“Off-Putting” Characters Also Exist In The Dog World

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220 – July, 2023

By Chris Robinson

During the many years in my “real job” as an investigative reporter, I met and interviewed a lot of off-putting characters–unpleasant, disconcerting and often downright despicable individuals. Included in the latter category were thieves, killers, con artists preying on desperate people, corrupt, smarmy politicians, organized crime figures, hangers-on, a guy who, along with his creepy boss, was a true “prince of darkness” as he was a contract killer of show and race horses whose owners wanted to collect insurance money plus a duo who headed up a dog-fighting ring, had a cock-fighting venture as a side business, and one of the pair was a suspected mob hit man.

But, dealing with scum has always been just part of the job. In fact, frequently it’s an integral part of the job if the objective is a story or series of stories supported by facts, not by innuendo and rumor. However, because my professional life entailed so much contact with what, at best, were sleazy characters, I diligently sought to avoid off-putting or even unpleasant characters in my personal life as well as any non-investigative work. Sometimes, sadly, since they seem to be everywhere, they also invaded that part of my existence and since a fair amount of my personal life involved activity with sporting breeds, even showing up at events involving dogs or when I was doing stories about dogs.

I recall doing a photo session at a shooting preserve when one of the preserve’s clients insisted we use his English Springer Spaniel for some of the photos. Since I had a dearth of spaniel photos I figured “why not” especially since the dog’s owner had touted him as something really special. He went on and on about the dog’s incredible skills as a hunting dog to the point where I expected to see something approaching a national championship caliber performance. Even if it turned out to be something less than spectacular, I’m pretty tolerant of folks bragging about their dogs. It’s a harmless temptation to which most dog owners succumb on occasion.

My first clue that this Springer might not live up to his owner’s hype came when I asked for the dog’s registered name and all his titles so, if I used the photos, credit could be given where credit was due. Turns out the dog wasn’t registered and had no titles. Oops! However, I’m not a “pedigree snob” and I’m always willing to give dogs a chance to show what they can do because I’ve seen some dogs turn in outstanding performances, not just in the field but also in other dog sports, whose ancestry could only be described as “mixed.” At least this one looked like a Springer, but in this case it turned out my willingness to give the dog the benefit of the doubt wasn’t going to be rewarded.

Click here to read the complete article
220 – July, 2023

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