Top left : Wire Fox Terrier Ch . Galsul Excellence , imported from Ireland and Top Dog in the US 1986 and 1987 , shown winning BIS at Bucks County KC with handler Peter Green , judge Frank Sabella and Dr . Josephine Deubler . Top right : A daughter of Excellence , Ch . Registry ’ s Lonesome Dove , was Top Dog in both 1991 and 1992 . She also won Westminster in the latter year and is pictured winning BIS at Hatboro KC under judge Edd Bivin , handled by Michael Kemp . Bottom : German Shepherd Dog Ch . Altana ’ s Mystique , Top Dog in 1993 and 1994 handled by Jimmy Moses . The Canadianborn Mystique won the all-time record of allbreed BIS wins at AKC shows — 275 in all .
BIS WINNERS , CONTINUED FROM PAGE 48
AKC registered 442,875 dogs , almost twice as many as 10 years earlier . Ten years later , in 1970 , the million-registrations-mark was reached for the first time . Toward the end of the decade , the total dropped a little but rose again to a new record of 1,223,500 in 1988 . The alltime peak came in 1992 , when AKC registered 1,528,392 dogs . Since then registrations have fallen off drastically : In the year 2000 there were fewer than 1.2 million registrations , and by 2002 the total dropped under a million for the first time in more than two decades . In 2010 , the last year AKC published any registration figures , the annual total was down to 563,611 — about the same as in the mid-1960s . ( Reportedly , the downward trend has now stopped , but no new figures have been published .)
The number of AKC shows increased fairly slowly at first ,
There were fewer than 500 all-breed shows per year in the early 1960s .
then faster and has finally dropped again in recent years . There were fewer than 500 all-breed shows per year in the early 1960s , a little more than 600 a decade later and 700 by the mid-1970s . In 1980 there were 844 AKC all-breed shows , five years later already more than 1,000 , and in the year 2000 there were 1,415 . The largest number ever held was in 2008 , when there were 1,534 AKC all-breed shows . In spite of what ’ s frequently stated in some quarters , the total has not increased but actually dropped a little since then : The 1,404 AKC allbreed shows that were held in 2015 marked the lowest annual figure in 20 years .
The number of dogs competing at all these shows increased spectacularly at first , particularly in the 1960s , but has dropped along with the registration figures in more recent years . From fewer than 250,000 dogs shown in 1960 , the total went to nearly 600,000 a decade later , almost a million in 1980 and more than 1.5 million in 1995 . The all-time highest figure came in 2003 , when there were 1,554,668 dogs in competition . Since then the annual figure has dropped to 1,219,646 for the last recorded year ( 2015 ). This , incidentally , is the combined total figure for all-breed , Group and specialty shows . There were more than 150,000 dogs in competition at the Group and specialty shows , and the average AKC all-breed dog show in 2015 had only 754 dogs in competition .
The Great Winners
So who won the most at all these dog shows ? It ’ s impossible to single out just a few dogs from the hundreds that won big during all the years since 1960 . The only way this can be done is to use consistent criteria , so here is a list of those that won Top Dog one year plus BIS at Westminster , won Top Dog twice , or won Top Dog at least once and placed among the Top 10 dogs of all breeds at least twice .
Every endeavor has been made to make the list complete ,
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GERMAN SHEPHERD : BACKSTAGE PHOTO
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