This Saturday, I spent the morning at the North Carolina State Fair Grounds volunteering for the American Kennel Club’s Education Event. As many of you know I am currently working in the IS department at the AKC, and I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to get some actual dog show experience.
The Event started at 9 am inside Dorton Arena, although eager dog owners started showing up as early as 8:00 am for the event. The goal of the event is to provide dog owners a chance to learn more about showing their dogs at events. The AKC sets up multiple “rings” and allows new dog owners to bring their dogs in to “practice” being shown and judged. AKC employees educate owners on dog handling, grooming, AKC Dog Show procedures, show entry assistance, equipment advice, canine good citizen information, obedience/rally/agility demonstrations, and local club information. This year’s event had a really good turn out, especially in the Juniors area. I snapped a lot of pix of the event and some really nice looking dogs. Those are posted on my Flicker page.
