All Work, No Glory

This is a rant.....

Organizing ribbons for an all breed dog show SUCKS!!!!! I've been organizing the ribbons & rosettes for the Alberta Kennel Club dog show for the last 5 or 6 shows. It isn't difficult work.... it's just a LOT of work. And it's a very thankless job. It would probably be easier for a smaller club but the AKC likes to do things in style. So all the larger rosettes are dated, the group rosettes have the group name on them, etc. This means they are not interchangeable and I better have the exact right rosette available at ringside at the right time. Still not such a big deal, right? WRONG! That's just some of the rosettes. This club also gives out "breeder rosettes" to the winner of each group, puppy in group, BIS, and BPIS. Then there is reserve BIS, Best of the Best (or "Alberta Beauty" as they are now calling it), brace rosettes for group and BIS, and I haven't even talked about the booster, junior handling, miscellaneous class, or breeders sweepstakes rosettes.

And in the summer show it's even worse as there is one day of "limited breed" showing so every rosette has that printed on it.... can't get them mixed up with the "all breed" rosettes. And then there is obedience. I find those especially frustrating because I take home half of the rosettes at the end of the show due to so many dogs not qualifying. That's just the nature of obedience trials. There is a rosette for first through fourth place in each class, high in trial, high aggregate, obedience best of the best (or "Rocky Mountain High" as they call it), breed boosters, and new this year is a high combined in open & utility rosette. Then there's the unofficial classes (brace, team, veterans) that have their own rosettes.

And then there's the flats. I've seen smaller clubs (with just one or two rings going at a time) place all their flats on the judge's table in a nice slotted tray. I have to have an actual piece of furniture in my living room to store them there are so many. It's approximately 4 feet wide, 3 feet tall, and a foot deep. It's huge and ugly and a pain in the ass. And counting the ribbons is such a pain. If you had to count out 131 blue flats for first in class, you'd probably agree with me. But that's just one ribbon type out of 11 that goes into each apron. I need one apron for every conformation ring... usually 7 rings. And a new apron for each day. I calculate that to be 231 sets of ribbons I need to count out for the winter show. Obedience is a little easier as I just lump all flats for the 2 rings over 3 days into 2 aprons. It's just too tedious to separate them out.

So organizing the ribbons & rosettes has taken me 2 full weekends. And that doesn't even include taking an initial inventory, calculating what we will need, ordering them, and going to pick them up.

I told the show committee that this is the last time I am doing the ribbons. It's way too much work in the days before the show which is when I am trying to get my dog ready to step in the ring again. If I was showing a beagle or a pug or a whippet maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But lemme tell ya..... American Cockers don't groom themselves!