The Da Vinci Code

Reputable breeders are not Special Citizens touched with Divine Power. Being a purebred dog breeder makes you a ‘specialist’ in a particular field. That’s it. That’s all. No special privileges as a human being.

The impression I get from the general public that they think dog breeders are crazy and are not sure what all the fuss is about. To most people a dog is a dog.

I mean really … what IS all the fuss about?

Breeders are experts at fuss. We fuss over everything. The shape of a dog’s eye. Timing the progesterone levels of a bitch. Becoming the number one dog in your breed/group/country. What handler you hire. Whether Rescue should take in cross breeds. Which judge to enter under. How much milage your motorhome gets. Whether a show ground has good facilities or not. What the hell the CKC is doing with my goddam money. That article by that author in that magazine that was so good. What constitutes good movement. What training methods work best. What health concerns we should be looking at. The price of Vari-Kennels. The best homes for our puppies. The next stud we want to use. The best food to feed. That orange piece of plastic (where’s the rest of it?) your 8 month old prospective Specials male just pooped out … well, you get the idea.

It’s a lot to cover. A lot to learn. People new to the show world are either captivated by the depth of it or totally freaked out by it. I was born into it so I’m accustomed to the insanity. What I don’t get is the people who come into dogs being so-called ‘normal people’ and end up just as batshit as the rest of us. How do you start normal and then get railroaded into this delusion that you are somehow special because you breed and show dogs.

Seriously. You are SO not special.

As far as I can see a lot of the problems breeders these days face are things they have created over decades of immersion in a finite world. Not only is that world finite but within it are mini-worlds which are even more finite. The more finite you get the more tunnel vision you suffer and the more Mad Scientist giggling you do.

I was out of showing and breeding for about a run of 8 or 9 years. I went to shows sporadically, I only had Petal so no show prospect there! I had friends outside the dog world, I talked to people about it and I can tell you, the prevailing reason that people do NOT buy from purebred dog breeders surprised me.

Attitude.

Since I was immersed in the culture I did not see what outsiders do. Trust me. It’s seriously unflattering. No one, and I mean NO ONE likes to be looked down on. Breeders are educated in a particular field and when someone comes asking about that field it is very hard to NOT sound superior and throw out terminology a pet owner couldn't hope to understand. It matters how you comminucate that information! It matters because the consequences of being a snot rag could be devastating (which I'll get to in a sec).

Now, every breeder gets to choose who they sell to and they go by whatever process they feel comfortable using; puppy questionnaire, gut instinct, chicken bones scattered in a pentagram of salt ... whatever right? As long as the end conclusion is that the puppy ends up in the right forever home.

Now, if the process involves essays, plus a questionnaire, plus a home visit, plus they visit your dogs, plus agreeing to your strict dog diet regimen … that’s little excessive. I refused to buy a dog from someone because she had a contract stating what I was allowed to feed. Er, no. (Jelly beans were not on the list and frankly my dogs love them – contract violation?) If a buyer is comfortable with the hoops, then finebut a lot of people are put off by that intrusion into their lives. Yes we should know what sort of family our puppies go to ... but who they intend to leave the dog with when they go on vacation ... so not our business. It's really not. (If you don't think so go look in the mirror and introduce yourself to the control freak looking back at you.)

Let’s face it – most people are basically honest, otherwise society would fall into anarchy in a micro-second. Honest and informed are not the same thing though and it’s our jobs as breeders to educate inquiring minds and together we figure out if this is the breed for them. If it's really not don't get up on your high horse and stampede them ... not cool.

Do we make them cry? No. Have we heard stories about a breeder making someone cry? Why yes … yes we have. Do we know that person went to a known Ridgeback puppy miller and bought a dog there no questions asked? Yes ... we do.

So what’s the scenario here?

A supposed reputable breeder gets an inquiry, has such a lofty view of their dogs, kennel, breed and self that they upset someone to the point of tears. That person, upset but not discouraged, finds another breeder who will sell her a puppy. She has no way of knowing that the breeder of her puppy has churned out litter after litter out of untested, unshown dogs because the miller knows all the right answers to all the questions.

So is this okay? Well, my opinion is pretty clear but I’m in the minority I think. I don’t expect extra special people(who are they anyway?) to own my dogs; I want average, reasonably honest, law abiding normal people who's lifestyle suits the breed to have a Ridgeback as a pet and love it for the rest of it’s life with good care and consideration. Those people really aren’t that hard to spot if you know what to look for and they seriously don’t appreciate being read the third degree and talked to like morons when they call or email to inquire.

Yes, I’m one of those crazy breeders but I also have some sense of what the real world, outside of the insular dog world, sees. Good homes will find you because they want what they want and are willing to find it – the question is; when they do find you, are you going to buy them a one way ticket to the welcoming arms of a BYB or Miller with your psychosis?