Page 212 - ShowSight - January 2020
P. 212

                  Becoming
BY JACQUELYN FOGEL
  BREEDERS—THE IFORGOTTEN ELEMENT
have written breeding dogs. I did not feel like there was enough time or money about this prob- to take a weekend off to attend a trade show. Wasn’t that what our lem before. The Nationals were for? Isn’t that what we did, sort-of, every weekend good news is I at dog shows, especially the benched ones? Couldn’t someone just
am hearing some good bring that information to me rather than expecting me to find a way
 discussions begin to pop up on this topic. The bad news is I fear it’s too little, too late, or not well enough-target- ed to make a difference. My first articles go back to 2011 when I started ringing alarm bells that our current breeders were going to be aging out of the business in
about 10 years. Nine years later, that is happening at an alarming speed. Every year dozens of purebred dog breeders give up volun- tarily or are forced by age and circumstance to give up their dogs. These breeders are not being replaced.
Yes, we are hearing more and more about Preservation Breed- ers—what we now call those of us who continue to breed purebred dogs that conform to a written standard. It’s becoming fashionable among delegates, and in some ways the idea is beginning to catch on within the ranks of AKC purebred dog breeders. Bill Shelton is even talking about starting an Association for Preservation Dog Breeders. His vision is an association not unlike those the Amish breeders have within the ranks of commercial breeders. This Asso- ciation would sponsor educational seminars, break-out sessions to tackle tough issues and have vendor shows where breeders can meet some company representatives that supply a lot of the products we all use. Almost every other trade has its own association. It’s a great vision, and if anyone can carry it off, I think Bill can. I am not yet convinced it can survive in the highly competitive world we have created within the ranks of dog shows. Why would anyone spend money to fly into, say Chicago, to attend a trade show, when they can spend money that same weekend chasing points on one of their dogs to get it ranked in the top 10? Ten years ago, I was attending 30-40 shows a year, running a boarding/grooming business, and
to get it? The short answer is no. We really need an Association of Breeders, and Bill Shelton is on the right track. We really need an Association that can guide us to become better and more prolific. We really need to learn how to become our own collective advo- cates. It’s important to make time for this.
In past years we had a culture that worked hard to convince us that good breeders had only one or two litters every year, and nobody could make money doing it. We have nurtured a couple of generations on these ridiculous notions, and they are still strongly embedded within our culture. Few conformation breeders ever questioned the validity of those ideas, and our breeds have suffered because of it. We have been our own worst enemy by vilifying any- one who bred five or six litters and “flooded the market” with their puppies. Those large breeders were nothing we aspired to become because they were “just puppy mills”. Of course, all the knowledge they were gaining by building their successful breeding programs with volumes of dogs, many of which went into the pet market was not considered valuable. Experience wasn’t what was important, perceived morality was. Instead of aspiring to produce many high- quality dogs that could be shown, we were convincing ourselves that quantity could never produce quality—the ultimate lie.
The AKC helped us to perpetuate the lies we believed. They did not honor breeders. They did not promote venues to reward and draw in new breeding enthusiasts. They allowed the myths to grow and multiply as long as they were making money on show entries. Conformation was a sort of cash cow for a while. It served them well—until it didn’t. As the Animal Rights movement took hold, and the public began to flock to “rescues”, the AKC did not aggres- sively put programs into place to support and reward the breeders it already had. It did not fight the quality vs. quantity myth that had taken hold among our hobby breeders. At least not publicly. Behind the scenes they were making deals with commercial breeders to register their purebred dogs, and they were sending professionals and breeding authorities into that commercial community, but they were not telling their dog club constituents about these things.>
 WE REALLY NEED AN ASSOCIATION THAT CAN GUIDE US TO BECOME BETTER AND MORE PROLIFIC. WE REALLY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO BECOME OUR OWN COLLECTIVE ADVOCATES.
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