(Above) Producers of the International Puppy Contest and the International Puppy and Trainer Contest announce the merger of the two contests on Sunday, Oct. 16, in Dallas.
DALLAS — The producers of the International Puppy Contest (IPC) and the International Puppy and Trainer Contest (IPTC) announced this past weekend that they would reunite by 2019.
IPTC posted this announcement on their Facebook page during their contest at Beyond Vanilla:
This weekend in Dallas, TX, executive producers from both the International Pup and Trainer Contest (IPTC) and the International Puppy Contest (IPC) made a joint announcement that, beginning in July 2017, both contests have committed to a two year period of running concurrently in the same location. This is seen as just the beginning of a transition that will bring the two contests together again and, in so doing, provide the pup and handler community a weekend event that is truly their own.
Beginning in July 2017, IPTC will travel to St. Louis, MO, and hold their contest alongside IPC’s events. In 2018, IPC will travel to Dallas to join with IPTC during the weekend hosted by Beyond Vanilla. It is the intention of the owners and boards of both contests that this two year track will pave the way toward an even further and more solid union of the two events.
This announcement is the culmination of discussion that began two years ago, with both sides being interested in reuniting two separate contests into one and demonstrating to all that we are one pup and handler community together. These talks picked up even more momentum in recent weeks, culminating in the joint announcement by Master Tallen of IPTC and Master Joe Mastrapasqua of IPC during Beyond Vanilla.
IPTC’s International Pup and Trainer 2017 contest and IPC’s International Puppy 2018 contest will be held July 6-9, 2017 in St. Louis, MO. The 2018 dates for these contests, to be held in Dallas, TX, have not yet been announced.
