Dog Shows: What It All Means

Your first exposure to a dog show can be confusing. Some dogs run around the ring. The judge moves a little, the dogs stand around and then run back & forth; the judge waves his/her arm, and some of the dogs leave the ring. Some more dogs come in and run around; the judge does more arm-waving and then everybody claps and it's over. What happened?

Dogs (males) and Bitches (females) who are not yet champions are shown in the regular classes. The regular classes are:

The kennel club holding the dog show is not required to offer all of these classes, but most do.

The Dogs in the regular classes are judged first, then the Bitches in the regular classes.

The judge judges each of the regular classes seperately and may award a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place ribbon in each regular class. The 1st place dogs are the winners of their classes.

At the end of the judging of the regular classes, the judge will have all the 1st place dogs enter the ring. Of these dogs the judge will pick the Winners Dog (WD). The Winners Dog is the only (male) dog in his breed who will win points towards his championship at the show. Remember, at this point the males are judged separately from the females.

From the remaining 1st place dogs AND the 2nd place dog from the class from which the WD was choosen, the judge will select the Reserve Winners Dog (RWD). The Reserve Winners Dog is similar to the runner-up in the Miss America Pagent. If for some reason the Winners Dog is disallowed, the Reserve Winners Dog will become the Winners Dog.

In a similar manner, the judge will then judge the regular class bitches and select a Winners Bitch (WB) and Reserve Winners Bitch (RWB). The Winners Bitch is the only bitch in her breed who will be awarded points towards her championship at the show.

Then, the Winners Dog, Winners Bitch and all the dogs and bitches who are already champions will compete for Best of Breed (BOB). The Best of Breed winner can be a dog or a bitch. The judge will also select a Best of Opposite Sex (BOS) winner from the animals who are of the sex opposite of the sex that won Best of Breed.

Additionally, the Winners Dog and Winners Bitch compete for Best of Winners (BOW).

The Best of Breed winner goes on to compete with the other Best of Breed winners in his/her group (such as the Working Group, the Sporting Group, the Toy Group, etc.). This competetion is often under a different judge from the one who judged the regular classes and the Best of Breed competetion. The group judge will award a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in his/her group.

The 7 - 1st place group winners will then compete for Best in Show (BIS).

Ursa Major explains the dog shows