Not only did thousands of those who participated in the finale of Crufts 2015 have the chance to see the volunteer of PETA protesting against Crufts in the name of crossbred dogs but a bit later the same organization uploaded a video and they were proud of this so-called ‘dramatic’ moment.
On The Cover – 2015 is Looking like a BANNER Year! The Multiple Best In Show Winning MBIS GCh. Jcrv-Klasse Warrior Raising The Banner
Advertising is an important part of the modern dog show environment and has been for the past three or four decades. The advent of desktop publishing and various advances over the past 20 years have allowed us to create ads for dogs that couldn’t even be imagined in the 1980s.
There are lots of opportunities for dogs and their owners these days, a veritable plethora of sports that provide mental stimulus and physical activity for the dog. Some, like agility for example, are designed to do the same for the dog’s owner. But for almost every breed, there is one type of work for which they are uniquely suited. In other words, the work the breed was intended to do, their “real job.”
You wouldn’t know it from the weather, but one unmistakable clue confirms that spring has arrived here in Queens. Lost dog posters adorn every tree, lamp post and bulletin board. Granted, runaway dogs don’t follow any predetermined schedule, but the sudden spike in these incidents happens like clockwork every spring. There are plenty of contributory reasons for it.
There is nothing that gives my wife Sylvia and me as much sustained pleasure as having a newborn puppy in our hands, and all that follows: see the puppies nurse and be cleaned lovingly by their dam, observe and record their growth, watch them romp, get their kisses on my nose, evaluate them again and again with a dream of great future contribution, work with them to train them for their potential careers in the conformation show ring, and take them to their first few shows.
The American Indians, Desert Bedouin Chiefs and many others from tribal lands around the world knew it was important to convey their ancestors’ history and heritage to the next generation. The recorded family trees as well as pedigrees of their stock were passed down from one generation to the next. The preservation of this history was the task of “the Tellers”. Early on this information was communicated verbally and later was recorded for posterity in writing. There was no “Google” to fact check something …one sought out the “Elders” who had a story to tell and you were entrusted to pass their story along.
The problems caused by the generation gap – labeled with phrases like “Back in the day…” and “Youngsters these days…” – have never been as meaningful as they are nowadays. Globalization and the virtual society created an absolutely new and different generation. The basic and urgent question being whether the canine society has realized it so far and is able to find the proper way to react.
If you remember, my initial Canine Chronicle article addressed the unseen consequences of using show dogs as emotional support dogs (ESD). It highlighted the fact that some highly campaigned dogs fly cage free from show to show by using documentation that list them as emotional support dogs. One of the consequences of this misuse is that people who need to fly with their ES or Service dogs may be bumped or subject to greater scrutiny because of underlying suspicion in status. This article will address what, if anything, all breed, local or national breed clubs might do to thwart the abuse of ES & Service dog status by their members.
True to form, Westminster 2015 was a stunner. Am/Can. GCh. Tashtins Lookin For Trouble entered the fray with solid credentials. Campaigned for two years she finished 2014 as the #2 Hound and #9 amongst all breeds. Even so, Westminster doesn’t dole out many wins to Hounds. Moreover, Beagles had no track record at all until 2008 when Miss P’s great uncle Ch. K-Run’s Park Me in First became the first Beagle winner in the show’s 132 year history. Which brings up the real question, what took so long?
