There are a lot of people like Bill Andrews out there. They go along quietly, never make speeches, never get involved in discussing the "finer points" of type. While the rest of us contribute to the general noise and confusion that surrounds the art of breeding superior dogs, they just observe. Somehow they are able to filter out the static and make sense of it all. They don’t read books on breeding, they don’t go to seminars, so we tend to dis-include them when we are all caught up in the latest DNA discovery or breeding theory. They just listen politely, or bored with it all, they go mess with the dogs while we discuss those really important issues about dogs.

We use them as a sounding board on which to try out our latest and greatest piece of knowledge. The Bill Andrews people listen patiently, able to glean whatever value there is in jumble of our thoughts, and they rarely say more than polite affirmatives.

But when they do... When they do, how many of us have the good sense to shut up and listen? To step back from the newest theory and listen to what IS? If you were one of "them" you wouldn’t be reading this. You’d be sitting on the deck, "just watching" the dogs, wondering why that one doesn’t play as hard as the others. You might be watching a movie and thinking about how much endurance those old hounds have and that might lead you to speculate on how little of it our new and improved dogs have…. On the show grounds you might go "walkin’ and talkin’ and swapping lies" but you would be learning more than the rest of us would absorb from a dozen seminars. Not taking as gospel what every proud owner says about their breed, recognizing the holes in blind adoration, and applying common sense to all that you saw and learned on those walkabouts.

And then, doggone it, when one of us says something of great consequence like "did you know they developed this new DNA test to identify that fatal CHG disease in puppies?" someone like Bill Andrews rolls his eyes and says "Well I reckon if it’s fatal in pups, it pretty well eliminates itself if you don’t breed the same dog and bitch again. Why spend all that time and money testing for something so easy to get rid of?" What can you say? "Oh." If you’re half as smart as he is, you sit back in your chair and think about it.

When a friend said "The ___ club is working on a new campaign to stop the media from always characterizing their breed as vicious attack dogs." The response was "That’s nice. Quicker than breeding trustworthy dogs and not selling to people who want to "feed ‘em gunpowder to make ‘em tuff."

When I said "Did you know that ____ has three bitches that she says don’t have sections but have you seen those pin-headed things?" I got not only a raised eyebrow but luckily, I got a comment. "Yeah, I saw them when I was walkin’ around last night. Saw the sire too. 13 years old and as sound and healthy a dog as you’ll ever find. Got that same moderate head. She showed me those bitches. Yep, just like the sire. Behind the collar you can’t fault ‘em. I can see where they could have puppies….. guess it depends on whether you want to show normal dogs or those that you think are weird enough to win."

I’m calling the stud owner.

Undaunted, this week I told him about the new DNA marker research for HOD. "I wish they would develop a DNA test that could tell us if a dog is going to go oversize. If I knew that, I could breed to ____ and not worry about which puppies might grow out. He is such an incredible dog, just big. Everyone is afraid to use him."

He was driving. He nodded. Somehow I knew it was coming. I’d stepped right into another inarguable bit of logic. I steeled myself. He said "Y’know, seems to me that it’s a whole lot easier to get rid of one really bad fault than worrying about improving on a dozen minor faults. Easy for me to fix one big problem with the motor home but I’d be discouraged if it kept having breakdowns from different things. I’d get rid of the damn thing."

I said nothing.

"I hear you talking about "rare genes that can kill" and I look around at the shy dogs and the cripples that have to be in pain and there’s no way they could work on a farm their legs are so bad. Breeders would rather get all worked up over some "rare" problem they know they don’t have than to deal with the obvious problems they do have!

"So here you got a dog that’s healthy and typy and he has this really bad fault and you can see it, so what? You breed a real good bitch to him, one that doesn’t have that fault and doesn’t have it behind her. You take the best pups and work with them. What’s the big deal with that dog? So he’s got a disqualifying fault? He’s healthy, he’s a built right, he acts right, and we’ve got small bitches that could use his bone and those four good legs. So what’s the problem?"

"I’m hungry. When are we gonna stop for dinner?"

I mean what are you going to say to someone like that?