UKC Premier – Delightfully Different
By Carol Chase
The UKC Premier is the yearly show held by the United Kennel Club in their hometown of Kalamazoo,
MI. It is the equivalent of the AKC’s Westminster but so much more. This is a three day event with a
total of over 5,000 entries for the three days. Each day includes Conformation, Obedience, Rally, Agil-
ity, Terrier Races, Air Dog (dock diving), Family Obedience, Lure Coursing, Dog Sport (Protection), and
Weight Pull. Two of the evenings included the 2008 Top Ten Show and on Sunday morning before the
show was the Total Dog awards presentation (for performance and conformation). All in all it was a
whirlwind tour of almost everything UKC has to offer.
UKC prides itself in being a performance registry and that was certainly present everywhere you went.
There was over 500 performance entries each day! For those of you who haven’t seen the Terrier Races,
it is a must see. These little guys are so fast each run is over in a matter of seconds. Air dog (Dock Div-
ing) is the crowd favorite and cheering could be heard from all parts of the fairgrounds. I think Lure
Coursing is every Dalmatian’s dream and even though there were not any Dalmatians entered this year,
just wait until next year. Family Obedience is a combination of CGC and obedience with a few twists
thrown in. The dog must sit and wait for its food bowl, it must jump into a vehicle and wait until the
door is closed, it must sit and wait while the handler opens a gate, returns to the dog, walk through
together, and then sits while the gate is closed. The dog must sit in the ring with the handler and honor
while the next dog does the exercises. There is, of course a heeling pattern that you do with no direc-
tion and an off leash recall that appeared to be about 100 ft or so. There is a very interesting figure 8
that involves 4 people and a meet and greet with the judge. Then there is also all levels of Rally, Agility,
and Obedience.
Top Ten is an event for dogs that receive the most breed points in conformation competition during
the previous year. This years qualifying attendees were Ch. Fiacre’s First and Foremost and Ch Dream-
works Been Around the World both of which performed fabulously outside in the pouring down rain.
The winner was “Sky” – Ch Dreamworks Been Around the World – shown excellently by his junior
handler Aubrey Richardson. Aubrey and Sky wowed the judges and the crowd at the finals on Saturday
night. Out of 20 finalist, Sky placed 7th. We believe this is the highest a Dalmatian has placed in the
Premier Top Ten!
Conformation was delightful and educational. UKC has some wonderful
breeds that you don’t see at AKC shows. Did you know there are 6 differ-
ent kinds of treeing hounds and that the Rhodesian Ridgeback in not the
only dog in the world with a ridge? The Thai Ridgeback has one too. And
even though they are probably smaller than the rabbit they hunt,
the Podego Portugueso is quite the charmer. How about a Teddy
Roosevelt Terrier or maybe a Norrbottenspetz? It was quite an
adventure in group figuring out which dogs were which.
CH DREAMWORKS BEEN AROUND THE WORLD.
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