There was a post on PedsOnline that showed a pervasive ignorance about what it takes to make Champion versus Grand Champion. In short:

  • A dog needs to win 3 matches (losses don't matter) to become a Champion;[/*:m:2zhuvw56]
  • A dog has to have 5 matches "without a loss" to be considered a Grand Champion.[/*:m:2zhuvw56]

While losses do not matter for making Champion, for whatever inconsistent reason, a dog who loses cannot ever make Grand Champion, which IMO is as ridiculous as it is inconsistent.

If anyone wants my opinion on the subject, the truth is these are just Jack Kelly's arbitrary rules ... and his Sporting Dog Journal no longer exists. Furthermore, if my understanding of history is correct, Gr Ch Going Light Barney was the first "official Grand Champion" ... and yet he was 8-1. That means he lost (and in fact he quit), yet Kelly still called him a Grand Champion. It was only later that Kelly made the "and no losses" provision for Grand Champions ... which, again, I think is not only ridiculous but is inconsistent with the provisions for Champion.

IMHO, dogs like Gr Ch Sandman (5xW, 1xL to Gr Ch Buck), Gr Ch Melonhead (17xW, 1xL), Gr Ch Texas (6xW, 1xL), and Gr Ch Robert T (9xW, 1xL) should still be called Grand Champions ... because their records as pit dogs are FAR better than 99% of the "unbeaten" Grand Champions out there.

Grand Champion essentially means "all time great Champion," so stripping a dog of this title would be like saying Sugar Ray Robinson should be stripped of his "all time great" title for losing at some point in his career ... which IMO is simply preposterous.

Remember, these so-called "rules" are what JACK KELLY said in his now defunct Journal. That doesn't mean every lemming and follower still has to believe/follow this nonsense until the end of time. It only means that Jack Kelly made these (inconsistent) requirements for his magazine, which again is no longer in print.

The truth is, nowadays there is no actual sanctioning/ranking body in these dogs anymore, but (thanks to Kelly's influence) this thinking still remains the "general consensus" among dogmen.

Jack


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