What Does “Mentor” Really Mean?

by Pilar Kuhn

For anyone looking to get a new purebred dog and foray into the world of breeding and competing in any aspect, one “word of advice” comes up over and over. Find a good mentor.

A few times over the past year a couple of colleagues commented on who they thought we should credit as our mentors. However, they never asked who we’ve talked to, leaned on, and why. They also never asked about our breeding goals nor how we have gone about working toward this. I took offense to their comments for several reasons, but in drafting a response, they pushed me to think long and hard about what defines a true mentor. You see, the actual definition of the word means “an experienced and trusted advisor”. The long-time breeders (and there are several) that we consider as mentors have been at this much, much longer than we have.  And we trust them.

When my husband and I initially discussed where we wanted to go with our Bouviers, he was new to the breed, but has always had a good eye for conformation, form and function. He had been in Scottish Terriers for fifteen years, but at our first Bouvier national specialty together, I asked him to go over as many dogs as possible without saying anything to me and we would compare notes later.  When he shared his thoughts, I felt giddy with excitement. We were on the same page. And the dogs and bitches we both liked and their genetics have thankfully become the foundation of our breeding program. But not just on a whim.

Upon his move to California, we sat down and spoke with one of our mentors for hours about the breed, the history, and how to create our own lines some day. We were told to never forget that when breeding our first litters, they are not “OUR” lines. They are the lines of other breeders that we would begin braiding together eventually creating what would become our representation of the standard.

Another mentor knew we were considering a particular breeding and, since she bred the sire to our bitch, she spent hours with me one afternoon going over old books and pictures. She pointed out dogs eight and nine generations back that influenced the breed in various aspects. She also worked up a “dogs of influence” diagram to show how much certain dogs would influence this pedigree and why it may not necessarily be considered an outcross when looking at only four and five generations.

And yet another mentor asked us an abundance of questions. What did we like and didn’t like? If we could improve upon certain dogs, what would we do and where would we go to try to make that happen? Why did we think their lines may improve upon what we currently had? Not once did they put down any of the dogs or bitches we discussed. They found the strengths and weaknesses in each and understood where we wanted to go and why. They spoke positively about the various lines, discussed potential pitfalls, and they encouraged us with our endeavors. To this very day, I value the time we have to sit and talk about how young ones are growing up, how older ones are maturing and producing, and discussing possible future breedings.

A true mentor knows what a dog or bitch has to offer for the betterment of the breed and helps make litters possible. They see where the breed should go.  They listen to the goals of newer breeders. They neither bad mouth their own dogs nor breeding programs.  And they help others succeed. That is what true mentors do.

We constantly ask ourselves if we are doing right by our breeds with the offspring on the ground and the future litters we’ve planned. We also ask how we can continue to help our own puppy buyers as new owners and if we are doing right by them. Hopefully we’re taking steps in the right direction to become good and helpful mentors for the future owners and future breed preservationists. We thank those who have entrusted us to go forward with their lifetime of work and preservation of two breeds we dearly love.  We certainly couldn’t do it without their experience and trust.

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Posted by chesliepickett on Mar 5 2015. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.