Jeanie -
I guess you could say that paying someone to show a dog makes that person a
professional handler, yes....but the handlers don't think so. Anyone
can ask for money and find someone to pay it. Most of the "real" professional
handlers here are members of one or another of the professional
handlers' organizations, either the PHA (professional handler's association), the PH
Guild, or they have applied for and received the designation of
Certified Professional Handler. Most members of the PHA and PHG are CPH's as
well....some CPH people are not in either of the other organizations.
I don't know all the criteria, not being a handler myself...but, among other things,
being able to use any or all of those designations qualifies an
individual to be truly a professional handler...with a permanent kennel facility that
has usually been inspected, one who has served some kind of
apprenticeship with another real professional handler, one who has signed and adheres
to a Code of Ethics (which is funny, because some of them
occasionally violate these Codes, but nevertheless, they do have to agree to them).
If an individual enters into a contract with one professional
handler to have a dog shown and that handler has a conflict or for some other reason
cannot show the dog on a given day, the handler is pretty much
obligated to have another professional exhibit the dog...meaning, they can't just hand
the dog over to anyone for exhibition on the day...and if
they did such a thing, they are not expected to charge a handling fee on that day.
There are "teams" of handlers, husband and wife, two girls, two
fellas, whatever...some people contract with one member of the team and the other is
not supposed to show the dog, either. E.g., if you contract
with Joe Doakes exclusively, his wife Mary is not who you would expect to show the
dog, and if Mary did, some of the contracts mean that the fee is
either less or completely waived..
There are all those subtleties....none important to the average exhibitor, but usually
very important to the professionals themselves and often to
the dogs' owners as well.
There are a lot of people who take money to show dogs, but they are not truly
professional handlers, not in the sense we use the term here in
the States. It's one of the reasons that young men and women from all over the world
come here to apprentice with our top handlers; not just to
learn how to show dogs but how to make it a successful business.
Having said all that, I have to also add that not all professional handlers are
equal and not all are ethical.....and some of the amateur
handlers are as good as or maybe better than the pro's! I've seen some of the top
people make fools of themselves in the Cavalier ring...and I've
seen Karen Galipeault showing dogs, too...she does a lovely job. Claudia Jones, on
this list, also shows other people's dogs, including mine...and
she is a super handler. Not a pro, tho.
Peggy
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