Hi Guys, I have just got back from Crufts and i have mixed feelings about the YKC. My sister was entered in the YKC show handling and I was surprised to see a young girl judging the class. From what I gathered she was a fellow YKC senior member. I have nothing against young judges as I am a young person myself, 24 yrs old but I think at a handling Final I would prefer an older more experienced judge one who knows the degree of difficulty in handling certain breeds especially where children are concerned. Just to put the icing on the cake the timing of the class was running behind by 40 mins all because a Blue Peter Presenter was practising his agility and the poor junior handlers where penned in the holding area! Any thoughts????? She has qualified again for next year but is it a general thing that YKC senior members judge the show handling??????

My daughter was disappointed as she had to miss her handling class because of the 40 minutes delay and was needed for the breeder stakes finals :(

On two days the 12-16 handling was put back :( this effected my brother and our friend on the relivant days.  There was one handler I heard who had to go home and miss the handling which was all she came for as she was traveling via coach :(

As for the judge.  Jane is experainced and a lovely person who has had a very successful handling career.  I had no problems with her judging and was made up for her that she got to judge.  I would rather that an ex junior handler judges then an all rounder/profesional handler who doesn't know much about junior handling judge just because they are older. 

Also the national show handler of the year was judged by a person of a similar age, again another handler who was very successful in her time.

I must admit that i think the days i was there the YKC ring was not that well organised.

I agree with Ice_queen about Jane judging, she was a successful Handler and knows what to look for. Although i disagree about ice_queen saying that an ex junior handler is better then a profesional handler, i think there is good reason for both and the comment 'profesional handler who doesn't know much about junior handling' - isnt junior handling about getting the best out of your dog?! there for handling a dog and junior handling is the same thing, both shwoing your dog to its best advantage, therfore wouldnt that make a profesional handler quite a good judge??? (just my views)

Dusty a professional handler gets the best out of a dog but doesn't know the finer points of junior handling IMO and IME :)

What would you say are the finer points of junior handling??
I was always taught junior handling is showing your dog to its best advantage. Not jumping around the dog etc.. just judged like a breed class but not on the dog, how well the handler shows the dog.

Finer points of handling IMO are that the handler knows about the dog they are showing, and how a dog is made.  Also there's the shadowing, keeping between the dog and the judge.

Yes it's judged on how well a handler shows the dog but can they show the dog well if the judge moves to the side during an up and down?

It's difficult to describe.  I know I should be able to having been handling for many years both in junior handling classes and "showing" dogs and with also teaching junior handling however I'm having difficulties putting it in words.

However what I do know is just because someone can handle a dog to BIS at major champshows it doesn't make them any good at judging junior handling.

Hi guys, I'm not disputing the judge in question, I'm sure she is a very competent judge its just that at the major champshows throughout the year the YKC handling is usually judged by an older more experienced person someone who has been in the show scene for many years and has a wealth of knowledge in both handling, showing and breeding dogs. I have to disagree that I would prefer an older judge as with age comes experience. The stakes classes aren't judged by a YKC member so why the show handling????

Stakes are done on the dog and so someone who has experiance and is qualified to judges those classes.  The judge has to award CC's :)

I know that stakes are judged on the dog but why don't they have a Senior YKC member judge??? If a YKC member has gained enough experience to judge handling why can't this be applied to the stakes classes too?? After all its still YKC members showing the dogs why should they have an experienced judge????

Jane has been at the top of Junior Handling and still handles her dogs and others in the breed ring.  She is very experienced in handling a dog.  Certainly a lot more then many 'experienced breed judges'.

She is not exactly a child now and knows more then most what is expected in correctly handling a dog.

As I said before I'm not disputing the judge in question but the concept of members judging at a show like Crufts.

I wouldn't say her being a member is the key reason for her judging. First and foremost she was likely chosen to judge because of her own extensive and succesful experience in junior handling, and her subsequent knowledge. If she didn't have that, YKC member or not, she wouldn't have been chosen to judge. The fact that she happens to be a YKC senior member is just an extra that helps show her commitment, once you reach 17 the opportunities in the YKC are far more about show organisationl/judging/stewarding than competing.

Because the judge must award CC's (not sure how many, if it's just one set or maybe more) but it takes time for a judge to judge enough dogs/classes to be able to award CC's so therefore it is normally the more experianced "older" judges. Many YKC members arn't qualified for this yet :)

I looked in on the YKC... I really thought they got a raw deal. The ring was porly located and stan=k of 'unimportance' or 'playing dogs'... sorry to be so hards but I expected them to hace a propper ring with mounted seating and well organise events...after all they do have to pay to be members!

From what I've seen the YKC is a rip-off. We payed up now for two years running. I wasn't going to renew because there are no YKC clubs here and so no other kids for my son to train with and meet and when I rang about this before renewing they insisted there would be clubs for the kids to join this year and we would get send a list of all these new local YKC training clubs! But no! Nothing!

...so looking at it from that persepective I shouldn't have been so shocked at what a raw deal the YKC members were given sat crufts.  I really am not sure what the membership fee is for.... anyone go any idea...?

My son said he is just going to be an adult anf try going to adult ring craft and trying to hsve a go  in the adult rings this year because last year we found nothing for him. Very poor all round this YKC!

My daughter was in the agility and show handling on sunday and the ring was running late so the final of  the lady and the tramp compitition could take place. the ykc ring is so popular that it could do with being bigger with more seating.
As for judges they usually try and get an ex junior handler tha thas done well in to judge as they know what they are doing an what is expected of them in the ring. The judge this year seeme very competent and able.

For £10 you geta  crufts season ticket, that pays for itself IMO :)  I don't go to YKC events anymore and only compete in handling classes how and again.  Infact I sometimes really hate the YKC, they are so unorganised at times but free entry to Crufts and DD :) Pay's for itself! :)

Last year we didn't get that.... and although the kids get free entry you have to pay to take them there!  So it is really a sneakey way of getting kids to drag their family along to Crufts. We joined well after Crufts last year and got nothing at all...

I think for a family ticket kids are £4.50 each... so take two kids to Crufts because one child is a YKC member then you pay the full £8 for the other child.... that makes the Crufts ticket worth £1.50. and at Crufts we found nothing for at the YKC area my son!  He couldn't even see what was going on in the ring!  Nothing at all to show him how to train or find places to train and so on... I expected he would be really enthused by seeing a whole aread of Crufts devorred to his age range.

I think the YKC must be great if there is a local club for kids which is the whole idea of membership... to meet and train with other kids instead of a group of adult and mostly quite elderly enthusiasts.

The adults should really take their hats of to these kids who give up so much of their time to be devoted to caring for and training their dogs. My kids like to sit and watch TV ot play PS2 so anything extra they find to enjoy that involves actually moving is great for them.  I expected much more from the YKC locally to encourage their involvement.... especially as kids have no income and can not drive! They need local facilities!

What the YKC need is regions where the country is split up and each region runs event's and training days, now that would be a GOOD idea.....oh wait afew years ago they had that but scraped it.......

We have that problem up here in Scotalnd, there is no organised events for kids, so last year one of the senior members of the YKC decided to bite the bullet and organise something herself for the kids. We had a agility / flyball training day which was free and the trainers gave up their own time to help the kids. It was a lovely day and the kids really enjoyed it. We are hoping to expand this to other disciplines. It doesnt have to be held by the ykc all you need ar a group of adults willing and able to help and you are well on your way. The ykc does need to improve things for the kids. Doing away with the biathlons and triathlons and the abc agility is a step in the wrong direction in my opinion, we need to be encouraging the kids to try different things and stopping these classes is not the way to do it. My daughters main things are showing and agility but because of the triathlons and biathlons she started obedience which she would never have done before. Now there are no bi's and tri's there is no point in her keeping going with it as we dont have time for obedience shows as well. Any one else feel the same?

Can I say "No comment" :D

I'm hoping to run a handling day this year, which will have nothing to do with the YKC at all :D  But it can be hard work to do this.

As a person who has actually got quite a bit out of the YKC in previous years - I have admit recently they seem to have fallen very badly back to the old ways of pre YKC disorganisation (not that it ever got much better!). At that at the moment they arent in my good books - having said I would help them out this year I never heard anything - 2/3 weeks before crufts I started to emails/ring them only to find out I wasnt needed - then found out at Crufts people who hadnt even voluntered had been asked to help!

I dont have much hope for them bringing regions back - it was being mentioned around a year ago know but in true YKC fashion nothing else has been mentioned!

Hard work - yes but worth it and someone has to do something to help the kids.
there are so many talented kids out there that need training and help .