Gary's Blog

I have seen a quite a few forums on which dog people behave very uncivilly with each other.  Name calling, trading insults and general inhospitable behavior appears to be the norm.    You have probably been to some of those discussion boards yourself and seen the garbage written there.   This kind of behavior has been going on for several years now and there seems to be a very select group of people who engage in this type of behavior.  If you have been around the dog forums and boards for the last few years you have probably encountered some uncivil behavior.  This mostly happens on Free bulletin boards like boardhost.com. 

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The discord spread among the chat boards and rooms have no doubt affected the dog community's ability to cooperate for the good of the breeds.  Breeders fight against breeders; show dog fanciers fight against working dog fanciers; Bandoggers and Designer dog people war against breed purists; BSL proponents oppose the anti-legislation folks and on and on.. .. For every vice there is a virtue.

One of my favorite books is called [b]No Contest[/b] The Case Against Competition by Alphie Khon, How we loose in our battle to win.  It makes a great case for cooperation and collaboration on all fronts for the betterment of any cause and can easily be applied to the consternation in the dog world.  We have done severe damage to many breeds in our bid to control the dogs and influence the owners.  It is a travesty to look at the current condition of the German Shepherd Dog, the Neapolitan Mastiff, the Caucasian and Central Asian Ovcharka, American Bulldog, English Bulldog, Rottweilers, Doberman and the many ruined Retrievers and Hounds.

Dogs that are supposed to be guardians and defenders, whose temperament were hardened on the anvil of a harsh life and sharpened by the brutality of rugged terrain and survival of the best are now mere shadows of their true spirits.  It is indeed the beginning of the demise of many once famous breeds. 

Who is to bear the blame for this situation - no one and everyone?  The reduction of open space, urbanization,  and the dwindling of working farms and animal husbandry have all lead to the dumbing down of the working dogs.  However, much of the problems faced by breeds in these times are created by the various factions of the breed clubs competing for dominance in the market place, much like the dogs they love compete for dominance in the pack. We can do a lot better than that. Our dogs deserve for us to work together to create a better place for them to live, work and play.  With cooperation instead of endless competition and bickering among ourselves we can ensure that the breeds (and mutts) we love will have a place in society. 

So if you love dogs and hate to see them legislated out of existence then it is time to demonstrate that responsibility with better behavior and encourage others to show humility in our treatment of others.   Dog people must work together because there are so many powerful people out there who are united against some of our breeds.