Lessons from the Experts – The Dachshund

by Amy Fernandez

We all have stories we have been told, but cannot reveal the source. Here is one of those stories that has to be told. Unfortunately, we can’t reveal the storyteller.

Breed expert…it’s basically the defining line of this sport separating the diehards from the dilettantes. Those two words are a badge of respect, instantly recognizable, packed with implications, and impossible to fake. But try explaining how someone goes about achieving that lofty status.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Brain surgery, rocket science, countless specialized skills are considered extremely difficult to master. However, for aspiring experts in any field it’s pretty much the same straightforward combination of academic learning and practical, hands-on experience. Likewise, progress can be objectively measured on some correspondingly relevant expertise continuum. If AKC’s ever-changing, always failing judges’ education process eternally confirms anything, none of that holds true in this case. So far, no curriculum has been devised to create breed experts, never mind any reliable formula to measure that indefinable package of knowledge and insight. Either it’s there or it’s not. Even those who are generally considered consummate experts can’t really explain how they got there.

A thorough grasp of factual info and procedural skills obviously helps but it definitely doesn’t make someone an expert. It’s a lot more nuanced and complicated. There’s no rule about how or when it happens, no roadmap, just an endpoint where everything finally falls into place, the proverbial eureka moment.

I have probably lost you at this point. So rather than trying to explain the unexplainable, I’ve enlisted some genuine experts to share a few personal experiences to illustrate some of the elusive, often counterintuitive components of that effortless, spontaneous ability to know it when you see it. They come from a wide range of breeds and backgrounds in the sport. They’ve been around the block a few times. And they have some great stories.

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Posted by Alex on Feb 28 2018. 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.