Not a very appetizing subject for a dinner conversation, you might say; and ordinarily, you’d be right. But at the 2005 ABC, the subject of dog poop was on almost everyone’s tongue almost all the time, including mealtime. That’s because after one picked up after his/her dog – which the majority of exhibitors did – there was no place to put the yucky stuff. That made for lots of nonstop er…conversation, as exhibitors tried to come to grips with the surreal experience of being at a week-long dog show at which NO arrangements had been made for dog poop disposal!

Oh, there were plenty of big, conveniently placed trash receptacles around the motel – but every single one that I saw was clearly marked, "DO NOT PUT DOG WASTE IN THIS CONTAINER." And though I walked from one end of the Drawbridge to the other (quite a hike), I never saw a container marked "DO PUT DOG WASTE HERE." (There was rumored to be a "poop-friendly" dumpster across the street in the RV-with-electric parking lot, but not many people exing their impatient puppies at 6:00 am in the rain were willing to trek another quarter mile just to dispose of those smelly little plastic bags.)

There weren’t any plastic bags or trash cans at the public ex-pens, either, never mind wood shavings or pooper-scoopers. So by mid-week, when a pick-up service finally started making rounds (Where did they come from? Why weren’t they there earlier?), every curb in the motel complex was lined with little plastic grocery bags, filled to the brim with – you guessed it – dog poop!

In the meantime, the show in the ballroom was interrupted several times a day by a loud harangue about swinish exhibitors who didn’t pick up after their dogs; but no one ever explained what we were supposed to do with the picked-up poop once we had picked it up!

Bottom line: I think we’re asking way too much of our hard-working show chair. One person, no matter how capable and willing (and Bobbi Wagner IS capable and willing), just can’t do it all for a show the size of the ABC. So I’m hereby suggesting that ABC prez John Connolly appoint a grounds and building committee to handle the logistics of the disposal of you-know-what; as well as the provision of conveniently located public ex-pens supplied with wood shavings, garbage bags and bins, and pooper-scoopers.

Here’s hoping for a more palatable topic of conversation at the 2006 ABC.

Since it seems that the ABC will never, ever be able to find a suitable show site in the center of the country, and with the news that the ABC board just approved another two-year contract with the Drawbridge Inn in Ft. Mitchell, KY, there was lots of discussion of the idea of a revolving National on the various email lists right after the ABC.

After 24 hours in a motel room with four people, three dogs and NO air-conditioning in 85-degree weather (NO sympathy from motel management, either), I’m no fan of the Drawbridge Inn. On the other hand, like most exhibitors, I get a limited amount of vacation time every year, and can’t spend a full week or more of it driving my dogs to and from the ABC (which is precisely what the West Coast folks have been doing for 50 years). Maybe a rotating National IS the fairest solution to the where-to-hold-the-ABC controversy. At any rate, you’ll find several pretty persuasive arguments for the concept in this issue. Let us know what you think.

This issue features two articles on the "PAWS" (animal welfare) legislation proposed by Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA): Easy PAWS, by Walt Hutchens, owner of the Pet-Law List, and Pausing to Understand Objections to PAWS, by AKC judge Charlotte Clem McGowan, which was published last week in DOG NEWS (our thanks to the author and Matt Stander of DOG NEWS for permission to reprint here).

PAWS is pretty complex, but what it all boils down to for me is the question of how the AKC can strongly support a piece of legislation that’s also strongly supported by HSUS, DDAL, and PETA??? So far, the AKC has not been able to explain that paradox to me, or to a large number of breed clubs (including the ABC), who strongly oppose PAWS.