Retriever Advisory Meeting

John Russell, Chairman, introduced the Retriever Advisory Committee members present as John Goettl, Julie Cole and AKC Rep Jerry Mann.

L to R: John Goettl, Chariman John Russell, AKC Rep Jerry Mann and Julie Cole

John Russell announced this would be John Goettl's last year on the Advisory Committee and thanked him for his 20+ years of service.

John Russell, Chairman

AKC Rep Jerry Mann and Julie Cole

Mr. Russell stated there were six to eight inquires about Inappropriate Judging, such as friends judging friends, clients judging Pro's and training partners judging each other.  He mentioned this would be a hard rule to write so he directed everybody to the AKC rule book back page, "Code of Sportsmanship" highlighting the following bullet points

• The sportsman exhibitor declines to enter or exhibit under a judge where it might reasonably appear that the judge's placements could be based on something other than the merits of the dogs.
• The sportsman exhibitor refused to compromise the impartiality of a judge.

 There was a nice discussion on this the topic but most felt that their wasn't a big issue with this happening and self policing using the "Code of Sportsmanship" was all that was needed.