Sheridan

Is the black spaniel known by another name?

Ah yes, education, the universal fix all. Only problem, lots of people don't want to be educated . . . and your attempt to compete for educating people will compete with much better organised and financed efforts by the Animal Rights groups. Btw., I hope, idealist that I am, there's a difference between advertising and education. United we stand, divided we fall. There's no question that the pedigree dog world is deeply divided.So long as one breeder's 'improving the breed' is another breeder's 'narrowing gene pools and promoting exaggerated characteristics', the pedigree dog world cannot effectively advertise.. . . or educate. How would you tackle this issue?

Poppycock. Please provide any evidence that the 'Pekinese' is historically consistent. Consider Ming Dynasty sculptures (one inserted below). I wouldn't say that dog looks like Palacegarden Malachy or Palacegarden Bianca. The Chinese were not 'enlightened' dog breeders. They didn't keep pedigrees, and historically, employed cross breeding and in some eras, physical manipulation (at the end of the Chinese Empire, message, bashing puppies faces, and a way of feeding puppies from the inside of a stretched pig skin in a way that forced them to press their soft face bones against the surface for hours each day) to try and achieve the conformation that was in style in the court of the time. The same court routinely practiced foot binding on women. You cannot expect the looks of court dogs to come true when they were brought to the west because their facial structure was not genetic. No need to repeat all of that. My view on the pekinese is that none of us were alive back in the old Empress' day. There were no cameras. No videos. Drawings, paintings, these are often exaggerated, as they are for all dogs. The only things we can go on are descriptions and early photographs. That said, your argument about how the peke looked in those early days equally argues the other way as well. If the structure was not genetic and those early photos show a nose, well, perhaps they were originally brachy after all.

Bit of an update. Grumpy is getting very hard to groom. My sister came over to hold him while I tried to get the knots out of his beard. I ended up shaving it but only got a bit done because he just can't stand up for long. Even holding him up, he gets very tired.

Hah, I like the bit on page 105 in regards to a working dog:

Hence my contention that this is also sending a message to the judges.

Wasn't there something about the clumber also having conjunctivitis?

My Grumpy's breeder had three in his first litter. Two Australian champions, one of which was also a CDX, and Grumpy, who got a trifle bored going around a ring. Yet it was Grumpy that the breeder decided to sire a couple of litters. Not every show dog has to be bred from and not every dog bred from has to be a show dog. Not every show dog that's bred from has to be a champion. Some dogs are just good solid dogs.

Yet, in the ACT, someone can go into the pound, say they're the owner or carer (if the owners are away) of a dog, and DAS will hand it over.

Crufts is judged under UK breed standards. If the UK standard doesn't allow it then competitors whose dogs have it shouldn't enter the show. And my vet knows a lot about my breeds and I'd say a lot of breeds given how often I bump into pedigree dog breeders in the surgery. As to the clumber or any of the DQ dogs, I think lots of dogs that shouldn't get titles get titles. Judges should be more ready to non-award than they do.

Advertising in the Trading Post is not a crime.

I walked past a Pets Purgatory one time and there were people surrounding the glass cages. I said loudly to my friend, 'My god, look at those puppies bellies. They've got to full of worms!'

Oh for pity's sake... I was saying what I WASN'T doing. MY COMMENT WAS NOT DIRECTED AT YOU. Is that clear enough??? You two are kind of arguing on the same side, you know.

But he denies that petshops are an issue. Does he? or does he deny PIAA pet shops are the issue? Well, given this is about cats, I wonder what his stance is on PIAA breeder approved pet shop cats? Presumably, they don't wander even if they have stupid owners and therefore don't have kittens or sire litters?

Mita, I figured if anyone would be critical in the UK it would be The Guardian.

That sounds nasty, Jed,and certainly not what I thought the community here was like. Steve is not in favour of breeding mongrels, as you purport. Steve has a lot of good input to contribute and IMO she does. She can open eyes up to seeing things from different angles and not just from one sided points of view. She has foreseen stuff that others didn't. And she does get shut down very quickly. Don't see the point of that. She makes some very valid points and it is interesting to read all contributions. That is why DOL has been so popular over the years. And it would be helpful for all partipants not to turn an interesting thread into it being about the MDBA because those threads disappear, as we all know. You're the one that brought that up, Sheridan . I'm talking about people contributing to the thread with view points, some different and some with different slants on them. Very disingenuous, Erny. Back to our scheduled programming.

That sounds nasty, Jed,and certainly not what I thought the community here was like. Steve is not in favour of breeding mongrels, as you purport. Steve has a lot of good input to contribute and IMO she does. She can open eyes up to seeing things from different angles and not just from one sided points of view. She has foreseen stuff that others didn't. And she does get shut down very quickly. Don't see the point of that. She makes some very valid points and it is interesting to read all contributions. That is why DOL has been so popular over the years. And it would be helpful for all partipants not to turn an interesting thread into it being about the MDBA because those threads disappear, as we all know.

I think the most important reaction is that of the UK general public and there's been little reaction at all from what I can see. The Guardian, for instance, didn't really care cos they were having too much of a good time ... http://guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/srDYGHNAYGIHe3RtcOrYA_w/view.m?id=15&gid=lifeandstyle/2012/mar/08/crufts-2012-day-one-live-blog&cat=lifeandstyle

Video from Crufts about the vet checks: This isn't the bulldog that was disqualified, is it?

No, what to buy, that's the trouble. I can't afford one for a while yet, though. Got to get my pay rise in July. Glad to hear Mac's doing better. Grumpy man is going through a pooing inside period. Either he can't hold on or he's attention seeking cos it's not all the time and he's not weeing inside.

I've never seen it in the ACT.

I think it's the irony, as someone else noted, that he's the head of an organisation that sells undesexed cats yet he's out hunting down the feral ones. Nevermind the photo, the hypocrisy is not a good look.

Well, the Americans are having hysterics over it. Letters to the AKC demanding they never ever do this, etc.

Legally, I suppose, people can call themselves what they like. I suggest that ANKC breeders add that to their website with an explanation as to what the ANKC is and the code of conduct.

I haven't heard anything as yet about the peke and clumber owners' reactions but an Internet campaign and showies across the globe getting all het up ultimately doesn't make The Kennel Club look bad in the eyes of the public. On the contrary.