Perspective "It means a determination to breed complete dogs, not caricatures with numbers and letters, dogs with brains and beauty."

  Handy  Links

Just A Pet ..
We tend to get so wrapped up in competition and breeding for the show ring that too often, we forget why we breed.  A true story of a show pup that didn't turn out.

Helping or Hurting?
What  are we doing to purebred dogs?  Guaranteed to make you not want to answer!

So You Want to Show
The dog you take home is the same prospective winner you brought to the show, he is as good as he was before the judge placed him.

The Personal Dog
"A lot of professionals get so caught up in the business of "doing dogs" that they forget what started them in that career, the dog that was always your closest friend." 

Respect

Helping or Hurting

NO Corn for Dogs

Personal Security

STOP BITCHING

by Tam Cordingley
 

Stop complaining and do something positive. If we, the fancy as a whole, are unwilling to take action to impact the future of the dog game then we might as well quit bitching and whining, lie down, roll over, urinate, and submit. That is what we have been doing!

We are the backbone of the sport, but hardly the movers and shakers of the dog show game. Let’s take a look at the sport. Well over 50% and I’d guess close to 80% of the participants never have even a chance of making it big in the rankings. The people who advertise weekly in the magazines, fly around the country for wins, show at 100 shows yearly, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars campaigning a dog are not the ones who make up all those breed points.

Those little guys who show one or more dogs at fairly local shows, finish a few Champions, breed a little, then get tired of being the patsy and quit the dog show game are the ones making up those thousands of breed points that the big guys use for ratings and bragging rights. This is not the dog show world as envisioned by the founding members of AKC.

When one reads the biographies of dog show judges and top breeders one factor is very evident. Most of them began their involvements with an obedience dog. We loved that dog, enjoyed going to shows, and thus began what to many of us has become a lifetime avocation.

And then the rules of the game changed. Dog shows are no longer for the selection of the best breeding stock. They are for ego gratification. Sure some of the dogs who have the big bucks supporting them are truly great specimens of their breeds, but there are also a lot of nice show dogs, well presented and with lots of showmanship, that don’t even look much like the breed as it was originated. Most are not able to do the job for which they were bred. Even if there is no job in today’s world, they should retain those characteristics and abilities and that is what dog shows were and are for.

Now we are reading everywhere about the problems with the integrity of the registry, AKC is limiting the judges as to where and for whom they can judge, the puppy mills and high volume breeders are being courted and catered to. Everyone and their Aunt Susie is complaining but no one is taking any action.

My suggested course of action is as follows.

Let all of us who began the sport and enjoyed the pursuit of excellent dogs take a one year hiatus from conformation shows. Continue to register our dogs with whatever registry we prefer, continue to enjoy our dogs, but no conformation shows for one year.

During that year we can go back to what made us dog fanciers in the beginning. Take that year and put an obedience degree on a dog, train one for herding, go hunting with your dog. GET BACK TO WHAT THE DOGS ARE ALL ABOUT.

Possibly the impact of the smaller breed preservationists and breed developers will be noticed. At the very least we will save time, stress, and money. Firing up our vans and motor homes, with the gas prices at an all time high, is an expensive pursuit. At the most we will show the AKC board and the clubs just how valuable the little guy is to the sport. Maybe we can make a difference.

Bitching accomplishes nothing. Positive and constructive action always brings results.
 

thc2006