The dog show explained

"Why is that dog the only one in the ring?"
"Why is he back in the ring again?"
"What does that ribbon mean?"
"Did you get points?"

These are questions often heard outside the ring of a local dog show.

In short, the dogs (or bitches) compete against dogs within their own class. The classes are first separated by gender - dogs or bitches. Then, they are broken down by age group and a few other options.

The purpose for the class entries are to compete for points towards their championship. The points vary by region and year, changing every May. Each class dog/bitch wants the award of Winners Dog or Winners Bitch to collect those points. It takes 15 points and two majors to finish his/her championship.


The Show Begins

A dog show always proceeds in the same order - dogs (meaning male) first, then bitches. They start with the youngest puppy classes, and move up to a variety of other classes including a couple of classes for any age dog, and a special class for breeders. (In the Bred By Exhibitor class, the person showing the dog has to be the breeder of record.) After each dog class has competed, the winner of each class comes back to compete for the coveted award of Winners Dog (a purple ribbon), meaning he is the best dog out there that day - in the opinion of that judge.

Next, the bitch classes begin in the same order that the dog classes just had - puppies first, then on to the other classes. The winners of each class come back to compete for Winners Bitch (a purple ribbon).

The very last group to enter the ring is for the Best of Breed (BOB) competition. This group is comprised of champions, meaning they have all been through the class process at one point and finished their championship at some other time in the past. The judge also calls in the Winners Dog and the Winners Bitch to compete against the champions. Out of this group, the judge will give three awards - Best of Breed (BOB) self-explanatory; Best of Opposite Sex (BOS), which is pretty much like it sounds - the best one of the opposite sex of the BOB winner; and, Best of Winners (BOW) - which the judge picks between Winners Dog & Winners Bitch. (Best of Winners can also get Best of Breed or Best of Opposite Sex.)

For ease in following the process, I have created a flow chart of the dog shows. Click on the small version to see the full image.



Keep in mind that my blog comments are in reference to AKC dog shows. In my opinion, those are the only dog shows that matter in the U.S. The AKC (American Kennel Club) is the only dog registry for purebred dogs in our country.