Hoshi, our current female special, achieved her AKC Bronze Grand championship a couple of weeks ago, and after looking at many of the rankings and levels of the Australian Cattle Dog in the AKC standings I came to realize that not only do the championship levels indicate that a dog has continued their show career after their reaching Grand Champion status but it also shows a consistent level of winning, and that's in spite of all the obstacles that can come up in the career of a show dog.
Female show dogs have even more challenges with their heat cycles which induces more coat shedding along with the normal cycles of seasonal shedding and you can say sometimes it seems they can be out of coat more than they are in.
The other intangible is to show a dog for the time to gain these levels in the AKC it can be tough to keep their "head in the game" so to speak.
Of course being truly blessed with super quality dogs along with handlers who are second to none can help speed the process to be sure, but the path is lined with so many things that can get in the way that it amazes me that Hoshi moved to this level as fast as she did.

Judges look for many things, hopefully all based on the standard, when they choose their winning dogs for that day and quality that is presented properly has a chance every time you go in the ring.