In earning its championship a dog must get two wins under different judges of three, four, or five points. These wins are called majors and are one of the banes of the dog world.
Getting the two majors can be hampered by the popularity of a breed or the lack thereof. Rare breeds like Harriers are so uncommon that to get enough of them together for a major, even in the low number required, is difficult. On the other hand, popular breeds like Labrador Retrievers have such a high number of dogs required for a major that the chances of your dog being chosen from the 30 or so entered of that sex are not high.
One problem is that there is no way to tell beforehand if a major is available at a show. Entries must be made two and a half weeks ahead of time and the breakdown is available only after the entry has been made. Frequently it's a leap in the dark: you may be pleasantly surprised to find that the entry is good enough for a major or you may be disappointed to see that the entry is low and only one or two points are at play.
The bigger shows are more likely to have majors, as are specialty shows, either stand-alones or in conjunction with an all-breed show. In areas where majors are rare, national or regional clubs will try to encourage entries by offering trophies and a sweepstakes at some shows. Because no one will know what they'll do, provisional judges frequently draw a large enough entry for a major in one or both sexes.
In order to have a major in a sex, exhibitors in that breed may try to arrange beforehand to enter dogs in sufficient number to make a major. This involves some diplomacy, but with e-mail it's much easier to send around a note to fanciers in the area saying, "Let's see if we can build a major at the Columbus weekend."
Some people with large kennels try to build a major by bringing out every wretched pet-quality dog that's eligible to compete, hoping that their dog will be Winners over the dreadful choices the judge must examine. Judges aren't stupid however. They often can see a ploy of this sort. They're allowed to and perfectly justified in withholding Winners ribbons and should do so more frequently.
Without scraping the bottom of the barrel, one can discreetly enter a quality, but immature dog along with the one intended to win in order to build up the entry. The problem with this is that the make-up dog sometimes goes up over the one you hope will win. We were trying to finish our Misty, a beautiful bitch who hated showing. To build up the entry and make a major, we entered Possum, at the time a gangly young girl. The problem was that Possum, who loved to show, kept beating Misty! End of experiment. Possum went back into the kennel, Misty eventually finished and was immediately retired (to her relief and ours), and Possum came back out to embark on a long, successful career as a class dog and special.
Another way of getting a major even if there aren't enough of that sex to make one up is if there's a major in the other sex or if there are enough specials entered. Assume your dog goes Winners Dog, but there aren't enough dogs competing to bring the win to 3 points. Assume further that there are enough bitches competing to make Winners Bitch worth 3 to 5 points. If in Best of Breed competition your dog is Best of Winners (the better of the Winners Dog and Winners Bitch) your Winners Dog is considered to have defeated all the class bitches and gets the same number of points that the Winners Bitch has. This is called "crossing the points." Our Lazarus got his two majors at shows where he was the only class dog entered, but there were 11 class bitches competing, enough for 3 points. By going Best of Winners both days he got both his majors. Even though judges should not concern themselves with whether there's a major in either sex, some routinely cross the points if they think a major is involved.
A somewhat further stretch is if a class dog goes Best of Breed over specials. In this case, the number of dogs he defeated is the greater of the two sexes (because by going Best of Breed he's automatically also Best of Winners) plus the total number of specials. Our Rowdy got his first major by going Best of Breed over several specials at the 1997 River City Cluster. The number of class dogs he defeated were only good for two points, but by adding the number of specials he defeated, this brought the number up to make his win good for three points. A dog that goes Best of Opposite Sex is considered for computing points to have defeated number of the class dogs of his sex plus the specials of his sex. This too can sometimes boost the number of dogs defeated to a number good enough for a major.
A dog that has close to the number of points to get its championship, but who lacks one or both majors is referred to as "singled out." Etiquette says that when a singled-out dog is entered at a show which later turns out not to have a major to win that day, then the dog should not compete. A finer point of etiquette and diplomacy is whether his absence will cause the number of points to be won to fall to a lower number
If you're entered, there's a major, and you don't show up, you'd better have some very good reason for your dog not being there, such as you're dead or dying. There is no faster route to unpopularity than "breaking a major," that is, having your absence cause the number of points that day to fall from 3 to 2. I was stewarding in San Antonio one year and my ring had Siberian Huskies. The entry was exactly a major in dogs. One dog didn't show up. Dear me, the language! Especially from the ladies! Several exhibitors grabbed my steward's book out of my hand angrily wanting to know who was absent. The unlucky individual was subjected to all sorts of speculation as to the ancestry of their dogs, their own ancestry, and their possible intimacy with barnyard animals.