Old school breeders believe they are so righteous when they really just suck

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The status quo of the inner circles of the dog world does a bunch of funny things, even devious, sometimes just hateful and I guess in choosing their quirky way of doing things that seem very entrenched within matters of old traditions and long practiced ritualistic behavior they feel is just the only way.  In fact they believe their way is the absolute best way because whatever idealistic fantasies of reasoning they are brainwashed into has become their religious calling on behalf of their dogs and they pass these practices off to the next person they feel worthy of their mentorship and maintaining their precious lineages.  So when newbies like my family come into the equation it tends to rock their boat and if in doing so we’ve discovered a success story unlike anything the status quo has ever experienced, suddenly we’re their target for tall tales of wrong doing and exploitive practices.  

It’s sad really, because in a real life conversation with the brainwashed segment of the dog fancy outside of their normal surroundings, they’re all likely intelligent and rational people.  So its just so odd and rather amusing to experience them when they are in their element or actually on another of their intelligence gathering hate fueled missions hell bent to conjure up so many fun filled facts from their own fantasy world to explain things happening with dogs living a sweet life on a ranch far far away from them being raised by a family with two loving parents of 5 really cool kids who all enjoy and love their dogs.  You’d think they’d actually want to help such a family instead of always trying to disparage them.  Hmmmm. Let’s just call it them being jealous.  Perhaps they’ll go away.

The funny thing is, if these same people paid more attention to how they were doing things and shook themselves out of their own dream bubble they might actually learn something about themselves and not like what they see.  They covet their precious dogs, yet from my own experience with people rather high up in the bureaucracy of the breed clubs they really have no idea who is buying their dogs, or for that matter don’t really seem to care enough to dig just a little deeper to verify just who is the person on the other end of that purchase.  So, my perspective on this common practice is these breeders paint a picture of their intent to take good care in where their dogs go, yet when it comes down to it, they really only care about the money they receive for their effort to watch two dogs screw and the momma raise the puppies.  So long as they receive their funds for the dogs they decided they weren’t going to keep for future attempts of winning them a championship in a show ring or in the field trials.  For the “cast off” dogs… they actually care very little, so long as they can say… “the dog must be altered and the registration must be limited”.  Amounting … Basically to their attempt at control over something the public is purchasing from them.  Well, with such limitations in place, who really is the owner of that dog? 

You may take it home and care for it, assume responsibility for the health and well being, but who really owns it?  Well, the AKC tends to acknowledge the owner of the litter and the Dam as the real owner of your puppy unless it was sold to you with the full registration intact with a full transfer of ownership.  With limited registration in effect, the AKC will always defer to the listed owner of the Dam and the Litter.  So if you are purchasing a dog expecting to actually own it…buyers beware.  Most breeders will have little clauses that will in fact say that they can repossess your dog if they feel you haven’t done things according to the letter of what they wanted from you for the right to possess one of their dogs.  Notice I DID NOT say they sold you the ownership of any puppies they’ve produced.  Because when you really examine the end result… you really aren’t the owner. 

Being the naïve buyer, once ourselves … my family sort of just got pissed about the whole concept.  And well, we don’t do this to our buyers.  Our buyers are given the right to choose to spay or neuter, we don’t force it down their throat.  When the AKC and the breed clubs reform to the point where they actually understand the true concept of ownership maybe it will also allow for a much more diverse genetic deck to deal from.  We believe that owning a dog really means you own it.  Even if you never breed that animal, it should still be your choice.  Even if you do wish to spay or neuter… it should be your choice.

In fact purchasing one of our pups becomes a really fun experience.  You are provided so much detail in the process from pairing, mating, pregnancy, birth and whelping that really…. Most people feel all the emotional ups and downs right there with us.  Even if you’re from several states away, or living in another country.   Every milestone is there and documented for you.  You can call us anytime, email us, catch us on Facebook.  And when the pups are born you can watch them on YouTube and real-time on the live webcam.  You are explained what a limited registration is.  And given the choice to then register your dog as such with the AKC.  And as a pet companion, that’s usually where it ends.  Since the registration process doesn’t do much else but give you a number.

But, what it affords us as your breeder… is the ability to say “hey if in a few years you feel an interest in helping us and you did decide not to alter your dog”, Then we can map out and see how it fits in the grand scheme of things without trying to over saturate the gene pool with more of the same.  Lets call it a backup for the eyes of the AKC and diversity for the breed.  If we enforced a spay neuter… then those options are shut out entirely.  And…That would be old school.

However, as one of our puppy owners, before you even get to the above, you actually have to pass our process for screening.  We look you up.  Yup, we actually research who you are, we want to know what you do for a living, who you live with, how many kids, previous pets, and we verify physical addresses, phone numbers and we will be calling your previous veterinarian.  We prefer to meet you in person at least once and allow our whole family to weigh in on whether you are prepared to take on owning and caring for a puppy.  We will maintain communication with all of our puppy buyers.  We encourage visits to us with their growing pup over its years and we welcome back all our pups if they can’t care for it anymore for any reason.  In fact, the main sticking point in our contract is… if you can no longer care for your puppy for any reason… we must get it back, and we decide on where to rehome it, not you or we just adopt it and care for it as an addition to our pack until you are ready to get your dog back.

We pull no punches and hold nothing back…. In fact we’re an open book and ready to speak to anyone who has any questions.  So we find it so amusing when the Dog fancy mafia tries to conjure up dirt on us.  And they do so by looking at our AKC records to see how many dogs we’ve registered.  Hmmm?  Well, the figures they get never fall in line with how they know things in their own world, Because you remember how I explained a few paragraphs prior that the average buyer of a pure bred dog from those hoity-toity elitists from the pure bred world never really own their dog.  That’s because the owner of the litter and the Dam “AKA the Breeder” typically registers the pups beforehand with their kennel name.  Then provide the buyer “you” the papers to transfer ownership of that already named dog to you.  You then give your dog whatever “call name” you like, so long as the registered name is what they have on record reflecting their kennel and thus branding their dog as their progeny.

 Okay, I see how that adds a level of control over the people in possession of their puppies.  So when we sell our puppies and provide the buyer with the full papers to do the registration themselves, allowing them to choose the name on record , it seems to throw a wrench in the wheel of discovery on the part of those breeder veterans out there.  Wondering why we wouldn’t register the whole litter.  Well, why would we?  Its really a choice for the buyer whether they want to participate in the closed registry of the AKC.    And most would rather save their money instead of going through the effort to register a limited registration dog with the AKC. 

Okay in all fairness.. there are times when even we would consider pre-registering an entire litter.  Like when we feel enough of a line of our dogs has been saturated in a given demographic.  Then it might make sense to limit things in order to prevent the effects of same Sire or even same Dam syndrome. But we're still not about to tell anyone you have to spay and neuter your dog.  Or it has to be championed first.  Or you need to do X+Y+Z and meet conditions 1+2+3 then sign over the rights to your dogs under this or that circumstance.  What a big crock of hot messy crap that is.  

The AKC registration is really a wasted effort for anyone who just wants a family companion.  So whatever revenue the AKC could earn from these additional registrations is usually lost.  And well, until the AKC can really provide anything tangible beyond just a paper… is it really worth sending them $50 bucks?  Recently the AKC has provided 3 months of free pet health insurance, but for this perk you can go through many regular insurance companies now and get better coverage for less.  And for 3 months?  How many people actually get around to using it?  If the paper was in fact a guarantee that my dog is going to live longer than the average dog and cost me less in healthcare over the life of my dog, Then maybe?  Or how about actually acknowledging the owner as the person submitting that registration who in fact paid for that dog?  If the AKC status actually meant I got a better dog, then that’s something to rave about.  But mostly it tells the world who bred the dog and who has the real ownership of it in the eyes of the AKC.  At least my mortgage and car note have a bank behind it.  But if you outright paid for your dog…really now… it should just be yours.

But in reality, all this AKC paper does is contribute another dog into a closed registry.  Adding to the growing number of related dogs already in that system.  And by being closed it shuts the door to adding in any lines from dogs that were never registered, or put in the system as limited registration, thus effectively removing its potential contribution to the gene pool.   Even if your limited registration dog is bred and has puppies… the AKC will no longer acknowledge those puppies.  And it will then reveal who the real owner of your dog is in the eyes of the AKC, since if you do want to register that litter or flip the registration of the sire or dam to full status….guess who you’ll need to ask to allow that to happen.  Yup, the breeder.  Welcome to the world of what you pay for is not yours.  But, why let that stop you?  It shouldn’t.  

Registration is a formality, not a requirement.  And as the majority of the educated public has already discovered…. The difference that piece of AKC paper offers is really ….. nothing beneficial for the health and well being of the papered dog Vs a dog without those papers.   In fact if the pool of available dogs outside of the closed registry offers more choices and a wider diversity of genetics than the ones within the closed registry… I’m willing to bet any of those old school breeders… the dogs outside of their control offer far better genetic diversity than their own specific lines.  Will their panties wad up and bunch in their ass cracks when they read this? Yuuuup.  Will I enjoy the results of that fallout as they try to dig up more dirt and confirm more fantasy about my family and our dogs? You can bet on it. 

Most of them don’t really know the number of dogs we really have.  None of them know if I have any of their dogs.  Since their own screening process sucks so bad.  Hmmmm.  And well… Do I really need their permission to do what I want with my dogs.   I certainly don’t tell them what they should do with their own dogs, yet they make a lot of effort to tell me what to do.   I’m so glad I never asked any of the doggie Mafioso for help.  We do have pleasant memories from the experience with the breeders of several of our dogs.  And then there are the breeders whom we have nothing really encouraging to say anything about….    Except that they’ve been doing things their way for a very very very long time and feel they are the final authority for their breed of choice.  Uhhh yeah okay, let me know how that’s working for you guys?

They’ve been quick to point out dogs in our lineages who’ve had siblings or uncles, aunts, grandparents and parents that have died young from this or that or had some ailment that should raise an eyebrow of concern.  When in fact these dogs they make such an effort to disparage are the very same dogs and lineages they created for you and me in the first place.   So I say okay lets see what problems you’ve had in your lines and see if we can’t shuffle that deck you’ve been dealing for all your years and throw in a few new cards to make things more interesting.  I’m playing differently from the same deck they still use.  I’m shuffling things in from other decks and then saying… see me in a few years and we’ll compare notes.  How about looking at all the dogs related to mine that went on to live for 12, 13, 14 ,15 and yes… even 16 years against all odds and absolutely smashing the given averages.  Or is it just that focusing on only the negatives will bolster their arguments?

So for those doggie Mafioso who say… hmmm well where are all your older dogs?  Well, we don’t have any on our premises.  We’re the new players remember?  So technically the older dogs from our lines are the ones these stone throwers kept for themselves and that died on them knowing all the problems they keep pointing out and yet still used them to breed with anyway.  And thus gave us our dogs.  So what’s the difference?  Hmmm.  Well we don’t use any particular single stud… we have planned our pack to allow for choices.  We also have choices for dams and we have sources for adding more dogs from different lineages from overseas, even domestic. We also have the accommodations to allow our dogs to retire in peace right here with us if we choose.  And we’re so in tune with our dogs that when they have an “off “day we take notice and are on top of any problems before they become a potential life and death struggle. 

How many dogs would survive Gastric torsion if their owners just actually cared for their dog?  Instead of locking doggie away while they went about their day playing wannabee pretend hunter or the glorious show dog owner and checked in on it hours later, possibly even after its been long dead?  Hmmm.  There goes my filling in the blanks for the behavior of those stone throwers.  Perhaps it’s not fair to say these things without really knowing them?  But if it works for them, then I guess it can work for me too.  If they really cared about their dogs then they would change the way they do things drastically from just going ahead and breeding from the same stock they’ve been using for generations.  So I ask them… how’d that work out for ya?  Because the problems we’re dealing with today, were created by these old school minded breeders from their years of vast experience.  And again ….where’d that get ya?   

Maybe they should sell me a few of their old fart dogs so I can be legitimate in their eyes?  Or perhaps explain how their old dogs screw better than my younger ones?  Or explain to me how a mature male dog between 10 and 12 Months has different sperm from the same dog at 24 months?  All formalities aside if they want to wait 24 months for a stud before breeding it, go ahead.   I’m sure any problems found anyway in the puppies that dog fathered at 24 months old were avoided if they had him stud at 11 months  since its genes somehow magically changed in a year of waiting?  So if they choose to keep a sexually mature male waiting longer before it knocks one out….okay.  If I allowed my bitch to decide who will mount her and she chooses the young stud that’s cool, too. I’ll let ya know how that decision went, too…. Because several years later all those puppies are still alive, still thriving and haven’t blown a hip, a knee or flipped their stomach or gone blind or been diagnosed with some necrotic form of cancer.  My understanding through the grape vine …. The dogs from many of these stone throwers have been afflicted with these problems.  Let me pause while I chuckle at their failures.  Okay now let me pause as I feel sorrow for their progeny that have suffered, are suffering or passed away before their time. 

My Family decided to do things marching to the beat of a different drum.  One that sounds a lot nicer and looks a lot better than what they’ve presented to the world thus far.  But, its my decision, just like its their decision to keep breeding from the same lines they have knowing all the crap they know.  At least my efforts are an honest attempt to fix what they’ve left me to work with.  If they were genuinely eager to help the breed as a whole then I would expect like any rational human being would … that they would line up to say … lets try some dogs from this line and some from that line and actually help.  Instead, I have to align myself with other breeders who are fed up with the status quo and their results.  And make decisions to really shuffle our deck while the status quo is still throwing stones. 

According to those Mafioso stone throwers many of their dogs have been diagnosed with many of the health issues they’ve thrown my way as things to be concerned about.   Well that’s too bad. Maybe they should review how they do things and shuffle their deck, too.  Then come back and compare notes.   And I’m so flattered by their concern for my dogs and possible future health issues.  At least on some level they share my concerns.  It seems they cared too little about their own dogs to make a difference in time.  And obviously all their efforts to contribute their findings to the OFA and CERF has gotten them here?  It seems the dogs are no better off now then they were before the tests were being done.  And now whatever effort I make outside their matters of tradition is scrutinized based off of their ahem…proven practices.  Hold on while I laugh out loud.   ;-)

We also don’t give a rats ass about those champion status bragging rights these old school breeders covet so much.  In fact, I asked each of my dogs “hey do you really want to go get that trophy for being the word for word description of your breed standard or for actually going out and retrieving in a competition while I pretend to be a hunter?”  All I got was a blank stare from every single one of them.  So I guess they really don’t give a rats ass either.  But, When I ask “hey boy” or “hey girl”,  “do you wanna go play fetch?”  They suddenly perk up and jump towards the gate or door to go for their run on the farm and play flyball.  And they don’t require a trophy from me to prove they are the best damn dog in the world. 

Cheers