SPORTING BREEDER Q&A 5. Well, social media is certainly harmful, but there are good things about it too. You can reach people all over the world very quickly. You can see dogs from all over the world that you didn’t have access to prior to the advent of this type of technology, but, it’s a mean place to gather. There’s a lot of negativity there, but that’s true everywhere. People purport to be things that they simply are not. There is misrepresentation and misinformation. That said, you can utilize the tool to do good and still come out ahead by using it. It’s a good way to stay in contact with people. It’s a strong way to get your vision out with low overall expense. I do think the good outweighs the negative for those who can handle it. There is a community-building component that is useful and you can have fans who are support- ive of your work. You can connect with buyers and promote your successes. It is a useful breeder’s tool. 6. The biggest issue facing the dog show community today is probably the cultural shift against purebred dogs. So, with that in mind, the dog show is a safe place to be a breeder, a safe place to display what you’ve bred. I think that we’re faced with a cultural shift where the “adopt don’t shop” mentality has taken over. This is sort of a tired mantra that we’ve been hearing. I think breeder-on-breeder drama is detrimental to the sport. I am probably one of the few who are not anti-doodle; I am pro-breeder. I don’t think you can be pro-breeder and anti-someone who breeds. I’m not anti-high-volume breeder. I am pro-accountable breeder. So, if you’re accountable for your animals, if you have 100 litters a year or just one, all power to you. If you have 100 litters a year and you take great care of them, super. If you have one disastrous litter and you throw your hands up in the air and ignore all of the problems, that doesn’t make you a better breeder than the high-volume breeder because you only had one litter. We have to support breeders across the board. We have to educate people on how we want breeders to behave. HINT: Parent clubs can’t deny memberships to individuals on the basis of not following their guidelines when you won’t let them into the fold. We need to be inclusive, not a lot less exclusive, in our approach to other breeders. We must show, by example and rule, how we want others to be accountable for dogs, what the methods are in place to ensure the health and wellness of animals that we create, the general welfare of the animals we create, and foster good positive relation-
ships with those people who have dogs from us. Without those relationships, everything falls apart. So, keeping those relation- ships would be the biggest challenge we face as a collective group of individuals sharing the same sport. 7. There have been several really good changes in the sport. I think that we are seeing a focus on a lot of testing to produce quality dogs. There are lots of advances in the medical field for animals to help our dogs live longer. There is a concentration of quality breeders still breeding dogs out there. There is a hunger for knowledge from a newer group of breeders who want to be successful, who recognize the value of doing things slowly and correctly to ensure long-term positive results. The sport needs people to focus on breeding quality animals that are correct to the Breed Standard and healthy. Fortunately, we do have several mechanisms in place to test animals for health. Advancements in breed-specific testing, for example, are tools to assist breeds that was not afforded to them a few years back. These allow breeders to make more informed decisions. They are part of the science of dog breeding. I tell breeders all the time, “We are artist first and foremost, but you have to think like a scientist.” Keep in mind that even something as simple as the microchip and utilizing technology to track your dog is a phenomenal tool for breeders and dog lovers. Having that in place for the lifetime of the dog is a great benefit to both breeders and buyers. These are technological advances that we didn’t have when I started in dogs. These types of advancements are huge when it comes to protecting the advancement of the canine population.
164 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MARCH 2024
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