements vary by breed, by sex, and by region (aka division). 

For example, a show local to you would be in Division 3.

Division 3: District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

Cairn Terriers
1 pt D2 B2 
2 pt D4 B4 
--- major points ---
3 pt D5 B5 
4 pt D7 B12 
5 pt D12 B22

From the point schedule we learn that she has won her 5 points  by beating at least 22 other bitches. That is a very nice win. Five is the most points possible for a dog seeking its championship to receive at one time.  

For a dog to become a champion it has to earn 15 or more points. However the points can not ALL be onesie twosie wins at small shows. At least two of the wins must be "majors" where a major means 3 or more points awarded.  The majors are bold in the example.  The majors requirement is to ensure that dogs that become champions are actually good enough examples of the breed that they can win in competition with a significant number of dogs.

The point schedules vary by region based on historical entries of that breed and sex in the region, as that tends to reflect the population of dogs available for competition.

That's the basic structure. There are some additional wrinkles to points awards that affect the count of the number of dogs beaten. For example sometimes the points available in bitches based on the bitch entry is 5, but the points available for dogs based on the dog entry might be only 2. After being judged in the appropriate classes the winners dog and winners bitch advance to the Best of Breed competition. If the Dog is then awarded Best of Winners (comparing the winners dog to winners bitch) then the dog will earn the same number of points as the bitch had earned (five points) because the dog has now beaten all the dogs and by extension, all the bitches.  This is sometimes called splitting the points (both the dog AND the bitch get the major points, even though there were not a major number of dogs). It gets even more complicated if the winners dog or bitch goes best of breed, but that's not really relevant to the basic question of "what's a major"  

[Hillscreek]

Excellent! Nellie can be proud of her daughter.

[kjwarnold]

Excellent!  Nelly must be very proud! 

 Phinney’s brother also got his CH over the weekend in Texas.  They’re very excited and had some great suggestions and comments from a judge, Edd Bivin.  They’ve got Westminster in their minds!  Darn it, Phinney...why didn’t you drop that second testicle!  You could have been a champion, too!  😆

[tlwtheq]

I often feel guilty for letting off the strict grooming schedule that Nelly had before we adopted her.  She doesn't seem to mind, as any time I try she turns into a squirmy worm!

[kjwarnold]

I know how you feel about the grooming.  I’m lucky that my breeder isn’t too far away and she’ll help out with Phin when I’m having trouble keeping up.  Now that Kirby is almost 10, I don’t worry about doing more than the MCK and good brushing mostly.

[hheldorfer]

Thanks for that excellent explanation, Brad.  I was trying to explain dog shows/points to a co-worker during Westminster.  She was amazed that it was so complicated . . . then her eyes began to glaze over.😄