.com Forum · Bug Reporting and Suggestions

Retirement age is the same for all breeds in SD but in RL certain breeds are finished show careers at 7 years old, in other breeds dogs are still winning awards in their teens! Perhaps raising the retirement age is a possibility.

Bitches are usually done with breeding at 8 years, and in the UK limited to 3 litters only - maybe SD should restrict the top breeding age and limit the number of litters a bitch can have.

quote

---

posted by GaylanStudio9
This is all fine and I certainly don't oppose it. What I have always wished to see though is a permanent recognition of top dog in each breed/group/all breed.

I think it would be nice to see on a dog's page that they were Top Dog in the breed for April 2015, Top Dog in breed for May 2015, Top Sporting dog for May 2015. It could be just a list or it could include a little shield or a colourful ribbon symbol. As it is at the end of the month all those top dogs are 'forgotten' the next day and there is no record of their achievments. Each dog could have its own little 'Trophy' case. The Sire/Dam awards could go there too.

-----
Last edited by GaylanStudio9 on 5/12/2015 4:05:32 PM

---

Gaylan - I think your suggestion is FANTASTIC! I 100% agree with this - I hate the fact that by the 1st day of the next month that list of 'Top Dog in Breed' just disappears. I keep my own records on my laptop so I know who was the top winning dog in all 3 of my breeds each month. I would love if this was recorded on the dogs page - or like you suggested - in a Trophy Case or something similar

Gaylan- fantastic suggestions! I've long said we need more achievements to go after on SD.
I love the idea of Gch levels, like AKC, I'm not particularly fussed if we use the akc system or a modified ad system.

Mournebrake- I don't see the need to play with the current system of SD aging, showing or breeding rules. We don't need to make SD less attractive to the masses and if changes are made to breeding based on trying to achieve "prizes" I don't foresee that being well received by many, particularly those who don't care to show , like the source and color breeders.

I love the idea of having a "showcase" for dogs awards visible to everyone like the Merit awards.
I find it strange that they have the section "Merits" on their page but really can only ever show 1 badge (Merit). Change the name from "Merits" to "Awards" and there you go.

If coding is already in place to track things like top dog breed/group/all-breed or # of GCH pts and the coding is in place to put pictures/awards/badges on each dogs page, simply combining the two would code for automatic placement of awards.

There could be an award placed on the dogs page when they win the SDWC. It could be the same badge that just says "Best On Show - SDWC" and under it the month and year. (the coding already puts "Silver Sire" or what ever under the Silver Sire badge.

National Breed Winners could have a "Best In National Specialty" and under it the breed, month and date. Doing it this way would reduce the number of graphics required.

Same with Top Dog, would only need three graphics with specific info under the badge.

"Top Dog-All Breed" mm/yy
"Top Dog-Group" group,mm/yy
"Top Dog" breed,mm/yy

I like this idea, but as others have stated; 800 is unrealistically high for platinum. Considering that the max GCH points possible would be 1030, and that would be assuming a dog starting winning the moment it entered the ring at 14 days of age (a lot of breeds can't even be shown that soon) a dog winning with three 5pt majors in a row is rare enough, but when it does happen it indicates that the dog most likely has a short curve and will not have the staying power for a full campaign to day 120. Assuming a dog is just truly exceptional it would need to win 10pts a night to make that number, this would mean that there would need to be a specialty show to enter along with the all breed show every night, and that the dog would never be beaten. There is no breed that gets more than maybe ten specialty shows a month for one thing and there is also no such thing as an undefeated dog running a full campaign; far too many factors are at play.

Realistically if a dog is a big winner and wins a lot of specialties 600 or so would be the absolute ceiling for points, but that said since most breeds don't get many specialties even 500 GCH points would be nearly impossible to obtain, since it would still require a dog that hit the ground running at 14 days of age.

While I think that mournbrakes numbers are far too low, considering that 200 GCH is not that hard to achieve in a competitive breed (though still difficult enough that it deserves to remain silver) as my non-aggressively campaigned bitch has already reached that, I do believe that platinum should be reduced to 500pts. In this way it could still be nearly impossible to obtain while stilling being within ones grasp at some point. It’s a reasonable compromise to bring the realistic aspect of this into the realm of SD time. It would retain the covetously lofty level of prestige as well this way.

That said, I’m all for things like this that enhance the game in small ways and give people more to work toward, more rewards for going above and beyond.

I completely support Gaylan’s post regarding Top Dogs – I’ve wanted something like that for SO long.
(So much so that I started playing around on SD Chronicle.) I think Rosa Nera’s ideas on the badges would work beautifully.
I really hope that we can have something like that added at some point. (Preferably sooner rather than later.) AND I really think these updates could really add some excitement and energy to the game.

For the Grand Champion levels
I can definitely concede that lowering Platinum to 500 may be our best option to make that achievement feasible.

So, we would use:

Grand Championship Levels
The Bronze Grand Championship will require 100 points,
the Silver Grand Championship will require 200 points,
the Gold Grand Championship will require 400 points
and the Platinum Grand Championship will require 500 Grand Championship points.

(If I try to edit the original post, it’s not going to do anything wonky to the poll is it?)

I'm happy to support the suggestions so far. I think there have been some excellent ideas put forward and whatever gets implemented I'll happily keep playing along - I think I have an addiction lol

Thanks for adjusting the numbers, I think this suggestion is 100% perfect now and I hope it gets implemented into the game. I'm with mournebrake, I want all of these things. The more extras the better, and the best part is that none of these things related to acknowledgment are even major changes, so they should be alright with most people.

I agree! I like the numbers as stated in the last post above...platinum really should be a difficult/nearly impossible achievement but attainable by the truly top campaigners.

The Top Dog at the current time turns 120 days old tomorrow, he's on 258 GCH points today and has a specialty and an all breed show tomorrow plus he's eligible for the Showdog Nationals at the end of the month.

He'll achieve 273 GCH if he gets 10 points torrow plus 5 at the Nationals.

I still think Gold under the proposed new awards scheme is unreachable, bearing in mind this dog has been shown in one, two if possible, shows every day of his show career.

Bumping this up, and also mournbrake that is a fair point, but something with the word gold into it should be very difficult to achieve otherwise it loses some of it's luster so to speak. My boy Oracle came close to reaching that level recently and that was with winning only 75% of the shows he entered. If he had done a bit more winning he would have got it, but that'll give me something to strive for with my next campaigner.

I do agree that in a smaller breed it may not be achievable, but if it's pulled down then the larger breeds will have dogs achieving that level of points all the time, so therein lies the dilemma; making it easier for the rarer breeds makes it a bit too easy for the popular breeds, the title then has less meaning, because more dogs end up with it.

I could go either way on the GCH stuff - the levels are nice but I don't feel theyre absolutely necessary.

I would much prefer to see top dog notifications added to a dog's page or a link off of the breed page that lists them by month or something.

I disagree with Mournebrake that Gold GCH would be unattainable. www.showdog.com/shows/results/grand_champion_rankings.aspx
According to this, there are 15 dogs in 12 breeds that would be Gold.

Seems that the GCH levels are being implemented!! I would LOVE to see Select Dog/Select Bitch added to help with GCH points.

I would love to see Select Dog|Bitch points awarded as well.

I think they could easily be added using the 2nd, 3rd 4th in breed that is already awarded.

Congrats rhondacline for getting GCH levels successfully implemented! I can't wait to see it in action. ^^

quote

---

posted by Astoria Kennel

I disagree with Mournebrake that Gold GCH would be unattainable. www.showdog.com/shows/results/grand_champion_rankings.aspx
According to this, there are 15 dogs in 12 breeds that would be Gold.

---

These are All-time rankings - all those 15 dogs are in the past (when entries were higher than now and more people playing). The current highest pointed GCH (still alive but retired 11 days ago) has 263 points. Gold is unobtainable at the current time imho.

I wonder if Jeff would consider including the Select Dog | Select Bitch update – since he’s already going to be working with the Grand Champion system anyway???
There was overwhelming approval for the update. (If needed we could put up a separate poll - I am sure that we could get the needed votes in time for both updates to be done at basically the same time.)

Here’s how I see it working:
When we view show results we already see 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. (1st is always Best of Breed – but the others can be Best of Opposite, Winners Dog, Winners Bitch, etc)

Select will come into play if a Champion dog is listed as 2nd, 3rd, or 4th (other than Best of Opposite.)

According to AKC:
Grand Championship points may be awarded to eligible dogs as follows:

Best of Breed – All dogs of both sexes in the breed or variety exhibited in the regular classes and Best of Breed competition will be counted
Best of Opposite Sex to Best of Breed – All dogs of the same sex in the breed or variety exhibited in the regular classes and Best of Breed competition will be counted
Select Dog or Select Bitch – The total number of dogs of the same sex in the breed/variety defeated in the regular classes and BOB competition will be counted. (i.e. 2 dogs less than the total number of the same sex)
*LINK: www.akc.org/press-center/press-releases/american-kennel-club-announces-new-grand-champion-title/


If there is a champion listed as 2nd, 3rd or 4th (other than BOS) – we would have our Select Dog and/or Select Bitch.

If there are two dogs of the same sex – then only the better would receive the Grand Champion points.
Sometimes the Specials dogs don’t make any of those spots – in which case there would be no Select Dog | Bitch chosen.

POINTS:
How To Figure Points for Select Dog or Bitch
Now we move on to Select Dog and Select Bitch. These are new AKC terms created for use in the Grand Championship program. Here we count all dogs of
the same sex defeated in the BOB and regular classes. Once again, it is entirely at the judge’s discretion to choose a Select Dog and/or a Select Bitch.
For Select Dog /Select Bitch count all dogs competing (Class dogs & Specials dogs) of the same sex then subtract 2.) – Points are then awarded according to the Schedule of Points for the breed.
LINK: https://images.akc.org/pdf/events/conformation/GEPTS2.pdf

Thoughts?

My brain is fried trying to understand it (we don't have 'select' dogs in the UK) but I sort of get the gist so I'm all for it. Bring it on !!

It seems like a lot, especially trying to figure out how to calculate the points, but it's basically just the second best male and second best female in the breed.
The breed counts are 'adjusted' so they don't necessarily get as many GCH points as BOB or BOS winners, but if the entries are high enough they can also get 5pt GCH majors.

I would like to see GrCh points given to the group winner! In a breed that has no competition, this would be the only way to achieve this standing. Also, I would like to see increments of 100 points, thus making the platinum achievable @ 400 so that a good bitch can get this and have a litter before she's 7!