March 2018
Lost in opinions
21/03/18 08:15
HOW RELIABLE ARE THE ORGANIZED DOG WORLD?
Lost in opinions
Facts or opinions? This is an important question and also the main reason for me to write to brighten. Opinions and facts – Two words with a distinct and huge difference and meaning.
A Kennel Club and a Breed Club are considered to act responsible towards our various but specific breeds in their origin, development and future. Both above actors need to be aware of what they say and how they act. As actors in the forefront they should of course be up-to-date, factual and informative - never narrow-minded and subjective. Facts should be verified and information well studied before mediated. Kennel Clubs and Breed Clubs are two heavy and influential actors who claims to care and work attentive for our breeds origin, welfare and function. They are also in charge of guidance and advice to breeders, owners, judges, me and other interested who seeks knowledge. Big actors that also are in control of our purebred dogs by given rules and guidelines.
But who controls the organized Dog World? Who gives a review on achieved results and work accomplished?
SORT, VALUE AND SELECT
What if I am a newbie and lack the expertise to value information given? What if info given is deficient, distorted, subjective and unreviewed? When looking for a specific breed most of us turn to google to find some general info, photos and links to sources. Second to a Breed Club and maybe a library in order to find what we think is more reliable and specific information. After that I contact some breeders. One breeder tells me to visit an earlier puppy buyer of his, ”Jane”, to meet with but also to learn more about the breed. But Jane knows like me, nearly nothing about the breed but knows and cherish of course her own lovely dog. Jane is friendly, unoffensive and does whatever her dear friend and breeder asks of her. A breeder can be more or less knowledgeable and speaks subjective out of his own conviction, work and breeding, just as it should be. Of course an owner loves his dog! Doesn’t matter if the dog is new, old, modern, mixed, cross- or purebred!
A most natural behavior and nothing strange at all.
This is where Breed Clubs can be very helpful by providing and sharing objective information and research based on verified and collected facts with raw data to support breeders and all interested which also is beneficial work to support a specific breed.
SHOW ME THE FACTS
HELP! I need objective information and facts not only personal opinions when I want to study and learn about a breed! I would very much like to form my own opinion to act by. Please, name your source, if I want to dig deeper and study more thoroughly. If a Kennel Club nor a Breed Club can’t provide authentic information about a breed – Then, who will? When I was looking for information about my breed of interest I found many different stories told also did I discover severe shortcomings in the information given. I did my own mistakes and faults too and learned my lesson well.
I continued to search for verified facts and found thankfully some freethinking knowledgeable persons with a interest in a breed who could provide, with for me, new facts to help me understand not only my own dog but also a complex history which also explained a broad variation within this particular breed. A few honorable and passionated souls have done time-consuming, unpaid hard work and research just because they once had discovered the very same shortcomings as I now but several years later experienced! Repeatedly and for many years have these few with good sense and insight tried to convey their information for better understanding, to care for and preserve a rare breed but also to prevent other interested to walk the same dark, narrow road leading to a dead-end in ignorance. The most strange thing is that the organized Dog World was and still are not interested. Why? Please, enlighten me!
If prestige gets more important than facts and knowledge then we will also lose track of our goal and our main mission to care and support our purebred dogs. The problem is not that faults are made because shit happens to all of us. The big question is how we deal with problems to learn from them but also in how quickly we react to correct an error to diminish damage.
WIN OR LOSE?
With more facts and further some years later I have now come to realize the extent of this power play with a most sadden result. Who really cares for a breed and its origin and function? Who listens to a few when you have other and many interests to prioritize and protect? Some even steals info and remix it to praise themselves! And they only use parts of it, neglects others only to show some pieces of a picture but never the full picture. Disrespectful, without mentioning a source and a reference. Who thanks a few proactive doing a deep and thorough research in finding required facts to explain mistakes and correct shortcomings but also by sharing necessary facts to support a breed?
To those few freethinking critical minds out there sharing reviewed facts with a spirit to learn and review before you act; THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK, GUTS AND PERSISTENCE! A most special Thank You I dedicate to Elaine Fichter, Tomasz Targowski and last but equally important, Leendert Bosman. Together You’ve helped me to understand. If not everything so in all cases to show the big picture of how a rare breed and over time been managed and totally changed by ”supportive” humans in an incoherent so called organized Dog World.
A rare breed as the Barbet could have been saved by honesty, facts and education instead he get lost in different opinions. Isn’t it time to stop this reckless gambling in confusion and start study the facts? Expertise suggested preservation breeding years ago to save what can be saved of a rare breed. Time shrinks while opportunities are decreasing and still no action...
Live and learn
Seven years ago, when I was searching for both guiding facts and a pup I was initially directed to a source abroad to find both of them. But I said; – Thank you, but No Thank You! I was looking within my homeland for a breeder connected to our Kennel Club as a trustful resource nearby since I was at that time a newbie to this rare breed. I was in need of knowledge, guidance and advise. This experienced help needed to be; close to reach, easy to show, discuss and understand. My puppy grew and so did my experience and interest. I searched for more detailed facts and answers but none in my vicinity could assist me. So, I then turned to the said knowledgeable source abroad, she thankfully could and helpfully did.
Summary; Knowledge and help are not always where you expects to find them.
Widen your perspective!