I'm sitting in the Tucson airport waiting for a flight to Vegas for the Western Veterinary Conference. My wife and I just spent Valentine's Day weekend at Loew's Ventana Canyon Resort, a really nice and dog friendly place. We took Miles, of course.
I took a vacation from the computer too, which was actually much needed. Tucson International has free Wi Fi, not surprising for such a civilized city. I just finished reading a
really interesting article in the NYT business section on the
Westminster Dog Show. It was about the "business" of campaigning a dog on the professional dogs show circuit and I must say it's a must read if you are interested in dogs.
Did you know that it can cost two to three
hundred thousand dollars a year to campaign a top dog? I had no idea! Of that 2-3 hundred grand almost a hundred thousand is spent on advertising alone. If you've ever seen
Dog News you get the idea.
I remember reading Dog News in my friend Ernie Planck's office at Purina. It was full of ads about winning
show dogs. I always wondered about that and now I know what's up. Owners and professional handlers buy these ads to influence Judges. Of course no one will admit to that, but why else would they do it?
The most interesting part of the article was about the actual economics of campaigning a show dog. The dog, even if they win Westminster, can't possibly ever hope to break even. It's not like the Kentucky Derby where the winner can retire to stud and make lots of money for the owners. Even champion dogs don't get much money for stud fees.
It turns out that the only people who really make any money are the professional handlers. And they earn it. They may go to as many as 100 shows a year and they really know the game. They know how to handle a dog so he looks his best and they know how to spruce them up for show, too. In fact, a handler may even employ a groomer to make the pooch really shine.
Who pays for all this? Turns out most owners are just rich people that love dogs. Why else would you spend that much money for fame and glory unless you had dough to burn and a thing for pure breed dogs?
All I can say is god bless'em. They spend about $300 million a year on this stuff.
Lots and lots of the top dogs are fed Purina, too. I don't know the stats for this year but in the past something crazy like 70 to 80 of the top 100 dogs ate
Pro Plan. I know at last year's Westminster, when
Stump won, seven out of seven best in breed and Stump all ate Pro Plan. And as the article states, we don't pay them to feed Pro Plan. It just gets results.
So take a gander at this story. If you thought doggy people were a little odd, that opinion will only be reinforced after you read this. I guess it t
akes one to know one.