We participate in dog shows when convenient. We enjoy pointing and championing our own dogs along with some dogs who visit from other breeders. We show our own dogs the majority of the time. In the past on a rare occasion (4x) we have hired a handler to finish or point a visiting dog who has to return to their breeder within a specified time-frame.

Dog shows can be interesting. There is often a new result every day. When the playing field is ‘level’ (exhibitors who enter a couple of dogs of the same breed per show) the result can be very predictable. There are quite a few ‘handlers’ (individuals hired by a variety of breed owners to present their dogs at many shows) showing many breeds. Recently there are quite a few handlers who show Shibas for their breeders.

To understand the political nature of the dog show it was explained to me that many judges were previously ‘handlers’ and do feel an obligation to awarding those who present a high number of dogs to them. This is understandable but can be negative to the breed when inferior animals are placed at a higher level than those much more worthy shown by non-professionals. Of course this can be called sour grapes but can be obvious to even the audience at times.

There are as many nice dogs without CH titles and many mediocre dogs that do have the award. Any purebred dog, if shown by a known handler, can achieve this status.

We do not believe in ‘Specialing’ (taking a Champion male or female dog to many shows throughout the year). Dogs specialed are often traveling with handlers and we do not want this life for our dogs. We have no desire to attend every dog show in Western Canada and have many other activities we participate in. Our children have many activities including dance, basketball, horse shows, 4H etc.

Winning Best of Breed (BOB) is not our goal when showing our dogs. We want to win points (10 required by the CKC to be awarded a CH. Title). Usually there are ‘Specials’ entered in the majority of shows. It is very difficult and usually unheard of for a non-Champion dog to win Best of Breed over an already Champion. This happens very rarely.

The most recent dog show thrill occurred when our Female 6 month old, Hillsdale Heaven Can Wait (CeeCee) won BOW, BOS and Best Puppy at the Northern Alberta Canine Association show June 1, 2007. The judge was Alane Gomez of Texas. There were 10 Shibas entered in the competition and CeeCee placed above 2 Specials (in spite of my handling abilities LOL) for the BOS and BP awards. Only the male Special who won BOB placed above her. She won 3 points. I handled her myself and there were Pro handlers in the ring. We attended puppy group that day and the US judge placed the puppies in 4 places and CeeCee won 4^{th out of all of the non-sporting puppies (more than dozen). Over the course of the weekend (4 shows) CeeCee accumulated 7 points.}

We usually keep the ribbons that count for points so I summarized the stack we have gathered over the years. A few may have been discarded. Below is a rough summary of our show history to date: