Conspiracy of dunces

Dogs I love: Whitey, a mountain cur, and Ranger, a feist, working a tree. Photo swiped from Henry Chappell's most excellent blog.

From Shaw's play, The Dog-breeder's Dilemma:

RIDGEON. We're not a profession: we're a conspiracy.

SIR PATRICK. All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
And we cant all be geniuses like you.

OK, the play is actually The Doctor's Dilemma. No dogs. But I can't get that "conspiracy against the laity" comment out of my brain, and it's because of people who have turned dog-breeding into an arcane science. It isn't just the show-dog breeders, either. The conspiracy against the laity includes people who breed dogs for work and people who have never bred a dog or even owned one but who nevertheless "know" that a dog from the shelter is "better" than a "purebred," and both are "better" than a dog from a "backyard breeder."

This is bad news for dogs themselves. Consider one of the people featured in the AKC Gazette's annual breeding issue a while ago: she described her efforts to get a live pup from a bitch [a Peke, IIRC] that couldn't carry a fetus to term, let alone whelp, without round-the-clock supervision and intervention. You may be thinking, "They call this a good breeder?" Ah, but the dog was a Champion. It reminds me of the breeder in Dog World who noted a photo of an early Peke — one capable of breeding normally — and remarked, "That was before we perfected the head." I kid you not.

And it gets even stranger. During the AB 1634 battles in California, breeders like the person above were the ones the mandatory spay/neuter bill protected — as if titles handed out for "perfect heads" were evidence that a dog deserved to be in the gene pool. But a mating between your healthy, friendly, unpapered Lab and your neighbor's equally healthy, friendly shepherd mix? Bad, bad you, for sealing the fate of all those pit bulls and Chihuahua mixes in Kern County shelters who undoubtedly would have been adopted by your friends and relatives if only those thoughtless fools hadn't taken your healthy, friendly puppies instead!


Over on the Pet Connection blog, Christie Keith wrote a great post on dog breeding and the threat posed by loss of genetic diversity:

Genes, once lost, can’t ever be recovered. Dogs who died without passing on their genetic heritage are gone forever, barring a few stray tubes of semen hanging out in a canine sperm bank somewhere. And by selecting from a small number of popular sires and focusing breeding programs on extreme conformation traits at the expense of preserving genetic diversity and health, genes are exactly what are being lost. Permanently.

So, is the canine species doomed? No. But many of our individual breeds may be “doomed,” at least in the terms we in the United States and most of Europe understand the word “breed” today, breeds defined by closed studbooks.

Closed studbooks mean a registry, such as the AKC or its British equivalent, the Kennel Club, will only register dogs whose parents were registered by them as being members of that breed. It means breeders are deliberately limiting the genetic pool from which they’ll select when they breed two dogs together.

And in breeding to a conformation standard, appearance trumps temperament every. single. time. The happy, friendly pup with the conformation "fault" — a muzzle that permits easier breathing, for example — will be the pup sold with a strict spay/neuter agreement. Working-dog breeders have their own priorities: a well-known breeder of working border collies told me once, "If I had a great working dog that bit people, I'd still breed him." ([whispers] So would I.) This individual places every pup in a working home, but that isn't the point.

The point I think I'm working toward is that America's shelter problem, and America's dog bite problem and America's puppy mill problem, may have a lot to do with the fact that dog breeding has become a conspiracy against the laity. "You can't do it! You don't know enough!" cry the AKC breed clubs. "You can't do it! Shelter dogs will die!" cry the animal rights activists. "You can't do it! You'll make our dogs useless!" cry the working-dog breeders [who are actually correct, but bear with me for a bit].

And so John Q. Public, who wants a dog his kids can fall asleep on, a dog he can take jogging — who isn't interested in dog agility or stockwork or carrying Scout around in a purse, who doesn't want to tackle a rehabilitation project, who is just looking for a puppy that will grow up to be a healthy, friendly, laid-back, medium-sized dog to snooze at his feet during The Daily Show and schmooze agreeably during family barbecues — John Q. is screwed. He knows what he wants, but all he hears is, "You don't really know anything. We'll tell you what's good for you."

He might strike gold at the pound. I did, but with one dog it meant rehabbing a food-guarder; and the landshark, a terrific working dog, growls at small children if they get closer than the length of a football field. [Two football fields, if the small children are making loud noises.] Not much of a problem for someone who shares the dog's aversion, but probably a deal-breaker for parents. Some rescues handle this issue by rejecting families with young children, and as it happens, John Q.'s youngest is a five-year-old.

Perhaps John Q. could visit a dog show and talk to "responsible breeders." He may find a breeder who cares tons about health and temperament and has a comparatively problem-free breed. Stranger things have happened.

Working dogs are out. Too active, and John knows it. His oldest daughter tells him there are some adorable pups at the pet shop in the mall, but his wife saw Oprah's puppy-mill show, so the pet store is a non-starter.

Down the street there's a great dog John Q. admires: a smart, handsome, friendly, vaguely collie-looking dog that he's known since it was a pup. The owner was thinking about breeding this dog to a neighbor's athletic, ball-crazy Lab mix, but now the owner plans to have his dog neutered, since a coworker says intact dogs are more likely to bite, get cancer, etc. [See what actual veterinary medical research says about the effects of spay/neuter here.] Pity, since the pups would have been just what John was looking for. Maybe he'll swing by the pet store after all.

*************

In an earlier post I mentioned Cate, a mountain cur that I totally covet belongs to Henry Chappell, and the sensational Chet Baker, adored by Julie Zickefoose and family. Chet comes from a breeder who turned her back on the show world in favor of sturdy, friendly dogs that can breathe reasonably well. Tons of people would give just about anything for a dog like Chet Baker, but his breeder would be excommunicated by the AKC Gazette crowd, and shut down for good by AB 1634-type legislation. If Cate's breeder tested his dogs for genetic problems I'd be surprised. Henry wrote:

I knew before I went that I’d buy one of those pups. The breeder, Greg Coker, is a serious squirrel and ‘coon hunter.

And this:

I found the sire and dam calm and friendly, and neither barked or paced excessively despite the visitors and excitement.

And this:

Much to its benefit, the mountain cur isn’t recognized by the AKC. Hence the healthy variation in size and color. Until fairly recently, the mountain cur really wasn’t a breed at all, but a “type”bred strictly for working qualities. We all know the benefits of breeding records, judicious line breeding, and competition... We all know the dangers, too. The cur has always been a rawboned, rural meat, hide, and stock dog, the sort of dog unlikely to catch the attention of the Fancy and well-heeled competitors. Let’s hope it never does.

In the excellent discussion following Christie's post, blogger slt wrote:

I don’t think breeders need more policing, more hoops to jump through, more ways to cheat on tests and/or more false standards to determine if stock is worthy to be bred from. Rather, a dialogue needs to be opened about 86ing all the “rules” we were taught by the AKC breed clubs and start fresh. Step outside the box, forget what you thought was right and take a fresh look to see if it really *is* right.

Amen. To start with, we might acknowledge the historical truth that ordinary folks are perfectly capable of breeding good dogs that suit their needs. And we might consider the possibility that a conspiracy of dunces — from show-dog breeders to mandatory spay/neuter supporters — has made every dog-related problem much worse by marginalizing and disenfranchising people who may not know squat about "perfecting the head," but know enough to want a dog that can breathe normally, be "calm and friendly," and enjoy a long, healthy life.

Cloned pups, doubtful DNA

The first pet dog clones are making their video debut today. They're pit bull puppies, and they're adorable. I'd never pay $50,000 to clone a dog of mine [remind me I said this when I win the lottery], but the money was Ms. McKinney's to spend, and if she'd bought a new car instead, no one would have thought twice. Check out the video of the new pups here.

Brent over at KC Dog Blog has some thoughts on the test-your-dog's-DNA con game business:

I've seen a few of these DNA tests. Here's what I'll say about them. They might be complete bunk. Every "expert" I've ever talked to that has worked with DNA tests and dog breeds has been stunned by the results. They may be crap. Or, they may be 100% accurate and be picking up on the hundreds of years of mixing dog breeds that humans have done to get ideal characteristics -- which means that most "purebred" anything are really just perfected mixes over a history of time. Basically what Labradoodles will be like in 150 years.

Here's a video of an AKC CH AmStaff getting his DNA results. Silly me, did I say AmStaff? I meant border collie mix. D'oh!

Inside Animal Minds

They're smarter than we thought.

I'm such a hardcore little fact-checker.

Went to Los Angeles on Friday and wound up in the Grove Barnes & Noble, rereading everything by J... by J... [shudders]. Honestly, I can hardly bring myself to give him free publicity pronounce his name. He's the opposite of a fact-checker. His work is bad for dogs, and very bad for border collies.

Jon Katz has parlayed inept stockmanship and mismanagement of his dogs into a Slate column, a movie deal, the odd radio appearance and a string of books, and there's a website, too, but I won't link to it. [Oh, all right, dammit: here.] He is a willfully ignorant, patronizing author who wants you to believe everything he tells you about dogs in general and border collies in particular even though, gosh, he's never claimed to be an expert or anything. And besides, experts are just big old snobs, ha ha ha! He is like that man who wrote The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California back in 1845 with directions to a new route he'd never actually traveled himself and when a group of settlers took his "shortcut," they wound up struggling across the Wasatch Range and the salt flats of western Utah and were trapped in the snows in the High Sierra, where they ran out of food and resorted to cannibalism.

On second thought, he's much worse than that.

Here's sheep farmer and border collie handler [and owner/moderator of the Sheep Production Forums] Bill Fosher, in response to a complaint that those mean old border collie snobs "spew venom" at poor Jon Katz:

I spew venom at him because of some of the horrible things he has talked about on a local public radio call-in show, such as letting a five month old Border collie puppy "have a couple of hours of unsupervised time" with the sheep to "let her get to know them." He also claims that highly-trained Border collies are trained with clickers and treats and that poses and postures are trained, rather than actual stock work. He says things like this as if he knows what he's talking about, and in fact he doesn't know sh!t from shinola about sheepdogs, sheep [or] farming [...]

In the end, I really almost don't care about what he did to Devon/Orson. I care about what other people might do to their dogs if they emulate him.

Katz arranged for Orson, his first border collie, to be euthanized after the dog developed severe behavior problems and bit three people. Orson, or Devon, as he was originally called, was given to Katz by a woman who breeds conformation border collies from New Zealand/Australian lines. And would that breeder and importer of show champions be the same woman who called authentic, working border collies "needlessly hostile, undomesticated dogs"?

She would.

According to Katz, any dog that "violates the fundamental contract between humans and canines" [have your dogs signed that contract? Neither have mine] should be killed sooner rather than later, unless you care more about dogs than you care about children, you sicko. From Nathan Winograd's blog:

[F]ear mongering at HSUS has taken a new turn with the publication of an interview with best-selling author Jon Katz, author of “A Good Dog,” in the current issue of Animal Sheltering entitled: “I Chose a Child’s Face Over My Dog.” The question and answer format with Katz does nothing to illuminate the truth about aggression or dangerous dogs, and in fact, only serves to heighten stereotypes and perpetuate myths. That Katz killed his dog because of what he considered severe aggression is not what one takes from the article. That would have been a very different piece, a tragedy for all involved—Jon Katz, his dog, and the people his dog hurt. And maybe, just maybe, our hearts would have hurt for all of them.

Instead, HSUS asks a series of very deliberate questions which not only globalize the tragedy that occurred in the Katz family, but appear to assume the worst in dogs, and the worst in people who want to see less of them killed. Opposition is dismissed as irresponsible. Dog lovers are pitted against children. It’s the type of either-or, you-are-with-us-or-against-us, your-dog-or-your-child hysteria most of us, especially those of us who love both our dogs and our kids, dismissed long ago. In fact, the parallel to attacks the nascent animal welfare movement was subjected to from industries which hurt animals is stark. Our movement’s history is littered with these sorts of unfair accusations by those who profit from animal exploitation.

And the tenor of the article—which is merely restated as Katz' viewpoint giving HSUS “plausible deniability” about the viewpoints advanced—results in the following conclusions:

* Killing dogs becomes unacceptable only when people inappropriately “humaniz[e] dogs.”
* “Millions of people are bitten by dogs every year, many tens of thousands of children.”
* If you do not believe in killing dogs, you have made them “quasi-religious objects of veneration.”
* “Millions of Americans seek medical attention every year for animal bites or attacks.”
* “[F]or every troubled or aggressive animal kept alive for months or years, healthy and adoptable animals go wanting for homes and often lose their lives.”
* “Insurance companies are paying out billions of dollars to people bitten by dogs.”
* As a result of dog bites, “lawyers [are] injected into the human-animal relationship” and this is exacerbated by people who want to see dog killing end.
* Adopting a Pit Bull appears to be more trouble than it is worth.

Every one of these conclusions is deeply flawed and deeply offensive.

And speaking of deeply flawed and deeply offensive, here are excerpts from an online chat last summer:

Question: One other question, our new border collie is extremely sensitive to loud noises. If there is thunder is the far distance, she will cower and go hide under the bed. As you can imagine 7/4 was very difficult for her. is there a way to desensitize her to loud noises?
Jon Katz: Desensitizing is possible,but difficult and time consuming. I don't know any border collies who are sensitive to noise -- partly why they are such great herders. I put mine in crates when I leave the house or when storms approach.

Sweet Jebus. This just in.

Question: Hi Jon -- do you know of someplace near Boston where I could see a herding trial? I've seen the kind held in a ring, but would love to see the type held in a large, open space (my dream vacation is to go to Scotland and watch Border collie trials, but it's not going to happen any time soon. --- Thank you!
Jon Katz: Hey Keely, Izzy and I were just herding geese along Storrow Drive. You can go to the akc dot org website for lists of AKC sponsored herding trials. I am sure there are many in N.H. and Massachusetts.

Sigh. To the left is a scene from an AKC "herding trial." There is a dog back there in the dust of this small arena, and the run was given a qualifying score. Three runs like this, and your dog receives an AKC "herding title."


The photo below shows the Open field at Zamora, CA. This is a USBCHA trial. The AKC has never, and will never put on a sheep dog trial as challenging as Zamora. Click here to find the next real trial near you. Your dog won't win a "herding title" by doing well on a course like this, but everyone will know what he's made of.



Of course I'm just a snobby old elitist to bring any of this up. Katz again:

[Border collie snobs] tend not to favor a variety of approaches to training their dogs but adopt uniform--and very rigid--methods. Those dogs you see winning ribbons on TV don't get there by relaxing and finding their own way. Every move they make--the way they sit, at what distance from the sheep, how they hold their heads--results from intense, almost relentless training. I used to watch in amazement as trainers waited until a dog's head was pointed in precisely the right direction, then click a clicker, over and over again.

Where does he get this?

NO ONE trains a working border collie with a clicker. [I suppose a clicker could be used for training "obedience on stock" — but that is not the same thing as stock work.] Check out the YouTube video in the left sidebar to see a top handler at work with a good young dog, and read the terrific new book Top Trainers Talk about Starting a Sheepdog to learn more about the real nature of "summoning the dog's genetics," as Donald McCaig puts it.

Katz writes that border collie snobs are "annoyed" with him

because I have border collies in the first place (they think people like me shouldn't), because I don't take them to competitions (too many uptight people shouting at their dogs), and because I've homeschooled them, avoiding the pros and adapting their training to life on the farm. My methods are admittedly unconventional. Rose is a true heroine, but there will be no championship ribbons in her future. The snobs won't approve of my new technique with Izzy, either.

Oh, please. This is such absolute, self-serving nonsense.

Katz bothers me because I hate to see livestock stressed, because I hate to see dogs put in dangerous situations, and because I believe writers have an obligation to do thorough research and tell the truth.

And what Bill said: "I care about what other people might do to their dogs if they emulate him."

DoG help us. This may be a very bad year for border collies.

Zamora Hills [and some dog show]

UPDATE: Edited for syntax. Content unchanged.

Michael and Bridget Slaven, both from County Tyrone, Ireland, settled in the hills west of Zamora, CA in the 1800s. The ranch now belongs to their grandson Bill Slaven, host of the Zamora Hills Sheepdog Trial. Click on the photos to make 'em bigger.

Take along a pair of binoculars. The range ewes are set out on a ridge maybe 700 yards distant, and the sheepdog won't be able to see them as he walks with his handler to the post. The dog -- a working border collie -- will run more than half a mile to reach the top. The hills all around are vast and green and empty: it's beautiful countryside, not great for crops, but good for sheep and cattle.

The Slaven family's Zamora Hills Sheepdog Trial is one of the best-known in North America. The dog that wins won't earn points towards a title, since the USBCHA shuns such nonsense, but everyone at the trial will know what that dog is made of. The judge this year is Jack Knox, and with any luck I'll be there with bells on to watch part of it. [Probably Sunday, given the drive and all. Look for a pug.]

If you are going to be anywhere near Northern California from February 15th through the 18th, pack the folding chairs, sunblock and binoculars and follow the directions to Zamora Hills:

Directions to trial site: North on I-5, take Zamora exit, head west, 92B is about 1-1/2 miles from exit. Turn left and the ranch is the first place on the left. From Highway 505 – Take the Zamora exit and head east. Turn right on 92B (about 4 miles from exit).

First run is at 7:00 each morning -- Nursery and Pro-Novice dogs run on Monday. Food and drinks will be available at the trial site. There'll be fine handlers and dogs from as far away as Canada. Bill Berhow will be there: he and his good dog Pete won Soldier Hollow last year. Here are some shots from 2007.

The handler's post -- the Lombardi Tower -- is out of sight on the left. Sheep are set out on the far ridge, at about one o'clock from the orange post in the middle of the photo. There's a dry creek bed between the drive panels and the pen. Sheep are brought around the orange post (rather than around the handler's post) prior to the drive. The shedding ring is to the left of the pen.

The shedding ring is in the middle of the photo, marked with sawdust. The shed's done --- the dog is fetching the sheep to the pen. 2007 judge Bill Berhow is seated on the flatbed truck. The Lombardi Tower [named in honor of rancher Guido Lombardi, a long-time champion of the working border collie in California] is just to the right of the shedding ring.

Top young handler Haley Howard steps down from the tower as Diona [out of sight behind the sheep] brings the range ewes to the shedding ring. Legs at left belong to the judge -- I recognize the knee brace ;~)

End of the day, and Diona is about to put her sheep in the pen. The good ones make it look so easy.

***

Something else is coming up... oh, yeah. Westminster.

The announcer will say something about border collies being great sheepdogs. And smart. Tops in agility. He may say that this or that dog has an AKC "herding title," which means the dog was able to follow tame sheep down a fence line in a small arena. Three times! But the truth is that none of the border collies in the ring at Westminster can work stock. Not one is competitive in agility. Here, in a nutshell, is what the border collies at Westminster are bred for:

Head
The skull is broad and flat between the ears, slightly narrowing to the eye, with a pronounced stop [from Merriam-Webster: "the depression in the face of an animal at the junction of forehead and muzzle"], cheeks deep but not prominent. The muzzle tapering to the nose, is strong and the same length as the skull.

No, that isn't from the AKC standard, but it might as well be, since the conformation ring in the U.S. has all but surrendered to the Australia/New Zealand standard. [You can read more about the border collie and the AKC here.]

Breeding to the conformation standard of Oz means that a border collie pup without that pronounced stop will be sold to a pet home on a spay/neuter contract, no matter how excellent his health and how keen and biddable he may be. His good-looking littermate with the "perfect" stop -- the perhaps slightly more anxious, perhaps somewhat less intelligent pup with perhaps one or two very mild health issues -- is the one that will go on to win a championship, and he is the one that will stay in the gene pool. And so it goes, generation after generation. "This is the head I'm breeding for," I heard a woman at ringside announce the year border collies were "recognized." Her dogs won at Westminster.

Breeding to a conformation standard produces healthy, stable companion dogs by accident rather than design. This isn't meant to suggest that show breeders want to produce dogs with health issues and less-than-stellar temperaments, or that they don't take health and temperament into consideration. Of course they do. But the pronounced stop [among other characteristics described in the standard] is absolutely essential, because without it a border collie has no hope of success in the breed ring.

If the goal were simply to produce healthy, temperamentally sound companion dogs, breeders might take a page from guide dog experts and start crossing Labs with Goldens. They would breed pugs that don't need surgery in order to breath normally, and bulldogs that don't require C-sections to whelp. They would breed dachshunds and Bassets that don't develop back problems.

They might even give up the conceit that breeding for pronounced stops has no effect on working ability. The truth is that breeding for appearance eats working ability for breakfast. A good stockdog needs a finely calibrated set of tools to get the job done. A pronounced depression at the junction of the forehead and the muzzle ain't one of them.

Conformation-bred border collies are beautiful dogs, and no doubt fine companions, but the cookie-cutter structure, the matching fluffy coats and those pronounced stops have come at a considerable price. If you are lucky enough to be at the Zamora Hills trial next weekend, you'll see what the border collies at Westminster have lost.

The soft bigotry of low expectations suits the BCSA just fine

Action at an AKC "herding trial." There's a dog back there in that dust cloud, and this run earned a qualifying score: one leg towards an AKC "herding title." Identities protected, because honestly.

Back in 2006 the parent club of the AKC border collie announced a new title: Stockdog of Distinction. To qualify for this honor, an AKC-registered border collie had to earn herding championships from the AKC and either ASCA or the AHBA, as well as five points accumulated by placing in the top 20% at USBCHA Open trials. [That last requirement was quickly amended to read "an ISDS-style trial."]

From a BCSA Board Announcement dated January 14, 2008:

In the last few weeks, several questions have been raised about BCSA’s Stockdog Of Distinction (SOD) and SOD-Excellent awards; as well as on BCSA’s support of some USBCHA-sanctioned open field trials. A few members have contacted the BCSA board to express concern over or disagreement with these policies, and we are aware that there has been recent conversation on some email discussion lists about this topic.

Read the whole announcement here. Tragicomical gems:

3. What is the purpose of the SOD and SOD-X Award?
Because one of BCSA’s primary missions is to preserve the working heritage of our breed, the SOD award system is intended to highlight excellence in this area. It is meant to inspire BCSA members get out and compete in herding trials, which are a good metric to compare your breeding stock with that developed by other breeders. For many centuries, dog breeders have used shows and trials as a means for evaluating breeding stock and sharing knowledge.

4. Why does the SOD award require placement in Open classes at ISDS-style trials?
It was important that one component of the award be to require that a dog is proven in the open field, versus only competing in arena trials. The Border Collie is a highly developed working dog for this particular purpose, and the skill and instinct required to control livestock in a large area without the benefit of a fence line is very different from working in a small farm arena. Though AKC offers such style of work in the B course, AKC B courses are still relatively few and far between, and very small in scale as compared to ISDS-style trials. So, they are still not the best test of good Border Collie-style work. Thus, it was felt that to declare a dog truly a “Stockdog of Distinction”, it must prove its mettle in the traditional forum in which Border Collies have been tested for more than 100 years, the ISDS-style trial.

The fact that any of this has to be spelled out for members of a border collie club says more than I ever could about the AKC worldview. Ay Chihuahua.

More BCSA insights:

6. I’m concerned that BCSA is “promoting” USBCHA by encouraging members to compete in ISDS-style trials, when some prominent USBCHA members have expressed “anti-AKC” sentiments. Should BCSA be supporting an organization that does not offer reciprocal support back to us?
It is true that some USBCHA members are not supportive of our organization and do not feel that we share the same goals. But we beg to differ, we feel that the goals of both organizations are the same—to preserve and protect our breed, and to inspire Border Collie breeders to continue to develop excellence in the field, and sound, healthy, well-constructed dogs. And, not all USBCHA members and competitors are in disagreement with our club. So, it’s not fair to stigmatize an entire organization’s membership based upon a few outspoken individuals, and declare that we won’t cooperate with any of them.

No, no... go right ahead, stigmatize! All the USBCHA members I know think the AKC is worse than useless. And here, let me fix that for you: The goals of both organizations are the same??!!

Here are the objectives of the USBCHA:

to collect and preserve the history of the Border Collie dog, to promote the breed through obtaining, maintaining and disseminating information pertaining to their breeding and training as working dogs; to promote dog trials, exhibitions, publicity for the breed, and to work specifically for the improvement and preservation of Border Collies as working dogs.

The BCSA, on the other hand, promotes "a spirit of encouragement and learning for the membership in all Border Collie activities, including but not limited to: herding, obedience, agility, conformation, tracking, companion dogs, flyball, and therapy dogs," with "support and education offered to all in their equally worthy endeavors" -- which is lovely, but as different from the USBCHA's goals as chalk from cheese.

Either people breed their dogs for stockwork or they don't, and if they don't, you are going to have to keep the bar lower than dirt and keep your "herding trials" dumbed way down and make titles possible for dogs that aren't interested in stock unless you rub peanut butter on the ewes' tails, and yes, that's been done.

Doesn't perseverance count for anything? Isn't it terribly unfair to demand such a high level of, well, actual ability?

No. There won't always be fences.

PETA wants to kill my dogs -- and yours

Ever-so-true billboard courtesy of the greedy breeder at Frogdog Blog.

They do. Really. It's the old "we must destroy the village in order to save it" excuse for mass slaughter. Dogs are miserable, exploited slaves. Owning a dog is the moral equivalent of owning a human. Or so believe the leaders of PETA -- and their solution is to make dogs extinct. "Find companionship with your own kind," lectures PETA prez Ingrid Newkirk. Pity Ingrid wasn't around to give dogs that message when they first sidled up to our campfires: poor beasts might have been spared the misery of long walks, tennis balls, home-cooked meals, the best spot on the sofa and advanced medical care. Silly animals -- how dare they link up with us! Let's kill 'em all, the sooner the better, one breed at a time or in bunches. [Yes, this solution is brought to you by the same folks who equate chickens on farms with Jews in concentration camps.]


And these hypocritical little PETA fascists, sitting on a war chest worth millions, say they have to kill the dogs they collect because the organization can't afford to take care of animals waiting for adoption. How insane is that, to kill a good dog rather than make the effort to place him in a loving, responsible home? PETA calls it "helping to alleviate cruelty and suffering." Suffering like this, I guess.

Did I say "fascists"? PETA also wants the government to have the right to neuter your dog -- all dogs. Weren't planning to breed Scout? Doesn't matter: you're not responsible enough to manage an unaltered dog. Risk of bone cancer? So what? Better your Rottie or Rottie-mix should die an early, agonizing death than for you to look at the science and ask questions and discover that people who really care about animal welfare -- those wild-eyed radicals in Scandinavia, for example -- have made neutering without medical cause against the law. [Imagine that.]

And now, just in time for the Westminster Dog Show, PETA comes up with ads comparing the AKC to the KKK.

“When it comes to contempt for ‘mixed breeds’ and a fetish for ‘pure bloodlines,’ there’s not much difference between the KKK and the AKC,” says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch.

I'm not making this up. The same group that throws all its weight behind bills designed to restrict dog breeding to purebreds -- California's AB 1634 [until the last desperate minute], Los Angeles city and county neuter mandates -- is accusing the AKC of "contempt for mixed breeds." You know, just like the KKK! Sweet Jebus.

Daphna, you're the ones killing adoptable mutts by the tens of thousands! You're the ones backing legislation that will allow only pedigreed dogs to be bred! You're the ones galloping through town in white sheets, Daphna, taking good dogs out of rural shelters and killing them.

Meanwhile, the AKC helps countless mutts, mixed breeds and purebred dogs get home safely. The AKC isn't perfect by a long shot, but the last time I checked, cross-burning was not on their list of upcoming events.

***

Forty-eight years ago this month, a brave group of college freshmen changed the course of American history: they began a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation and racism. The four students cited as motivation the lynching of 14 year old Emmett Till:

[I]n the middle of the night, Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, showed up at the house where Till was staying. Armed with a pistol and flashlight, they pushed through the house to find Till, forced him to get dressed, then dragged him away as the rest of the family begged them to leave the boy alone. On August 31, three days after the abduction, a boy fishing in the nearby Tallahatchie River found Till’s submerged body. The brutalized corpse was missing an eye, had a severed ear, a bullet hole in the head and he was anchored by a 75-pound cotton gin fan that had been tied to his neck with barbed wire[...]

The trial of Bryant and Milam ended in acquittal, as the all-white, all-male jury–warned by the defense that “their forefathers would turn over in their graves” if the men were convicted–voted not guilty on grounds that the state had failed to prove the identity of the body.

“That sent me some messages,” said Greensboro Four member Franklin McCain[...] “I concluded rather quickly that if that is all this life has to offer, then it’s not worth living.” But McCain and the rest of the Greensboro Four decided to seek change rather than accept the type of life segregation offered, and with their sit-in, they sparked a revolution.

Daphna, tell me again: how do the people at Westminster resemble the KKK?

On titles and codes of ethics [or, "How can you tell if a dog is worth breeding if he doesn't have a title?" Answer: Watch him work.]

Or "Watch her work," as the case may be.

So I asked, "What's the 'HIC' after his name stand for?"

The nice lady at ringside with the rough collie had just shown me her dog's name in the program. She was delighted to explain what all the letters meant.

"That stands for 'Herding Instinct Certificate.' He's a Champion -- and he can herd, too!"

Oyyyy. I'm all for people enjoying activities with their dogs -- agility, obedience, SAR, and yes, "herding," provided the instructor is a good one and the sheep are comfortable with the routine and treated with consideration. But the truth is that any dog with a pulse can "earn" an HIC. It doesn't have anything to do with "herding," and it doesn't mean your dog has the potential to be "trained to herd." The test involves showing interest in sheep in a tiny pen. That's it. And I apologize for all the ironic air quotes. [Please give them special emphasis in the next paragraph.]

Why is the bar set so low? Because the AKC "Herding Group" consists chiefly of dogs whose last real working ancestors, if indeed they had any, "worked stock" over a century ago. They've been bred for everything but work since, and no, the "instinct" hasn't been "sleeping" -- it's gone. Nevertheless, in the interest of "fairness" -- and entry fees -- the AKC wants to give every "herding dog" a shot at winning a "Herding Championship." In order to facilitate this, the bar isn't just set low, it's set lower than low. Mariana Trench low.

AKC titles in general say far more about owner effort and/or bank account than they do about a dog's merits. Odds are that an obedience title reflects your training skills more than your dog's genius. A conformation title may mean a) you figured out which judges like your dog's lines, and b) you were willing to drive across the country to show your dog under those judges. An AKC "herding" title means your dog was able follow tame sheep down a fence line, and it doesn't matter that it took thirty attempts to win those three qualifying scores.

To the extent that titles demonstrate owner care and interest, I love them. As proof of special merit? Meh. As evidence of stellar temperament or excellent health? Surely you jest.

There isn't a title on earth that guarantees a bombproof temperament. And as far as health goes, many titled AKC dogs are physical disasters: champion bulldogs that can't breathe, champion GSDs that can't move normally.

Here's an excerpt from the Bulldog Club of America's Code of Ethics:

Members who contemplate breeding a litter, or who allow the use of their stud dog for the same purpose shall direct their efforts toward producing dogs of quality, of even temperament, vigorous and free of health problems. They shall be familiar with the bulldog breed and its BCA/AKC approved standard and breed only those specimens which conform to it.

Contradictory, no? Not to pick on the bulldog people, but when puppies must be delivered by C-section, and when bulldogs suffer from the highest rate of hip dysplasia on record at the OFA, and when they must be kept indoors and quiet on warm days on account of their brachycephalic issues, the phrase "vigorous and free of health problems" seems to me to be very much at odds with breeding "only those specimens which conform" to the standard.

In light of all this, what sort of chucklehead would insist that only titles and codes of ethics prove a dog is worthy of breeding? Answer: the sort of chucklehead who writes mandatory spay/neuter laws. Take a look at L.A. County's Spay/Neuter Ordinance:

By spaying or neutering your dog, you are helping solve the problem of pet overpopulation and protecting your dog from potential harm. However, since some dogs cannot be spayed or neutered for certain reasons, this ordinance has exemptions for these cases. These are:

1. Dogs which are unable to be spayed or neutered without a high likelihood of suffering serious bodily harm or death due to age or infirmity. Written confirmation from a licensed veterinarian is required to qualify for this exception.
2. Dogs used by law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes.
3. Service or assistance dogs that assist disabled persons.
4. Competition dogs. A Competition Dog is a dog which is used to show, to compete or to breed, which is of a breed recognized by and registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC), United Kennel Club (UKC), American Dog Breeders Association (ADBA) or other approved breed registries. The dog or owner must also meet ONE of the following requirements:
1. The dog has competed in at least one dog show or sporting competition sanctioned by a national registry or approved by the department within the last 365 days; or
2. The dog has earned a conformation, obedience, agility, carting, herding, protection, rally, sporting, working or other title from a purebred dog registry referenced above or other registry or dog sport association approved by the department; or
3. The owner or custodian of the dog is a member of a department approved purebred dog breed clubs, which maintains and enforces a code of ethics for dog breeding that includes restrictions from breeding dogs with genetic defects and life threatening health problems that commonly threaten the breed.

If you believe your dog meets one of these exemptions, please complete and return an Exemption Application.

Look familiar? You bet. This arrogant nonsense was produced by the same folks who brought you the Puppy Mill Protection Act. When people who don't know anything about dogs write laws, AB 1634 is what happens. Ed Boks, Judy Mancuso and Lloyd Levine apparently believe that a lame, wheezing pair of AKC bulldogs -- or Labs, or Barbie Collies -- are better breeding prospects than the best working stockdogs in North America.

In contrast, some of the people who know most about dogs are perfectly willing to crossbreed. Legendary Australian stockman Scott Lithgow wrote that his ideal cattledog was from 50-75% border collie, 25% "blue Cattle Dog," about 6% Bull Terrier [not the show dog of that name, but a Staffy Bull type] and with a trace of dingo, all depending on "the strengths of the particular strains of dogs used."

Depending on the strengths of the particular strains of dogs used. Whoa, what a concept.

In his book The Malinois Jan Kaldenbach writes:

Cross-breeding Malinois with German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, Boxers and Great Danes has given the Malinois the best characteristics of all the breeds to withstand the stresses and challenges of being a police service dog.

And here's the history of the Red, I mean Irish Setter:

The Irish Setter of the late 1800s was not just a red dog. The AKC registered Irish Setters in a myriad of colors. Frank Forester, a 19th-century sports writer, described the Irish Setter as follows: "The points of the Irish Setter are more bony, angular, and wiry frame, a longer head, a less silky and straigher coat that those of the English. His color ought to be a deep orange-red and white, a common mark is a stripe of white between the eyes and a white ring around the neck, white stockings, and a white tage to the tail."

The Setter that was completely red, however, was preferred in the show ring and that is the direction that the breed took. Between 1874 and 1948, the breed produced 760 conformation champions, but only five field champions.

In the 1940s, Field and Stream magazine put into writing what was already a well-known fact. The Irish Setter was disappearing from the field and an outcross would be necessary to resurrect the breed as a working dog. Sports Afield chimed in with a similar call for an outcross. Ned LaGrange of Pennsylvania spent a small fortune purchasing examples of the last of the working Irish Setters in America and importing dogs from overseas. With the blessing of the Field Dog Stud Book, he began an outcross to red and white field champion English Setters. The National Red Setter Field Trial Club was created to test the dogs and to encourage breeding toward a dog that would successfully compete with the white setters. Thus the modern Red Setter was born and the controversy begun.

Prior to 1975 a relationship existed between the AKC and the Field Dog Stud book in which registration with one body qualified a dog for registration with the other. In 1975 the Irish Setter Club of America petitioned the AKC to deny reciprocal registration, and the AKC granted the request. It is claimed, by critics of the move, that the pressure was placed on the AKC by bench show enthusiasts who were unappreciative of the outcrossing efforts of the National Red Setter Field Trial Club, as well as some AKC field trialers following a series of losses to FDSB red setters. Working Irish Setter kennels today field champion dogs that claim lines from both the FDSB dogs and AKC dogs.

The sanctioning body for sheepdog and cowdog trials in North America, the USBCHA, has never granted titles and never will: the membership would have apoplexy. Which is the reason that North America's finest working stockdogs -- the wisest, most athletic dogs on the planet -- can be seen at USBCHA trials like the one in the YouTube video at the top of this post.

How can you tell if a dog is worth breeding? Watch him work. Watch her work. Do your research on the breed or type and and watch the dog work.

Healthy dogs with great, friendly, rock-solid temperaments -- pedigrees be damned -- should be bred for pet homes. Good working dogs should be bred by working-dog experts and placed in working homes (or experienced, active, pet homes). People who don't know anything about dogs should be strongly discouraged from writing laws affecting them. And if everybody adopts a dog or two, or three, from the local pound: Utopia. "My Utopia," anyway.


[This post was prompted in part by a question from a smart, patient person playing devil's advocate during last year's AB 1634 debate. I still owe her a Starbucks.]

The "merle explosion"

A merle border collie pup.

I love merle. Want to say that right off the bat, so no one will think I'm bashing blue dogs or red dogs or Aussies or Catahoulas or any other merle-colored dog. Check out this handsome Catahoula:

Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog

Merle is a striking color, no question. But what's up with all the blue merle border collie puppies?

Merle has never been common among working border collies: great working merles are rare as hens' teeth. I'm no geneticist, but it's my understanding that a merle pup can only be produced if one of the parents is merle --- the last thing a breeder of good working stockdogs is going to care about. It doesn't help that breeding for merle carries a certain amount of risk, as in, you can kill some of the puppies now, or you can kill them later. Quoting from the GenMARK site:

Both heterozygous merle (Mm) and homozygous double merle (MM) dogs may exhibit auditory and ophthalmic abnormalities including mild to severe deafness, increased intraocular pressure, ametropia, microphthalmia and colobomas. The double merle genotype may also be associated with abnormalities of skeletal, cardiac and reproductive systems.

Genetic testing for merle is now available through GenMark. More information on the recent discovery of the merle locus can be found here and here, with illustrations here.

ADCH MACH-4 Marshland Fantom of the Opera TD PT ("Heather"), 2-time AKC National agility champion, member World Champion small-dog team, owned by Kathie Leggett.

Responsible breeders of companion dogs like the beautiful Sheltie above will be all about the merle test. Puppy millers, not so much. This gent was expelled from the American Border Collie Association in 2004. He appears to be breeding and selling merles. God help us bless America.

There is a smart thread on merles on the Working Stockdog Forum [where the breeder in question actually makes a rather telling appearance].

And over on the Border Collie Boards there is an excellent thread on the "merle explosion." Good links in that thread, too, and I've swiped some for this post. [While you're on the Boards, take a look at the "Ask an Expert" section -- top handler Bev Lambert is the current expert. You can watch Bev's great bitch Pippa by clicking on the first StilHope video in this blog's sidebar.]

Repeating a line from the GenMARK site: "Both heterozygous merle (Mm) and homozygous double merle (MM) dogs may exhibit auditory and ophthalmic abnormalities." Breeding merles isn't for the faint of heart, and the designer-color craze, though it may be a windfall for puppy millers, is very bad for border collies.

Homozygous merle puppy with microopthalmia (small eyes). More photos at the Aussie Eye Defects site.

Great read: The Dog Wars by Donald McCaig

At the 2005 USBCHA Finals, Dennis Gelling's Jan stops a collared sheep from joining the others during the shed. Photo by Denise Wall: used with permission.

I should be in bed, dammit! But Donald McCaig's book The Dog Wars has received a fine review from Terrierman and a mention from Gina at Pet Connection, and I'd like to add some comments of my own. [Besides, to borrow a line from Birdchick: "I'm siiiiiick, I'm siiiiiiiiiiick, pity me" does not qualify as a blog entry.]

McCaig's essential history of the border collie versus the AKC belongs in everyone's library. It's about good dogs, about bad things that happen to good dogs when the American Kennel Club gets control of them, and about the major public-relations nightmare the AKC brought upon itself by "recognizing" the border collie against the wishes of virtually everyone who cared about the breed.

And McCaig goes the extra mile. He places working sheepdogs and the AKC in a historical context of socioeconomic changes and political shifts that have affected all dogs and their owners:

The historical fluke that gave the dog fancy and its regulatory body, the AKC, dominion over American dogs has had unfortunate consequences, the worst of which is that no better dog government has emerged to help our dogs survive the rough ordeal of American life in the twentieth-first century.

Because the AKC is the de facto government of dogs, and because the AKC is obsolete, the laws that most affect America's dogs are often made by those who fear them, sentimentalize them, or are only interested in their suffering. Dogs and dog owners endure an ever more dog-hostile culture without a champion.

I know tax paying American citizens who dare not drive through Denver with their dogs.

[All quoted sections in this post are from The Dog Wars.]

Buy it, read it, loan it out and talk it up. This book is a classic -- one of the most important dog books I've read in years.

*************

The only thing bellicose about The Dog Wars is its title: the writing itself is comfortable, blunt, ironic in McCaig's dry fashion, and evenhanded to a fault. (You may have to be a stockdog person to pick up the full measure of rage and pity over once-useful dogs reduced to a fluffy coat and artificial ear-carriage.)

The conflict McCaig details is the effort to save the border collie --- a matchlessly keen, athletic, biddable dog once measured solely by its ability to work stock --- from the control of an organization that values appearance above working ability, and from breeders who confuse titles with merit.

At stake is the breed's essence: quite literally, its heart and soul. Obedience people used to joke that "training a border collie is cheating," and many of these dogs are certainly intelligent and intuitive. But a good working dog on stock is something else. Says Texas handler Red Oliver: "He's obeying a higher master."

At my elbow a tough old ranch woman muttered, "We ask so much of them. And the damn fool dogs go out and do it!"

You don't train a sheepdog, McCaig says [and by "sheepdog," he and other stockmen have always meant border collie], you summon the dog's genetics. You ask them to do what they know already. You ask for miracles -- 180 ewes saved from a storm, escaped rams caught -- and you get them. After a while you may take the miracles, and the dog, for granted.

The farm where I keep my sheep is just twenty acres, but the land has a deceptive roll, and it's commonplace for my border collies to be sent to pastures to gather sheep out of my sight. The first time I did this, nearly twenty years ago, I had no choice --- there was an emergency at the house. I had never sent my young dog for sheep without a flanking command, but she knew what I wanted and would have responded the same if I'd spoken to her in Zapotec. I said, "Go get 'em," and my good girl ran across a five acre pasture, up a barbed-wire lane with cattle corralled on one side, into another pasture, down a slope and across a swampy swale to gather the sheep. She brought them across the water (they hated that), up the hill, past two open gates that led to other pastures, past the cattle corrals the sheep could have slipped into with ease, and calmly trotted them across the five acre pasture to my feet. I thought all this was quite remarkable, until I saw her do a half-mile gather in the steep hills of the Central Coast: she looked as if she'd been running out across the hills for sheep all her life, and in a sense, she had been. You don't "train" a border collie to work stock.

Ten or fifteen years ago I remember a well-known obedience trainer turning up her nose at "rejects from herding" on the grounds that they must not be as smart or as trainable as stockdogs that make the grade. This is comparable to Harvard Medical School's turning down a brilliant applicant because he wasn't a first round NBA draft pick.

If trainability and smarts were all it took, my pit bulls would be running in the USBCHA Finals.

*************

Producing a good stockdog is a bit trickier than breeding for an oblique eye-set*. Is your future breeding prospect keen and sound enough to keep working despite harsh conditions and, god forbid, injury? Does he listen? Does he come from a line noted for its stamina? What livestock has he worked? Is he a good lambing dog? How does he deal with pressure? Is he too focused on the lead ewe -- or not focused enough? Is he a trifle sticky? Clappy? Loose-eyed? Does he run wide? Does he tend to slice his flanks? Is he fast and bold enough to cover anything that breaks? Is he savvy enough to prevent a break before it happens? What kind of grip does he have? Will he balance the sheep, driving and gathering, no matter how strong a draw in this or that direction? How well does he adapt to unfamiliar terrain? Is he patient? Kind to his stock? What breeding would enhance his strengths without exaggerating them?

It should be blindingly obvious to anyone that the border collie's drive, athleticism and brains are due to centuries of selective breeding for stockwork. This is the reason that border collies produced by U.S. versatility breeders are seldom more than a generation removed from true working dogs -- take a look at the pedigrees of the top AKC agility winners -- and the reason the AKC's "parent club" for the border collie fought so hard to keep the AKC studbook open to working registries.

(Australian breeders were surprised and a bit hurt that the new AKC breed club chose not to adopt the Australian show standard --- after all, Australians had "perfected" the breed [that is, standardized its appearance at the cost of working ability]. But their "Barbie collie," as it was promptly nicknamed, was exactly what U.S. versatility breeders hoped to avoid: a lumbering, comparatively dull creature that looked like a small Newfoundland with an enormous coat. The Barbie collie has its fans. I'm sure Barbies are wonderful companions. They just can't work. "This is the head I'm breeding for," I heard one of the first Americans to import the Aussie model announce at a West Coast show, and sure enough, her dogs went on to win at Westminster. Stockwork? Legend has it that a well-known handler could only interest a Barbie collie in sheep after tying a tennis ball to a ewe's tail. For all that, Australian-bred dogs rule the U.S. breed ring.)

[Berkeley geneticist Jasper Rines] asked about Border Collie genetic "behaviors" (his word). I said they were quite complex, that some Border Collie strains ran wider on their outrun than others, that most were thunder shy and some were spooked by the slightest noise. That some strains seemed to be more powerful -- the sheep respected them more -- and that these type of dogs were often harder to flank (shift from side to side).

I told him what Tommy Wilson had observed of unintentional crossbreds in Scotland. They (the crossbred offspring) "have some of the bits but not all of them. Oh no. You can't train them. They're no use."

All this may seem totally irrelevant if you breed border collies for agility or conformation, but Donald McCaig and his allies know that working traits are not irrelevant: they are the essence of the breed. Border collies must be bred in relation to livestock -- bred wisely by people experienced in the ways of stock and stockdogs -- or the complex mix of traits that shaped and continue to shape the greatest working dog ever created will be diluted, diminished, lost. In simple terms: the great athleticism will disappear, and the remarkable mind will disappear. Deliver us from well-meaning souls who think the border collie would be "better" if only it weren't so, you know... intense.

*************

McCaig and the partisans of the working breed failed to prevent the AKC from "recognizing" the border collie -- that ugly business was done in 1994. But the working border collie and its registry, the ABCA, are in a strong position and will remain stronger in the long run, I think, as a result of the struggle recounted by McCaig. The AKC took a direct (and very public) hit and has never quite recovered. Threatened by Puggles and kept afloat by puppy mill registrations, the AKC itself now poses less of a danger to the working breed than sport-dog people who breed border collies indiscriminately (and the stockdog breeders who enable them).

By defending what the working border collie is, and by fighting so hard against what it is not, McCaig, Miss Ethel, Sally Lacy, Eileen Stein, Penny Tose and the rest nudged the AKC off its axis. The dog world reflects the shift. These days Barbie collie breeders post photos of their conformation champions attempting to "herd," and versatility breeders play up the rare trial-winning dog or that famous sheepdog handler training our Scout. Jon Katz, who knows so little of authentic stockwork that he imagines good working dogs are "trained" with a clicker, bought sheep for his Barbie collies to circle. Everyone knows that an AKC "herding title" only means that a dog was able to walk behind tame sheep as they followed the handler down a fence line. And more people than ever know what a real sheepdog trial looks like.

So the AKC may have "recognized" the border collie, and pet breeders may be busy trying to market their kinder, gentler versions, but the authentic border collie is still very much a presence.

You may have read that a border collie named Patch sold for $23,000 to the Bell A Land & Cattle Co. of LaPine, Oregon at Red Bluff last January. (He was sold as a pup for $500, a typical price for a well-bred stockdog puppy.) Patch wasn't bought for bragging rights, to show or to stand at stud. He was bought to work cattle. "So long as sheep and goat farming [and cattle ranching] thrive," writes McCaig, "there will be a working Border Collie." As long as we have livestock, there will be responsible people determined to breed their dogs wisely in the name of good stockmanship, and there will be working trials -- real ones -- to help select "the sires and dams of the next generation of sheepdogs."

*************

Buy it:

The Dog Wars: How the Border Collie Battled the American Kennel Club by Donald McCaig. Outrun Press, 2007.

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*Oblique eye set: In an old issue of the AKC Gazette, I read in the Rough Collie column that the breed's "oblique eye set" [nowhere evident in very early photographs, and I'm looking right now at a photo of show collie Sable Plume, born in 1880] was necessary so that the dogs could better "scan the Highlands for sheep." Gentle reader, do not mistake sincerity for authenticity.

Temperament tests, dog bite stats and "herding"

Where we're headed: the rock fort.

Taking off to escape the 110+ F temps for a few days. A few links in the meantime...

In light of the pending evaluations of Michael Vick's pit bulls, here's a link to an informative, well-written article from Bark magazine on temperament tests. Excerpt:

Implicit in the work these researchers and behaviorists are doing and in the worries people inside and outside the shelter system have about temperament testing is their concern for the community and for the dogs. Pete Miller, a shelter supervisor at Santa Barbara County Animal Services and a 20-year veteran of the shelter system who believes temperament tests are a necessary part of good sheltering practice, perhaps puts this best: “When a dog dies in an animal shelter, it almost doesn’t matter whether the dog was an old favorite or a hopeless case of a violent animal that never had a chance; the dog was alive one second, and literally gone the next. Everything it ever was and every possibility for what it would have been and done—gone in a second. It’s the actual fact of the real loss and what it means to kill that needs to weigh most and is the reason there should never be a formula that tries to remove the responsibility from a person or dim the reality of what it means to take away a life.”

Also -- because there seems to be a fair amount of interest -- here are links to two earlier posts debunking Merritt Clifton's list of dog bites. "Chox mix"? "Buff mastiff"? The jokes just write themselves:

Part I: “Dangerous breeds,” dog bite statistics, and the Merritt Clifton report

Part II: Pit bulls, dog bite statistics, and the Merritt Clifton report

Finally: I've said a million times that any responsive dog with sufficient prey drive can be trained to "herd" well enough to earn an AKC "herding championship." Here is a collection of good photos illustrating that everything from a basenji to a... is that a lab mix...? can "herd," given tame sheep, a small arena and an experienced instructor. I'd hate to see my sheep subjected to this sort of thing, but that's just me.

Have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend, fellow Californians, and stay cool out there ;~)

Barbie collies, bandana collies and the Unexpected Pit Bull

Where's Sart when you need him? My fave Mojo from the 2007 Unexpected Pit Bull calendar.

Dogs in clothes --- you love 'em or you hate 'em. Beedogs, for example: ginormous cuteness quotient, or sign of the Apocalypse? There's no middle ground. Don't even get me started on those miserable fashion accessories puppies carted around by the likes of Paris and Britney. (Don't buy from pet shops, you eejits!)

I hate dogs in clothes. No, I love dogs in clothes!

I hate dogs in clothes. Working border collies look best naked. [A plain collar is OK.] It's safer, for one thing. A real stockdog in a bandana? Totally cringe-worthy. It isn't just incompatible, it's inappropriate --- as awful as Roseanne singing the national anthem. It makes you want to switch the channel as fast as you can. Yeesh.

The "bandana collie" is actually a much-disparaged cultural marker in the world of working stockdogs. The bandana collie should not be mistaken for the Barbie collie, though the two categories frequently overlap. Barbie collies are fluffy, conformation-bred, AKC-registered "border collies" that don't work stock because they can't. Bandana collies, on the other hand, are a subset of pet. They often have clever names like Prufrock or Bernoulli and they live in Santa Monica with their clever owners and never see sheep and always wear that damn bandana.

Or Scout. Very popular name for border collies west of the 405.

Bandana collies go to dog parks.

I hate dog parks, and I hate dogs in clothes.

No, I love dogs in clothes! The wonderful American Pit Bull Terrier was born to rock bandanas, Doggles, leatha, reindeer antlers, Mardi Gras beads and tea-party bonnets. Pride Parade? Pit bulls are so there. Nothing, but nothing looks as cool as a pit bull in a bandana. Plus, he can function as a comfortable seat:

That great photo is from the 2006 Unexpected Pit Bull calendar, and if you haven't signed up for the 2008 version already --- the 2007 calendar sold out --- drop them a line. I've added a link [two links!] in the sidebar. These are big, gorgeous calendars, and the dogs are just terrific-lookin'.

Pit bulls seem to like playing dress-up, and they are also the rare breed that seems to enjoy being hugged. I suspect those two characteristics are related.

Jean Donaldson would probably agree. She thinks dog clothes are the greatest thing since bread came sliced. Take your pup to dress-up parties, she explains, and the little tyke will really, really get used to being handled: feet, ears, tail and all. And getting dressed/being handled means treats, yay.

It took me probably five ounces of smoked salmon to get Buffy to love her tiara, poodle skirt and pillbox hat and several jars of baby food to get her wagging when I cracked out the “Doggles,” but aside from the fabulousness of it all, I felt fancy indeed when my veterinarian remarked that she had never seen a chow so readily accept having her head restrained.

So take your pup to lots of dress-up parties [don't forget the delicious treats] and buy your pit bull a personalized football jersey or his very own little sweatsuit, but don't come near my border collies with that bandana. Don't even think of it. Some things are just wrong.