From The Publisher
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The 2015 Morris & Essex KC show is a wrap and many fanciers across the country are already counting down the minutes to the next edition of this quinquennial event. Thousands of words have been written celebrating this very special dog show and I am certainly not a capable enough wordsmith to try to better what has been written in the past.
What makes M&E so special? Maybe it’s the fact it occurs once every five years. It could be the tie-in with the huge Terrier weekend. People love to dress up; maybe that’s the draw – the opportunity to wear period dress from a bygone era. It could be the box lunches, various specialties, auction, art show, etc. There seems to be something for everyone. I think the attraction for many people is something deeper and less tangible. My feeling is that many people yearn for days gone by – the golden age of dogs.
According to many, this was a time when things were more civil. Great dogs were appreciated by greater dog men. Social norms dictated a more formal setting for shows and more proper behavior by those who inhabited it. Bench shows were the norm, and that’s how we shared doggy information. According to the lore, everyone tipped their hat and gave a hearty hello to their fellow dog fanciers. This may or may not be the case. When you read various accounts of incidents from shows at that time, there was similar acrimony amongst top exhibitors as that seen today.
I do think some things were different, though. Exhibitors did practice better behavior. If you didn’t like someone, you didn’t demean their character, you just went out and beat them; and if you did have something to say, it was to their face. There was no social media where attacks could be made from the comfort of one’s home with no threat of physical contact.
Also, I do believe those in our sport had more self-control. Whether it was judges, exhibitors, magazine and newspaper writers, or owners, there were certain lines that one didn’t cross. Social mores and certain ethical standards prevailed. You didn’t celebrate someone’s bad fortune. You understood certain things – divorce, sickness, death – were private and not to be discussed in public.
Just like so many other things in our modern, more “advanced” society, those limitations have ceased to exist. Many people who pretend to be superior to others practice boorish behavior normally exhibited by the most vile of our gene pool. You wonder what makes someone gossip about things they know little about – how someone died, what is happening to a couple behind closed doors, who’s cheating who. Like I said, this is sometimes being done by those who think they are leaders in our sport. Some of them have the nerve to write these falsehoods. Others just spread them amongst their small group of friends. No matter how the information is disseminated, it is hurtful to those targeted and sometimes damaging to them or their children.
A good rule of thumb is to think before you spread gossip. Make sure you know the facts, then think how you would feel if someone turned the tables and did to you what you are about to do to them. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing the latest juicy stories and there is something right about not helping to spread them.
Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=92904
Posted by ralbee
on Nov 11 2015. Filed under Current Articles, Editorial, Featured.
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