3/19/25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kennel Club of Palm Springs lost a unique, valuable and beloved member with the passing of Vince Grosso on Sunday, March 16th, 2025.   Active in the Club since 1980, Vince was a very active and productive member of the club until age and illness caught up with him a few years ago, not long after his wife, Kathy, who was also an active member and worker for KCPS, left us.  Vince was one of the key club members who worked on finding a larger and better site for the club's annual shows and was instrumental in securing our current venue, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.  Vince and Kathy served as Co-Chairs of the KCPS January New Year's Classic Shows for many years and laid the foundation for these shows to become the largest outdoor shows in the West - with current KCPS officers and members still working together as a team uphold this tradition to this very day.  

Vince was always willing to talk to a prospective member about dog shows, or a current member with a problem or question. Vince was still receptive and welcomed phone calls with questions regarding the KCPS shows and was always ready to offer his advice on any problems the current officers and committee might be having.  Vince will be greatly missed by his many friends throughout the dog show world and especially by the members of KCPS who were fortunate to have known and worked with him.

2/20/2025

The Kennel Club of Palm Springs had made a change to our previously announced show schedule for our January 2026 Shows:  We will host our Specialty and Group Club Shows  on Friday, January 2, 2026, followed by 3 days of Kennel Club of Palm Springs New Year’s Classic all breed shows – on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, January 3-5, 2026.

Obedience Trials and Performance Events will continue to be held, as in the past, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as we continue to host the Region 9 Qualifier for AKC.

This schedule change has been finalized with our show venue, Empire Polo Club, and is pending AKC approval.

Once the AKC approval is finalized, KCPS will contact all of our Invited Specialty Club Partners with further details to assist with each Club’s show plans.

We are excited to announce this change and look forward to seeing you all at the KCPS New Year’s Classic in January 2026!

1/27/2025

The Kennel Club of Palm Springs has an exciting announcement to make to the AKC Dog Fancy!

For many years, KCPS has been honored and privileged to hold our New Year’s Classic Dog Shows and Obedience Trials, on the first show weekend of each year at the beautiful Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.   With your strong support, our shows have grown to be the largest outdoor dog show events in the West – in both number of entries and the actual size of the event show grounds. 

For 2026, we are making a significant change to the format of the shows.   Group Shows and Breed Specialties will now be held on Thursday followed by THREE Days of Kennel Club of Palm Springs All Breed Shows and Obedience Trials. 

This change will assure that all AKC recognized breeds can look forward to 3 days of shows on Friday-Saturday-Sunday with major points available in many breeds, preceded by a wide variety of Group and Specialty Shows on Thursday at the same first-class show location.

With a multi-year contract with Empire Polo Club in place, we look forward to hosting the AKC Dog Fancy at our KCPS Winter Classic shows for many years into the future.  This has truly become a Destination Show beginning with our beautiful natural grass show grounds, with large, tented and lighted rings, beautiful weather, and the hospitality of the beautiful adjacent Palm Springs/Palm Desert/La Quinta/Indio Desert communities with available entertainment, dining, and other events for our exhibitors to enjoy after the show.

Mark your calendars NOW!

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1/27/2025

The Kennel Club of Palm Springs is pleased to announce that John Ramirez has been chosen to be our official Club Spokesman. He can be reached by email at jrami68620@aol.com. 

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1/27/2025

The American Kennel Club has announced an increase in their event service fee, which will take effect on October 1, 2025. The current fee of $3.00 per entry will increase to $4.50 per entry, while the $0.50 recording fee will remain unchanged. Click here to read the entire AKC Press release.

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12/29/2024

Additional details are now available for our next round of Obedience classes. Classes will start on Tuesday, February 11th. Classes are located at the Palm Springs Police Department in the K-9 unit practice yard. Our instructor is Rick Klassen of Forest K-9 Training. Classes last for 9 weeks, with the first week being a sign-up and orientation meeting with no dogs in attendance. Pet owners should bring cash or check and proof of current vaccinations to the February 11th orientation meeting. Classes last an hour each week and Rick is always available for questions after class or by phone. For more information or to reserve a spot in these classes, please call Rick at 760-402-2603. Rick will start taking reservations on January 2, 2025.

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8/27/2024

Additional details are now available for our fall round of Obedience classes. Classes will start on Tuesday, October 8th. Classes are located at the Palm Springs Police Department in the K-9 unit practice yard. Our instructor is Rick Klassen of Forest K-9 Training. Classes last for 9 weeks, with the first week being a sign-up and orientation meeting with no dogs in attendance. Pet owners should bring proof of current vaccinations to the October 8th orientation meeting. Classes last an hour each week and Rick is always available for questions after class or by phone. For more information or to reserve a spot in these classes, please call Rick at 760-402-2603. Rick will start taking reservations on September 9th.

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6/22/2024

The Kennel Club of Palm Springs is proud to announce that our second AKC Reunite Pet Disaster Relief has been received at Riverside County (CA) Department of Animal Services. We and other area organizations raise and donate money to fund the procurement of these trailers, which will be of great service to the pets in our community in the event of a natural disaster. 

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Thanks to Pam Hogan and Officer James Huffman who worked with Carol Silverberg of KCPS and and Megan at AKC Reunite to make this happen. And a big thank you to all of you who participated with donations or other assistance. 

Funding of our third trailer is also now complete, so keep an eye on this page for updates on when it will be delivered.

 

For more information on the AKC Reunite Pet Disaster Relief program and photos of the most recent trailer, click here.

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4/28/2024 

We will again be having obedience classes this fall, starting Tuesday, October 8th. Classes are located at the Palm Springs Police Department in the K-9 unit practice yard. Our instructor is Rick Klassen of Forest K-9 Training. Classes last for 9 weeks, with the first week being a sign-up and orientation meeting with no dogs in attendance. Classes last an hour each week and Rick is always available for questions after class or by phone. For more information, please call Rick at 760-333-4466 or email him at mid.nitewolf@hotmail.com.

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4/6/2024

Can you believe that it's time to start thinking about the 2025 Show? The commitment form for clubs wanting to hold a Group or Breed specialty is due by June 15, 2024, just a couple of months away. Don't be late! 

 

3/20/2024

A huge congratulations to Curt Curtis for being named the winner of the AKC Lifetime Achievement Award for Companion Events! We are fortunate and very proud to have Curt and Karla's involvement with our Kennel Club of Palm Springs show! Click here to see the announcement on the AKC website.

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7/14/2023

The Kennel Club of Palm Springs has exciting news to share with all of our friends in the dog fancy:

  Our January Shows have grown through the years, and we have had more and more requests to accommodate Group and Specialty Clubs on our grounds on Thursday and Friday.

In response to this, we have been able to work with Empire Polo Grounds/Golden Voice to arrange a larger show site, at the same location - just immediately adjacent to where our shows have been held in recent years.

  This new show location will allow KCPS to add 6 additional conformation rings, more reserved grooming spaces in larger tents, park our Motor Homes on grass, and to be able to do away with the dog relief stations with the plastic and shavings that were needed this year.   We very much appreciate the past support of all of our Thursday and Friday Clubs, and of course, all of our exhibitors who have come with their entries and helped our shows to grow.  We wanted to share this GOOD news with you.  

   More details will be available in the future - but we wanted to let you know the positive and exciting changes we have in store for the 2024 Kennel Club of Palm Springs Show Cluster Weekend.   See you in January 2024!