I have a great love for horses and dogs and always have. I would have loved to become involved with both as a child but my parents weren't part of that world so never made the effort to figure out how to help me get involved. And probably the biggest driver of that was money. If we would have had 4H in our community it might have worked out for me, but it didn't. I was able to learn to ride as a teenager and continue to ride as an adult when I had some money but was limited by my choice to be a stay at home mom. Now I have more time and money but my kids are still an investment that has to take priority.
Ellie is slow to mature, but if her breeder eventually feels that conformation would be a reasonable goal, I would consider trying it. (I truly do not mean to be offensive to anyone who loves conformation showing, so please know I do not mean this unkindly.) The number one reason though that I'm not interested is because I am so turned off by the 'fluffing and puffing' and general air of Goldens being shown as something other than what they should be: a wash and go sporting dog. (If I wanted to spend a lot of time and money grooming a smart dog, I'd own poodles.) This is not necessarily the big reason, I'm sure, that numbers are down, but the idea that I have to buy a $500 blow dryer so I can show my sporting dog seems ridiculous to me. I am probably in the minority but I think it is dead wrong that people are doing all kinds of artificial things to make Golden Retrievers ring ready when they the breed standard says they're primarily a hunting dog and should be shown in hard working condition. If their coats are not supposed to be curly but are allowed to have some wave to them and we're showing to determine the best breeding stock, then natural coat should be shown, not artificially manipulated to be something it's not. And I absolutely get that it is smart to groom a dog to show him to advantage and put his best foot forward, no need to highlight weaknesses etc., but I think it's gone WAY too far. That is one of the biggest reasons that conformation showing is a turn off to me.
For the rest of America, I bet it's a combination of things. I would love to know if horseshow numbers are down also. The less rural we become, the fewer opportunities kids have to be exposed to animals and find out if a love for animals could become a genuine interest or talent. If you're an animal lover as a kid and your parents are not, chances are your opportunities to get involved are extremely limited unless your parents have money. It used to be you'd hear from people how they road their bike up to the local barn and begged to do chores in return for lessons or just for a chance to be in the atmosphere. As farm land becomes more scarce and barns have to move farther out, I wonder how many kids can do things like that. I know that I wouldn't let my kids ride a bike outside of my neighborhood (and we live in a very safe area just a lot of traffic) and our nearest barn is only a couple miles away. I bet not nearly as many kids now have grandparents or relatives to go visit during the summer who have property with livestock to expose them to. I think a pretty high percentage of dog people are also horse people or they used to be when they were younger. It sort of transfers over.
But I bet a big part of it is time and money. Kid have so many opportunities today to get very involved with team sports that really become a way of life; travel soccer, travel baseball, year round swim team, now days if you really enjoy dance, you don't just take lessons a couple days a week, you are on a competition dance or cheer team and your parents spend all their free time and money on that. It goes on and on. As kids get older, they are aware of the "popularity" factor and it's a lot of fun socially to be on a winning soccer team, you have to march to your own drummer if you're interested in dogs. Even horse sports, I think feel more 'solitary' than a team sport unless you are lucky enough to live in a community that supports it and that falls back to opportunity I think.
I imagine all of this has something to do with kids AND adults not being involved. There may be plenty of people who might be more involved with a dog sport but because they are shuttling their kids around to every lesson under the sun, their own interests take a back seat. I don't think it was this way 25 years ago. I have 3 kids and finding the time and the money to spend on my own activities after spending time and money on theirs is not easy. My husband loves to play golf, another pastime that isn't cheap. If we constantly juggle free time between all 5 of our family members interests, it's hard to find family time to relax. It's a constant balancing act and some people are better at it than others. I think the more our society focuses on our children the less we focus on ourselves and that may not always be the healthiest thing for the kids.