The loss of the Purina All-Age and Shooting Dog and Handler of the Year program is a serious blow to our sport. Since 1963 (for the All-Age dogs), it has provided a fair and easily understood measure of achievement and an aid to clubs in promoting their trials.
Predictably, participants in the sport invited to help administer it made it controversial and uncomfortable for the sponsor to have its name associated with the program, and it has cancelled its sponsorship. As Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet, “a plague o’ both your houses!”
