Bud,
I think you misunderstood, the competiton pool in the south is far bigger than in the west,The Egyptian has over 100 entries as a norm,Havelock Blacksmith won it with 125 dogs entered,To compare a western shooting dog Ch like the Pacific Coast or the Western open might have 35 dogs entered.The basic argument is that if there were more entries in the west the winners that win ............ would not win or are not worthy of the win that they got.
I dot think that's the arguement necessarily. I think the arguement is the level of competition more than just the size of the trials. While I agree a good dog is a good dog everywhere, when you run against the best in the country day in and day out, it makes even a great dog look more mediocre. That's why the AKC Pointer National will never be respected in the Pointer world. Everyone will always say that the winner won against sub standard competition because the "real" pointers are running their Nationals at Ames. Does that mean an AKC Pointer couldn't compete at Ames? Absolutely not. But the level of competition is much higher.
As far as size of trials and regions of the country goes, that's just the way it is. Trial size and competition levels out west are much less than in the Midwest and SE. I ran in a 1hr AAA Regional Championship this weekend with only 16 dogs entered. However, there was 2 NC's, 1RU NC, and 1 RU Dog of the Year. The dog that had the AKC GD NC at Ames won two years ago, until they lost him standing with 5 minutes left, was also in the trial. We can fill weekday Championships with twice as many dogs as they can fill weekend trials out West. And they can fill them with dogs who have proven they can compete, and win against the best. I think that's the big difference when comparing dogs and regions. BTW. This isn't specific to just the Pointer guys either. The Brit Gun Dog Nationals is considered a joke by many as well. Because of that, most Brit Pros skip it, and so do their dogs. It's hard to crown the best GD in the country when most of the best GD's aren't entered in the trial.
