Dear TVDFA Dog Show Exhibitors,

Over the last week our officers, board, and club members have been struggling with the decision to hold our 2020 show or not. We contacted judges and surveyed club members to get their thoughts or concerns so we could move forward weighing everyone’s voices equally. The membership, officers and board voted to cancel our 2020 show. The following reasons were of main concern to the club:

Health and Safety – We would not ask any club member, their family, volunteers, stewards, or judges to work our show if they feel unsafe. Safety is a basic human need and we will not violate that.

The Dogs – While we can train with masks at home, the suggested guidelines could easily ruin a dogs show career. Masks with or without glasses, gloves, hats, perfume/cologne/cigarettes, the smell of hand sanitizer, spray disinfectant could, quite easily, be too much for even the most seasoned show dog.

Expenses vs Income – the additional expenses that could come with holding a show (reimbursing flight tickets purchased with refundable insurance, individual car rentals for judges, individual catered boxed meals for all 3 meals for each day judges are here and for all the workers if restaurants aren’t fully open, hired workers to replace any members who don’t feel safe, the AKC suggested guidelines that include hand washing stations, hand sanitizer, wipes, gloves, masks) could easily be over $10,000. We can not count on more entries than usual, at best we can count on an average year….worse case we don’t even get enough entries to clear our normal expenses let alone the additional and we have to dig deeply into bank accounts to make up the difference.

We realize it may seem early to make this decision given we are 4 months away from the show. Our show is a large enough event that it would be classified under phase 4 in the governor’s plan to reopen Washington. Unfortunately no one has a crystal ball and had we chosen to go forward it would’ve been a gamble, figuratively and quite literally.

As a club we are brainstorming for what we can do in appropriate sized groups when we have reached the different phases. Please keep watching our page as we hope to provide many different outlets and activities for both our dogs and ourselves. If you are active in a performance event and would be interested in helping us introduce it to others, please message our page. We would love to talk!!

Thank you!!
Timberland Valley Dog Fanciers Association