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French Bulldogs & a few very confused English Toy Spaniels.

"Bitch" Is Not A Four Letter Word




Like many of us, I sometimes spend my recreation time attending shows, even when I don't have a dog entered. Naturally, when a friend invited me to her National Specialty show I jumped at the chance. My companion for the day was a long time breeder/owner/exhibitor whose keen eye and solid knowledge of her breed I have long admired. While lingering ringside, my gaze retuned time and again to a beautiful bitch, with all of the attributes that even I as a novice could recognise as exemplary. I wasn't alone in my admiration - several people at ringside commented on this lovely bitch. When I pointed her out to my companion, she agreed with my choice, saying "Yes, she should win it - she's one of the top winning bitches in our breed. But she won't - the dog will get it." Sure enough, the judge passed her by and gave the nod to the dog - a good dog, to be sure, but pale by comparison to his graceful, polished co-competitor.

This incident isn't a new one to most of us - we've grown used to seeing even great bitches passed by for what are sometimes mediocre dogs. The comments we hear so often at ringside reflect this - "Yes, the bitch is great, but this judge only puts up dogs." "Well, she's probably the best in the ring, but the dogs are bigger and flashier." "Oh, every one knows the dog always takes it." I realise that so much of what our all-breed show judges see in the ring is what they admire in a top show DOG - size, muscle, bone and a bold attitude. I've also been told that many judges put up what they like to see in the group ring - a solid dog that will affirm their choice for breed as being correct. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that what they choose overwhelmingly is a dog, rather than a bitch. Even most competitors will agree that the majority of the time it is our dog exhibits that contain that elusive quality we call "showmanship" . Many of the great bitches never go beyond simply winning their Championship, since their true value lies in their ability in the whelping box.

I thought that perhaps the situation would be different at specialty shows - after all, this is where we go to have a valued eye analyse our very top stock. It's at the Specialty show where we expect to put our exhibits under the examination of a judge who can be counted on to have the best interests of our breed at heart. Statistics in the breeds I looked at - French Bulldogs, Old English Mastiffs, Bichon Frises and Saint Bernards - showed that bitches made up, for the majority of shows, at least 50% - and often times more - of all exhibits. This negates the argument that bitches have less chance of winning at all-breed shows as they have lower entries, which was a theory put to me by several breeders. I also feel safe in surmising that most of us are reluctant to bring anything less than our very best stock to our specialties - after all, who wants to be seen at our top show, amongst the people who know our breed best, with an inferior exhibit? All in all, this should make our specialties a fairly level playing field for bitches and dogs to compete on - equal quality of exhibits, equal numbers of exhibits and a judge who our club has declared to be cognizant of what makes up a good example of our breed.

Girls Get No Respect

What I found out surprised and disheartened me. In our own breed, we have records for 81 of the French Bulldog specialties held under the auspices of the FBDCA since 1898. In that time, a total of 25 bitches have won Best of Breed, for a mere 30% of all wins. Of those wins, 3 bitches (Ch Charmeuse D'Amourette, Ch Miss Modesty, Ch Glamourette) have won breed twice, with Evergay Charmer winning it three times. Wins by bitches seem to follow a steadily decreasing pattern over the last three decades:

BOB
Evergay Charmer
FBDCA BOB '23, '24, '26

To reassure myself that this was not simply the idiosyncrasy of a single breed, I decided to examine specialty show statistics from three other breeds that are as different from each other as they from French Bulldogs.

In mastiffs, of the 48 Specialty shows held, 10 have been won by bitches. As in Frenchies, wins by bitches seem to cluster - 4 in the early '50's, 3 in the early '80's and, in the '90's, 3 have been won by bitches, including 1995. This gives bitches the win just over 20% of the time, which is odd when you consider that they average 62% of the show entries.

The situation is not much different in Bichons. Of the 22 annual specialties the National Club has held, bitches have won breed five times. One bitch has taken breed twice - Ch. Devon Puff and Stuff, who is also the top all time winning Bichon Frise. Again, an overview of the entries show bitches making up a majority of entries, by sometimes as much as a 3:1 ratio. One theory in Bichon circles is that it is "So much harder to keep a bitch in show coat." While this may indeed be true, one would hope that a judge chosen for knowledge of this wonderful breed would be looking at much more than just coat condition, and that they would be aware of the many reasons - recent litters, a heat cycle - that could cause a bitch to lose coat.

In Saint Bernards, the first "National Specialty" of the club was held in conjunction with the Morris Essex Kennel Club show in New Jersey in 1935, for a total of 61 specialty shows. In that time, only six bitches have won Best of Breed and they have won it only once each. This first winner was in 1948, with a twenty year gap until the next one. After that, bitch winners seem to appear roughly once every ten years. Reasons put forth by breeders and the few judges we spoke to were the same in Saints are they were in every breed - less massive, harder to keep in coat, and less showy in the ring. In general, bitches were again summed up as being "less flashy" than their dog counter parts.

Winning and What it Means


It was interesting to note that, in the cases where information on judges was available and provided to me, a disproportionate number of the judges who awarded Best of Breed wins to bitches were in fact breeder/judges. Could it be that judges more intimately familiar with the breed they are judging have an easier time identifying outstanding examples of the breed, no matter what the sex?

In asking breeders and judges what they thought was the most common reason why bitches were overlooked, time and again I was told that bitches are often not as "flashy" as dogs - and this may indeed be valid. But is "flash" what we attend specialties to see? We can accept it as justification in the all breed rings, where the shows are in many cases as much about showmanship as they are about quality stock. But isn't a specialty show about more than that? Isn't it about choosing the way we shape the future of our breed, and don't our bitches play as much, if not more, a part of that as our dogs do? I chose the title of this article with tongue in cheek, but it really is accurate. Perhaps we need our judges to learn that bitch really isn't a dirty word, and that our quality bitches, who give us so much, deserve better recognition than they've been getting.

References & Assistance provided by:

- "The French Bulldog" by Steve Eltinge
- Jan & Mike Grebe
- Penny Janz, Saint Bernard Club of America
- Betty S. Ribble, Vice-pres., Bichon Frise Club of America
- The Mastiff Club of America and the Mastiff Mailing List