21st December 2018

 
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
 
A big thank you to John Hudson for the following information.  It will make your holidays all the more interesting to digest his statistics. 
 “Entries and Registrations
Now that the number of Salukis entered at LKA has been published, I have been able to work out the average number entered in the 23 Championship Shows which offered CC’s to Salukis in 2018. It turns out to be 44.3, which represents a significant drop from last year’s figure of 52.3. From 2014 to 2017, the average number of Salukis entered hovered around 52 (plus or minus 2) and in earlier years the numbers were in the 60’s and 70’s (see the graph published in my article in The Saluki, Championship Show edition 2018). It remains to be seen if the SGHC membership numbers for 2018 show a similar decline. In the article mentioned above I noted that, in spite of the reduction in the number of Salukis being exhibited, the number registered each year with the Kennel Club has remained steady at 140 or thereabouts. I suggested from this that the Saluki was becoming more of a pet or companion dog than in former years. However, as reported in the Saluki Breed Notes of Our Dogs, the number of registrations seems to be taking a nose-dive. The numbers of Salukis registered (which includes importations) in the first three quarters of this year are 10, 11 and 18. It will need around 100 registrations in the last quarter of 2018 to bring the number for the year up to previous levels, a figure unheard of in recent years. If we take the year from 1stOctober to 30thSeptember, the number of registrations in 2016/2017 is 136, and for 2017/2018 it is 89, a 35% drop. These numbers can, of course, vary from time to time, but can it be that the commercial breeders have saturated the market for Salukis and have slowed their Saluki production line? It’s too early to say, but watch this space.”
 
As a follow up from John’s interesting statistics, Michael has done some calculations for me regarding the membership numbers for the SGHC as a guide.  In calculating these figures we have used joint names as one to simplify counting. 
Starting in the 2014-2015 Yearbook we had 202 members, for 2018-2019 we have 162 members which is a decrease of 19.8%.  Quite a few of the non renewals has been through members dying.  John Hudson has commented on this saying “Working on the decline in numbers between 2015 and 2018, the rate at which membership is falling is 5.3 per year. This gives us 30 years before the lights go out.”
 
Phyllida and Marcus Cooke are now back at home.  Their house burnt down Easter time 2017 and they finally are back.  Things are not perfect, scaffolding is still up but at least Christmas will be at home.  We wish them the best.
 
Some results for the 2018. Top Puppy was Steve and Ann Ham’s Australian Champion Crisnick Houdini.  Top Breeder went to Mary Sanders Parker.  Top Dog has not yet been announced.  
 
This will be our last Breed Notes for 2018 so Michael and I both wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.