The capital expenditure, however, far outweighs the
potential financial rewards, even for part owners. The American Kennel Club
(AKC) National event offers the biggest purse on the dog show circuit—a total of
$225,000, with Best in Show winning $50,000. Meanwhile, professional handlers
command fees of around $7,500 per dog, per show, and dogs are regularly
campaigned at dozens of shows. The best ring handlers, such as Beth Sweigart and
Michelle Ostermiller, Carlee’s handler at Westminster last year, earn even
higher fees.
Owning even a reigning champion bitch like Carlee has very
little upside and considerable downside. Breeding, training, veterinary and
kenneling costs mount quickly. “People don’t understand the expenses involved,”
Richard Stark explains. Judicious breeding can produce highly sought-after
puppies, but the process is a slow one if approached cautiously and ethically.
Hobby breeder-owners like the Starks might get a litter every two or three
years—but six months after her Westminster win, Carlee had yet to be bred.
Eventually her puppies might bring $3,000 to $4,000—more than the average
purebred puppy, but hardly a windfall. Will Carlee ever provide a return on the
Starks’ investment in her? “Oh, no,” Linda Stark laughs. “It’s a good way to
spend money.”
VALUE JUDGMENT
Even the most exalted canines—those named Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel
Club Dog Show, for example—never return the capital invested to make them a
champion. Yet their adoring owners rarely care. The pursuit of top-dog status in
the show ring or in field trials is enough for both man and beast. |
“No matter how famous your dog is, you are not going to make a
living on it,” says Karolynne McAteer, a second-generation Irish setter
owner-breeder in Westchester, N.Y.
Born to Be Wild
Even when resigned to losing money, owners can maximize
their enjoyment of the sport by specializing in a breed that both fits their
interests and provides a worthwhile chance of winning high honors. Carlee is a
sporting dog, as defined by the AKC, a category of 28 breeds and varieties of
hunting dogs originally bred to find or retrieve upland game birds and wildfowl.
Despite their hunting credentials, these bird dogs, often called gun dogs, are
among the seminal show dog breeds. When the AKC was founded in 1884, sporting
was the original dog classification; all other dogs were categorized as
nonsporting.
Today a pointer remains the mascot of the Westminster Kennel
Club, the oldest and most prestigious of all American kennel clubs. But what a
dog like Carlee may never do in her lifetime is the job she was bred to do—lead
a hunter armed with a shotgun into the field. Though Linda Stark says “a
sporting dog that can’t hunt is just a pretty face with no substance, a pretty
useless dog,” her champion has never been in the field. “Carlee is pretty birdy,
but she is so valuable that breeding is more important right now.”
 Concern
for the preservation of the natural instincts of sporting dogs has led to
performance events, including competitions in the field that mimic the hunt
under controlled conditions. Hunt tests are entry-level field events, while
field trials seek to replicate the actual hunting experience with hunters on
horseback and booming shotgun blasts aimed at real birds.
A dog that
achieves championship status in both show ring and field is a dual dog,
relatively common in breeds such as the Brittany and German shorthaired pointer.
But duals are remarkably rare in other breeds. Only 19 Irish setters have
achieved dual championships in the history of the breed, and the last golden
retriever dual was in the 1970s.
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