By Kathy Musto
YES! With my whole heart, yes! We’ve been hearing all too much lately that it’s not… let me remind you why it is.
I love that I had the opportunity as a young girl growing up with my family showing our family pets. I could not imagine anything more exciting than watching our personal dogs in the ring winning ribbons. Soon the sport hooked our family, as it has done to many of us. Our family bought our first camper, now this was back in the 80s so a pop-up was our first adventure. We quickly outgrew that and stepped up a notch to a travel trailer. But every minute camping with the family showing our family dog was amazing to us! It never mattered what we stayed in, the adventure was the passion. Before we knew it, the whole family was packing up on these adventures Friday nights to join all of our friends at the show. The excitement of meeting up with our friends that we only get to see on the weekends at DOG SHOWS.
I hear all the time from people that things have changed. And yes, like anything things change and evolve over time but I have to say overall it’s a passion we still all share. I see the same friendships developed today as I did all those years ago.
Now my family has continued to expand our version of dog shows together. My husband and I go and meet up with my sister, her husband and their son in their motorhome and then in pulls our parents in their motorhome. WE ARE ALL CAMPING TOGHETR AGAIN! What a journey to share and guess what brought us all here..a DOG SHOW! Watching grandparents with their grandson show them the way around dog shows reminds me what it is for so many young individuals.
How many jobs do you know where you can see young mothers and fathers have their small children at work with them. Like we do at DOG SHOWS?!. We have a lot of new families with new children that are working hard and keeping their family together. I love seeing the family unit continue even though many are professional handlers showing all day long.
I watch people developing new friendships with others they never would’ve come across in their everyday lives. People from all kinds of different professions that have become close friends through the love of DOG SHOWS.
I hear them clapping for each other at the group and yelling with excitement when their friends place. I hear them encouraging each other to do better the next time when their day has not gone very well. It’s like any sport, we are all there to win and we are all competitive in a certain level of the sport. Goals are different for each individual. One goal is not better than the other. It’s simply your goal!
Certainly, it’s the nature of competition that we want to win, and sometimes it’s best to give your friends 15 minutes before talking about how excited you are about your win when you just beat them. We can all be excited for each other later. But the most important thing and what gives me hope that we will all be here for a long time is what I see in the evening. I see everyone gathered around together, cooking out or going to dinner and enjoying their time with friends. I see families sitting at their campers with their children playing while the dogs are enjoying the family. THIS IS THE HEART THAT WILL KEEP OUR COMMUNITY STRONG! Time together and appreciating the opportunity we have to show our dogs.
I hear people say to me all the time I’ve watched you grow up in this sport, I take that with much pride that yes, it has literally been my life.
So yes, I say dog shows are a family sport, whether it’s just your family going to the show together or meeting up with your dog Show family each weekend! Because one thing I know for sure we all share the love of our dog and that makes us one big happy family!
