Show weekends by month and by state: what ThePetAdvisor's listing inventory shows

Published November 7, 2026. This is version 1 of this report — a record of what the listing inventory showed on that date.

ThePetAdvisor's listing inventory holds 1,154 event clusters — one listing per show weekend — with start dates from June 6, 2026 through December 11, 2027. This report asks how those weekends are distributed across the calendar year and across states, and — just as importantly — where the inventory itself is uneven, so a reader does not mistake a gap in our listings for a gap in the show calendar.

The short answer: within 2027, the only complete calendar year in the inventory, April carries the most listed weekends, and the late-year months carry the fewest — but the late-year 2027 counts are thin because those months had not yet been fully added when this report was written. The pooled month totals, which mix 2026 and 2027, are dominated by October 2026 and must not be read as a calendar fact.

The question

How are the show weekends in ThePetAdvisor's listing inventory distributed across the calendar year and across states?

Exhibitors plan a season around when and where shows cluster. This report answers that question from our own listing inventory — and shows, just as plainly, where the inventory itself is uneven, so a reader does not mistake a gap in our listings for a gap in the show calendar.

Findings

Each finding below names the table behind it. The numbers are counted from the frozen data snapshot for this report, not from the live listing file — so they stay true even as new listings are added.

1. The inventory spans June 6, 2026 to December 11, 2027: 1,154 clusters in total, 548 starting in 2026 and 606 in 2027. 2027 is the only complete calendar year in the inventory; 2026 contributes June through December only. (Evidence: Table 1.)
2. Within 2027, April carries the most listed weekends (140 of 606, 23.1%), ahead of May (101). The summer months run lower — June 34, July 27, August 11 — and the late-year months are the thinnest of all, which reflects how far adding listings had got for those months rather than a quiet show calendar: December 2027 carries 9 listings against 79 in December 2026. (Evidence: Table 2.)
3. The pooled month totals must not be read as a calendar fact. October accounts for 310 of 1,154 listings (26.9%) when both years are pooled — but 244 of those 310 start in October 2026, the season our listing work started with. The pooled peak describes our inventory, not the national show calendar. (Evidence: Tables 1 and 2.)
4. Florida and California tie for the most listed weekends, 99 each. The top five states together hold 338 of 1,154 listings (29.3%). The state field carries 53 distinct values. (Evidence: Table 3.)
5. Most listed weekends start on a Saturday (435) or a Friday (372) — 807 of 1,154 listings (69.9%) start on one of those two days. (Evidence: Table 4.)
6. Review coverage follows the order listings were added, not the quality of the shows. October and November 2026 listings are mostly reviewed (289 of 310 in October; 223 of 235 in November), while April 2027 listings are mostly still pending (114 of 140). A month with mostly pending listings is a month whose listings were added recently. (Evidence: Table 5.)

Supporting data

Every table below is computed from the same frozen snapshot. Counts are event clusters — one listing per show weekend — grouped as the table says. Shares are shares of the stated total, rounded to one decimal place.

Table 1 — Listings by start month — both years pooled

Table 2 — Listings by start month — 2027, the only complete year

Table 3 — Listings by state — top ten

Table 4 — Listings by start weekday

Table 5 — Review status by start month

Methodology

Dataset: every event cluster in site/data/events.json (version 20) — 1,154 clusters, each with a start date and a state field. All 1,154 clusters carry both fields; none was dropped. 9 clusters store their dates as a list rather than a start/end string; for those, the first date is the start date and the last is the end date.

Grouping: clusters are grouped by the calendar month of their start date, by the state field as recorded, and by the weekday of their start date. A cluster counts once, in the month its weekend starts, even when the weekend runs across a month boundary. Review status is split by start month using the cluster's own review label (Listing reviewed or Verification pending).

Shares are shares of the stated total. Month shares in the pooled table are shares of all 1,154 clusters; month shares in the 2027 table are shares of the 606 clusters starting in 2027. State shares are shares of all 1,154 clusters.

What counts as a cluster: one listing that groups the shows of a single weekend together. A cluster can contain one show or several, and 880 of the 1,154 clusters (76.3%) carry no nested show records yet — so this report counts clusters (weekend listings), never individual shows.

How we count coverage numbers site-wide, including what an event cluster is and what each review label means: How we build our listings.

Limitations

• This report describes ThePetAdvisor's listing inventory, not the AKC show calendar as a whole. The inventory does not hold every AKC show, and its coverage by month and by year is uneven because listings were added by working through published schedules in order, starting with the 2026 fall season.
• The pooled month totals mix two years with different coverage: 2026 contributes only June through December, and late 2027 is thin (October 66, November 34, December 9, against 244, 201, and 79 for the same months in 2026). Do not read the pooled October peak as evidence that October is the busiest show month nationally.
• A cluster is a weekend listing, not one show, and 880 of the 1,154 clusters carry no nested show records yet. Nothing here counts individual shows, entries, or attendance — so nothing here says anything about how big a show is or how popular it is.
• The state field is used as recorded. It carries 53 distinct values, including two outside the United States (BC, MX) and one territory (PR). State totals describe where listed weekends are recorded as taking place, not where exhibitors live or travel from.
• Review status (Listing reviewed or Verification pending) describes how far a listing has got through our own review process. It says nothing about the show itself, and a month with mostly pending listings is a month whose listings were added recently, not a month of lesser shows.
• Start dates are cluster start dates. A weekend that starts on a Friday and runs through Sunday counts once — in Friday's column for weekday counts and in its start month for month counts.

What this report does not conclude

• Which month has the most AKC shows nationally. The inventory is not complete AKC coverage, and its month pattern is shaped by the order listings were added.
• Whether the number of shows is rising or falling year on year. The 2026 and 2027 portions of the inventory cover different months to different depths, so a year-on-year comparison would compare coverage, not shows.
• Which state is best for showing, or where an exhibitor should plan to show. State totals count listed weekends; they say nothing about entry sizes, competition, or travel.
• Anything about show size, entry counts, or attendance. The inventory holds no entry or attendance data.

Data snapshot and versioning

This report is a dated, versioned record of what the data showed on its publication date. It is not silently updated when the underlying data moves on.

• Data snapshot: show-scheduling-patterns-2026-11-07.json — the query definition, the computed tables, and the per-cluster rows behind them, frozen at publication.
• Source file: site/data/events.json, version 20, updated November 7, 2026, SHA-256 403c5a507db4… at the time the snapshot was taken.
• Date range covered: clusters starting June 6, 2026 through December 11, 2027.
• Corrections: if a material error is found in this report, the correction is noted here with its date and the page carries a revised date — the original findings stay visible. A substantive re-analysis gets a new version and a link to this one.

Corrections

• November 7, 2026: Corrected the end of the date range: the latest cluster start date is December 11, 2027. The first published version said December 12, 2027, which is the latest cluster end date, not a start date (the Allentown cluster starts December 11 and ends December 12). No finding and no table changed — the tables always grouped clusters by start date.

Questions about this report, or about how any number in it was counted: [email protected].

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