They may have their problems, but it sounds as though they don't let that affect their lives in any way, and there is no reason why they should not compete in canine activities that other dogs do. The only dogs who cannot enter are those belonging to a judge, or a member of the IMI staff - see the rules for the exact details. Although the group classification for the conformation classes resembles the AKC classification, we are not an AKC sanctioned show, and are accepting all dogs, even unregistered and mixed breeds. We're using the American Rare Breed Association as a guideline for placing non-AKC recognized breeds into groups. I am interested in entering one of my dogs in the dog show, but was wondering if the dog has to be above a certain age to enter, or if you are having puppy classes.
Any dog can enter, of any age.
Any dog of any breed, registered or not, even mixed breeds can enter the Dog Show. We're in it for seeing whose pictures show their dog to be the best, in the eyes of our judges. If you don't wish to enter your dog in the conformation classes, there are a wide variety of other classes to enter. However, in order to keep our entry fees at their current level, it would just not be economic for us to mail out prize cards, ribbons or anything else to all class winners. In the event that we haven't received donated prizes for all of these by the time judging starts, we'll attempt to put a prize up ourselves for those.