Helluva lobbying group, Wayney

Dunno what's worse — a puppy-mill victim with a vacant stare, or a man so freaked out at the thought of handling an animal that he has to summon his girlfriend to remove her pet cat from his chest.

What's worst, actually, may be the fact that the cat-averse individual in question is lobbyist-in-chief of the beleaguered Humane Society of the United States. Which shouldn't be confused with your local humane society, not that anyone ever does such a thing.

Brent over at KC Dog Blog has an excellent run-down of some of the HSUS's most flagrant abuses and current troubles. "Help us care for the Vick dogs," oy. With a friend like Wayne "I don’t want to see another dog or cat born" Pacelle, dogs and cats don't need enemies.

The most excellent Laura Sanborn rages against the machine [in a comment at Pet Connection]:

HSUS & PETA —> still raking in tens of millions of dollars a year despite the Great Recession. Again, their fund-raising models work because they effectively and misleadingly leverage our compassion for defenseless animals. I won’t use those tactics myself and don’t have an answer for how to ethically compete with it.

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

Here's a HumaneWatch.org guest column on the HSUS lobbying effort. [News flash: money talks!] Yes, I know HumaneWatch is a front for CAFO-lovin', environmentalist-hatin' extremists. It's just that they seem so much more... factual about the HSUS than the HSUS seems to be about unfunded mandates and wildlife management and such. The man who said, "The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," never met a lobbyist. [I kid. He knew a few.]

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

Terrific post over at Lucy & Friends on puppy mill legislation. Did I first bookmark Lucy nearly 20 years ago? I did indeed :~)


I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: we dog lovers screwed up big time when we told the average pet owner to forget about breeding his friendly, healthy Lab to the friendly, healthy collie mix down the street. When we did our best to prevent that, with our spay/neuter campaigns and our lists explaining "how to identify a good breeder," we gave up much of our freedom to have the dogs we really want. We granted ideologues and politicians, puppy mills, rescue groups and AKC breeders of functional cripples the power to shape and choose our dogs for us. Which reminds me: where exactly am I supposed to find a nice puppy these days? Hey, let's ask Wayne Pacelle — he knows all about animals!


[Which Times gets it right...? Image: "With his cat, Libby, is Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society president." Photo by Michael Temchine for The New York Times.]

BBC profiles Staffie breeder

BBC image grabbed from the Cold Wet Nose Blog.

For those who get BBC2, this Thursday you might want to check out a documentary on a litter of Staffie pups, their breeder, and their new owners:

Seven puppies are born to a first-time mother called Uggs in a cramped front room in East London. These aren't just cute and cuddly puppies - they are Staffordshire bull terrier crosses, the dogs the tabloids sometimes call 'devil dogs'. They are both one of the most sought-after breeds in the country, and perversely the most frequently abandoned. This film follows the fate of Uggs' puppies as her owner tries to find new homes for them at 300 pounds a pup.

Here's a link.

H/T to Beverley Cuddy, blogger at Cold Wet Nose and editor and publisher of Dogs Today Magazine [UK].

This just in, and it's important

The report — you can read it here — doesn't mince words: "Selective breeding for physical appearance — the cause of the problem." The publication of this independent scientific report, commissioned by the RSPCA, could be the dog news of the decade and perhaps of the century: the ramifications could be that huge. [See what has already happened in the U.K.]

Patrick Burns at the Terrierman blog has been all over this like white on rice, and thank doG for that. The man has his idiosyncrasies: he likes healthy dogs with brains and a talent for real work, for one. For another, he's not only baffled that some people breed ill, crippled dogs on purpose and win ribbons in the process — he's mad as hell about it.

The good news is that he's not one to stand by while dogs suffer, and he's not alone.

[The bad news is, the AKC and its breed clubs can be so intransigent and so clueless as to beggar belief. Thank God for the defenders of the working border collie, is all I can say.]

I hope the release of this study during Westminster will be the wake-up call the AKC and the breed clubs so desperately need. If you care about dogs, spread the word about this report: selective breeding for exaggerated physical appearance has made life hell for many dogs.

You can read the summary, the full report and Patrick's comments here. Again: spread the word.

Bulldog skull, via Terrierman. No dog that baited bulls ever looked like this poor, deformed creature.

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.

"Friendly, feisty breeds identified"

I've said it a million times: if editors and columnists and politicians really cared about keeping children and others safe around dogs, they'd lose the "good breed, bad breed" mindset and listen to the real experts. Easier said than done, though, when news like this turns up:

This week at Discovery News you can learn about the world's most and least aggressive dogs [...]

Little dogs -- think Chihuahuas and Dachshunds -- tend to be feisty, while certain breeds, like Golden and Labrador Retrievers, are as mellow as their reputations suggest, found a new study that identified the most and least aggressive common dog breeds.

A study! How totally conclusive and, well, scientific! Breed A is "mellow" and breed B is "aggressive," so a parent's responsibility is clearly defined: get one of the "least aggressive" breeds to keep the kids safe. Look — there's even a list.

On the "least aggressive" end of the spectrum were Basset Hounds, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Siberian Huskies, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Brittany Spaniels, Greyhounds and Whippets. Interestingly enough, several of these dogs also rated low for "watchdog behavior" and "territorial defense" behaviors, suggesting that they tend to be lovable family pets, but are less vigilant watchdogs than Chihuahuas and Dachshunds.

"They tend to be lovable family pets." Forget socialization, training, parental supervision — it's not as if dogs are individuals, for heaven's sake! The important thing, the big, neon, take-home message, is that aggressive breeds have been identified. Whew! Glad that's done.

Buried at the end of the article:

Duffy countered that "just because there is a genetic component to behavior does not necessarily mean that it is predestined."

"Anyone looking to bring a dog into their home should find out as much as possible about the individual dog's history and temperament," she advised. "Certainly some breeds are better with children than others on average. However, it wouldn't make sense to pass up a well-socialized, well-trained, non-aggressive Rottweiler for an atypically aggressive Labrador Retriever."

I know some ACOs that would collapse in hysterical laughter at that "atypical," but whatever. The most important quote of the whole article is the one getting the least attention, and children will continue to pay the price.

[One more thing. I'm inclined to think that the distinction between "good" and "bad" companion dogs has less to do with breed and more to do with how close certain dogs are to working or purpose-bred lines. The best dog for a typical family should probably be as far from working lines as possible.

This is one reason I'm not at all opposed to John Q Public's breeding his friendly, healthy Golden to the friendly, healthy collie next door. Throw the pedigrees away and breed for healthy, friendly and laid-back, if good pets are what you're after. Don't depend on working-dog people or show-dog people to provide the best companion dogs. Don't let politicians limit dog breeding to the folks whose dogs can run a hundred miles a day for days on end and the folks whose dogs can't walk around the block on a sunny day without collapsing. Those dogs aren't for everybody — and John Q Public knows it.]

Tea and Entropy

[pause] OK. From Buenos Aires, photo by Luis Alejandro Sanchez for Proyecto Cartele.

And speaking of odd signs: over on the Pit Bull Forum a Northern California writer [and old hand at pit bull rescue] posted a sign she saw on a street in her neighborhood: "Pitt Bull Pups." "Blue Nose" Pitt Bull pups, whoa! Names of two famous commercial, high-volume breeders kennels were on the sign, too. Oy. It isn't just a West Coast thing, either — you can find bad breeders from coast to coast.

"I don’t understand why, if you’re going to spend the money, you don’t do your homework and hook up with a breeder who does it right."

Over on Save the pit bull, save the world, Katie has written a terrific post on the spring crop of puppies in Central Pennsylvania, among other places:

and it’s not just the Amish who are cashing in. I can’t tell you how many clients we see with their new puppies who assure us that, even though the pup came off a farm, raised in a barn and completely unsocialized, sold the moment they reach seven weeks if at all possible, it’s okay because the breeders weren’t Amish. And, see, he’s got papers! Papers mean quality!

Right, and I'm Britney Spears. Check out the entire essay at Katie's Underdogged blog.

********

The best April Fool's Day headlines belonged to The Ethicurean. From Wendy's new starling burger to Autistic livestock expert accidentally slaughtered, The Ethicurean owned April Fool's. And check out the new BBC vid:



Hat tip to Living the Scientific Life, currently at the top of the Nature Blog Network.

In other bird news [and I'm delighted this is no April Fool] the endangered red knot got a helping hand from the New Jersey governor. Read about it [and much more] on David Sibley's blog.

********

Two depressing items from the NY Times. In this article, people who want a dog, sort of, but just "can’t make that kind of emotional commitment" [shudder] can rent a pet. Far from ideal from the standpoint of animal care, but doG knows being a rental item has to be better than life as a Romanian street dog. Stray dogs are being rounded up prior to a meeting of NATO leaders:

Officials will not venture a guess at the number of strays, and estimates of the semi-feral population in the local news media range from 30,000 to 200,000 dogs.

********

It's National Poetry Month! Here's Meat:

My brother saw a pig root in a field,
And saw too its whole lovely body yield
To this desire which deepened out of need
So that in wriggling through the mud and weed
To eat and dig were one athletic joy.
When we who are the overlords destroy
Our ranging vassals, we can therefore taste
The muscle of delighted interest
We make into ourselves, as formerly
Hurons digested human bravery.

Not much like this degraded meat — this meal
Of something, was it chicken, pork, or veal?
It tasted of the half-life that we raise
In high bright tombs which, days, and nights like days,
Murmur with nervous sound from cubicles
Where fed on treated slop the living cells
Expand within each creature forced to sit
Cramped with its boredom and its pile of shit
Till it is standard weight for roast or bacon
And terminated, and its place is taken.

To make this worth a meal you have to add
The succulent liberties it never had
Of leek, and pepper fruiting in its climb,
The redolent adventures dried in thyme
Whose branches creep and stiffen where they please,
Or rosemary that shakes in the world's breeze.

By Thom Gunn, from his Collected Poems. Check them out.

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?

"Nature: Dogs That Changed the World"

Coming up this Sunday on your local PBS stations:

NATURE's two-part special DOGS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD tells the epic story of the wolf's evolution, how "man's best friend" changed human society and how we in turn have radically transformed dogs. Part one, "The Rise of the Dog," airs Sunday, January 13 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS. Part two, "Dogs by Design," airs Sunday, January 20 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings for both broadcasts).

You can read more and watch a short promotional video ["Ooh, border collies!"] at this link.

Quote that makes me want to beat my head on rocks:

Despite the plethora of new shapes and sizes, dogs have retained the instincts bred into their ancestors by thousands of years of work: the urge to herd or hunt, to dig and to guard. In DOGS BY DESIGN you'll discover how these hard-wired behaviors help different types of dogs, from hounds to herders, excel at different tasks (and why it can sometimes be so difficult to train them to do otherwise).

Virtually all healthy dogs will dig and guard [objects, territory, people]. Most will chase things. Digging and guarding and chasing are indeed "hard-wired." "Herding" is not. Your Sheltie is not "herding" the kids. It's a conceit of the show fancy that dogs can be bred for looks and still "retain the instincts" to be useful workers. Sorry, but no. Nature shouldn't encourage pet owners to trot out the old "We can't make him stop -- he's a herding dog" routine. [You can -- and he isn't.]

What eBay can teach you about buying a dog

Snap of Elizabeth Baker's Rye at Zamora. I'd love a pup of his someday.

"Don't buy the item. Buy the seller."

Since I'm devoting space this week to thoughts on dog breeders, here's a quick rundown of my own most recent puppy-buying experience. First, my personal rules & regs for puppy buying:

1. Know the breeder
2. Know the breeder
3. Know the breeder

I bought my last border collie pups sight unseen, but I wasn't flying blind. They had an older sibling I loved, other relatives I'd watched and admired and a breeder I trusted. His dogs, the pups' parents, met all my criteria:

Sire and dam were both working ranch dogs, able and willing to work all day.
Both parents trialled successfully in USBCHA Open.
Both were able to work cattle.
Both were able to work out of sight of the handler.
Both had lots of natural balance.
Both had a grip and the brains/presence/guts to move stubborn stock.
Both were so keen you'd need a crowbar to get them off stock, if not for their natural biddability. [No electric collars, please. Scroll down in this link for Alasdair's remarks on "the collar."]

If you want a good border collie, look for an experienced border collie handler and stock owner with a reputation for honesty, fair dealing and good, sound, working dogs. Look for someone you'd value as a mentor. You'll have far better luck than if you buy from someone who can offer a sheet of blood-test results but no proof the dogs can actually do anything. [Good stockdog breeders generally do have hip and CEA information on their dogs.]

When you go to sheepdog trials, don't ask, "Does anyone here have puppies for sale?" Ask something more along the lines of, "Do you give lessons? And are you planning any litters? [Because I've seen your dogs run at three different trials now, and they always do well and seem very nice to be around, and you handle them so kindly and quietly.]"

As on eBay, so with puppies: Buy the seller.

Introduction: What they looked for in a breeder

I'd like to write a couple posts on what I look for in a dog breeder, and what I think other people ought to look for in a breeder, and to get things rolling, I'm going to delegate. Here are two links to posts written by Smart People with Really Nice Dogs.

Henry Chappell is a writer and outdoorsman who wanted a good "meat, hide, and stock dog," and found what he was looking for in a pup named Cate, a Mountain Cur. Read the first post about Cate here.

Julie Zickefoose has been in my sidebar since this blog was born. She's an artist and writer and NPR commentator, and I'm in love with her Boston Terrier. His name is Chet Baker, and he is too cool for school. [It doesn't hurt that Julie is a fine photographer and Chet, of course, is a great subject.] Here is A Brief History of Chet: Part 1, and here is Part 2, with possibly the cutest puppy photo in the history of the universe.

Finally, to add to the mix, here is the oft-quoted/oft-linked Reputable Breeder vs. the Backyard Breeder.

All food for thought. I'll write more tomorrow.

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.]