Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Has Crufts has made health testing the laughing stock

The talk of the town is the Crufts dog show and all the breeds that have been DQ's from the event as well as the 15 breeds that are under fire right now.

Crufts obviously thinks it has taken a major step forward in moving pedigreed dogs to a better place BUT HAVE they???

First  you can't always see genetics with the naked eye.  Most serious diseases that plague all animals and humans are usually no known until they appear or rear their ugly head sometime during the lifespan.  It is precious few we have an absolute DNA test for whereby we can eliminated it over time from a gene pool.

So whose kidding who???   A ring side vet check in no way can determine the health of a dog.  If it would then we can eliminate all the costly health testing test we do and just run our dog up to the local vet and have him look in the eyes, listen to the heart and lungs and say all looks good.  It is a bandaid at best.  That is why vets promote annual vet checks - things come up.

But to DQ a dog for possible razor burns -  What does that have to do with genetics, improving the quality of dogs showing, improve the dogs being selected for breeding or is it a ploy by the AR groups to once again hoodwink them into believing all breeders are bad and all purebred dogs are bad???

It is not secret to the outside world that the AR groups have heavily influenced and infiltrated the dog world in Europe and that they were successful in banning cropping and docking over 20 years ago.  Perhaps they made better progress over there because they are not as well informed and educated over there - Honestly I don't know.

But I know this is nothing but a witch hunt and personally I think Crufts has a lot of egg on their face.

Dobs4ever - Dogs under fire!

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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Dog Show Fancy - Sport or Cult

The other day someone who just bought a pet from a BYB made the comment about dogs show people being a cult.  Let's look at the definition of "cult"


1.
a particular system of religious worship, especially withreference to its rites and ceremonies.
2.
an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing,especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3.
the object of such devotion.
4.
a group or sect bound together by veneration of the samething, person, ideal, etc.
5.
Sociology a group having a sacred ideology and a set ofrites centering around their sacred symbols.  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cult

I say if the shoe fits then wear it -  We are definitely a group bound together by veneration of something, an ideal - that centers around the sacred standard of the Doberman Pinscher and the standard describes our "Ideal". 

Dog showing is both a sport and a cult - just as football enthusiast are nuts about their teams and have games and tailgating to promote and enjoy their sport so does the dog show fancy have events, trails and shows to celebrate our accomplishments.  

This make the very nature of the BYB an insult to all that has gone before.  With no effort, no desire to produce the best, no understanding of the needs of the dogs they enjoy the freedom to breed less than stellar dogs and then when things go wrong they blame all breeders.

The very nature of the purebred  dog world sets it apart from the heinz 57 variety of dog that just breeds at will in the streets where they are allowed to roam.  Purebred dogs are special by design and purpose.  If you don't want to joint the "cult" then don't breed.

THE PURPOSE OF SHOWING

I was ina very interesting discussion on a chat list this week regarding the show ring -  It seems to me that those who are not involved and do no show have very strong opinions on what it is all about and they miss the mark by a wide margin.  It is a very involved and intense competition to say the least.

I have to wonder if these people have been rejected when attending a show or because they have poor quality dogs feel they need to strike out at all the things wrong with our sport. So I am going to try to shed some light on a very heated subject -

YES - it is a very closed  society and as we read earlier can be considered  to be very cult like by some.  But if you have no interest in pure bred dogs then it would seemed closed to you.  I don't care about motorcycles or motorcycle gangs but the people who love them love them with a passion.   They have get togethers, travel around the country together but it is not for me so I don't worry about what they do unless it breaks the law in some way.

But people who do not show seem really vindictive over the whole show ring program.  We hear that it is too political, too snobby, too closed minded, only handlers win and half the dogs that are champions do not deserve it.  Is it any wonder people don't like us???

Personally I don't think anyone has a right to critize something they have never done.  It is way too easy to misunderstand half of what is going on.  We just finished watching Westminister and already rumors are flying about the peke that won.  It is easy to sit in an arm chair and judge.  In the ring is a whole different matter and we only have a one sided view .  It would be nice to put on these special glasses and see a 3 D and life like.

For those who don't like showing or the "politics" my suggestions is don't do it.  No one forces anyone to show.  It is a sport some enjoy it some don't but for breeders it is an invaluable tool.