I was even less impressed with Kennel Club spokesperson Caroline Kisko, who repeatedly lied to the press about the degree of dysfunction in Kennel Club dogs. For the record, she continues to lie on this point.
But does this mean it is all window dressing and rot?
Perhaps not. We shall see.
The news this morning is that the U.K. Kennel Club has sharpened their message to the show ring German Shepherd community.
A vocal minority in the GSD community seems to continue to attempt to distract attention from the Kennel Club’s main concerns about the soundness of the German Shepherd Dog breed. The Kennel Club remains in no doubt that currently the single biggest threat to the reputation and interest of the breed is the lack of soundness in hindquarters, particularly the hocks.
The presence of this unsoundness in GSDs is generally recognised by most people in dogs except by some with vested interests in the GSD breed who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem in this area. The Kennel Club remains frustrated that something so patently obvious to many dog people - even those with a limited knowledge of dogs - is being ignored and denied by some people in the breed. Indeed the recent Bateson Inquiry singled out the GSD as an example of a breed ‘where drastic action is required’ to address conformation and movement.
The GSD community has commendably introduced a number of valuable voluntary health testing schemes addressing issues such as haemophilia, hip dysplasia and others. The Kennel Club has supported this voluntary testing and will continue to support all responsible breeders who put the health of their animals first. These tests are undeniably important, but crucially they do not address the most important current issue – lack of soundness in the hindquarters and hocks.
Furthermore, the GSD Partnership has repeatedly claimed that the Kennel Club is not accepting its proposed Breed Improvement Programme and its requests that the Programme forms the basis of a mandatory requirement for showing and breeding. The fact remains that no part of the proposed Programme acknowledges, let alone addresses, the issue of soundness in the hindquarters and hocks.
What happens next?
Time will tell.
A Kennel Club that is all bark and no bite cannot hope to defend dogs against bizzare standards, inflated egos, and contrived histories.
The Kennel Club needs to be willing to show it will put in the teeth for the health of the dog.
The German Shepherd is as good a breed as any on which to make that point.
That said it would be wrong to over-state where we are right now. A movement towards real change starts with a single step, but a single step does not a journey make.
Where is all this going? We shall see, we shall see ....
But is there a small hint of hope? Yes, there is. Let us applaud that!
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14 comments:
I realize that this 'health scheme' doesn't (yet) address hind end/hock soundness but perhaps the reason the kennel club won't accept it as manditory is that they know if they do it is a slipery slope. In no time flat fanciers from other breeds will ask for manditiory health screening in their breed and suddenly the scale of the problem will be obvious. As will the solution. Which is not necesseraly good news for the kennel club.
Will the KC cave?
My money is on that it will cave.
Because this is not a rare breed, there will be a lot more people to deal with.
Never mind that these people have never seen one of these dogs work. Never mind that they haven't seen the original dogs.
Of course, I don't expect the Brits to get this right, they still call this dog an Alsatian (although not officially.) The Alsace-Lorraine is a German speaking part of France, which became part of the German Empire for a time. The only reason why they are called this in Britain is because of the two wars they fought with Germany.
This is a persistence hunt, and I think the Kennel Club realizes it HAS to change in order to not fail like the American Kennel Club.
The AKC is in "full fail" mode in terms of economics, with a 55% decline in membership over the last 15 years. The UK Kennel Club will go that way FAST as soon as someone figures out most pet owners do not need a scrap of paper and/or will accept ANY scrap of paper cranked out by a laser printer. The only way forward in the day of the Internet is for the Kennel Club paper to worth more because it means real health and real work. They have to make diamonds, not mere rocks. And rocks is what too many breeds have become.
P.
I don't see why it's so hard to just jettison the current GSD club and have a new one made up with reasonable people. Heck, the AKC uses that power for 'evil' in order to steal breeds from clubs who don't want their dogs associated with them by making AKC-patsy 'puppet clubs' and recognizing THEM, so why cant the KC do a similar thing for a GOOD cause?
Good question Pai! I suspect the British may have less experience creating clubs out of whole cloth for a political end, but I may be wrong.
P.
They're called Alsatians in Scandinavia as well, at least colloquially.
The term "Alsatian" came into use during or after WWI and again in WWII when no one wanted to own anything "German" and having a "German" shepherd might meant it might get shot.
Because Rin Tin Tin was rescued from a kennel in Alsace-Lorraine in the last months of WWI, it was a place name that was easily adapted into a new name for the dog.
Max Von Stephanitz, who created the breed around 1900 from shepherd farm dogs of his region, called them "Deutscher Schäferhund," which literally means "German Shepherd Dog", however, and that name has returned as anti-German sentiment has relaxed.
P
The proof of the pudding would be to enter a working type GSD with normal conformation at shows and possibly at Crufts (if it would qualify!).
At present judges have nothing but neurotic cripples to choose from.
D.Penizek
The challenge would be finding the owner of a real GSD who would insult his dog by entering him in the pageants.
I cannot imagine what I would say to my dog, or what I would offer her as compensation for going along with it.
I believe the dogs have partial ancestry in Thuringia, which is nowhere near Alsace-Lorraine. Thuringia was part of the German Democratic Republic.
It was simple jingoism that the dogs were called Alsatians. I'm sure there is a herding landrace type dog from Alsace-Lorraine.
When I traced my genealogy, I found that I had lots of different "kinds" of German in my background, including ethnic Frisians from the Netherlands (Frisians also live in Germany). I also found that my great grandmother's family came from Alsace-Lorraine. It is now part of France, but after the Franco-Prussian War (which created the German Empire), Alsace-Lorraine was put in Germany. The Germans lost it after World War I. The Maginot line runs right through Alsace-Lorraine.
Alsation is now used purely for the English type of GSD - dogs which are not as extreme in terms of slope and rear-end angulation but are still way removed from the working ideal (too low, too long and too heavy). Jemima
I just find it amusing that all this is coming out AFTER the PDE documentary.
"Oh no! Everyone now realizes there is a problem with our dogs, so we must do something!"
As opposed to before, when the KC was blind to the cripples hobbling around the ring?
Gotta love what public pressure can do, if indeed that is the case! If the KC can grow a pair over this, I'd really love to see the spine they manifest in the Bulldog Battle!
We were talking about this the morning, and, actually, I can pinpoint the exact moment that it all changed for the GSD in this country. We were filming (for PDE) at the Manchester Champ Show, 2008. My partner and cameraman Jon Lane buzzed me on the walkie-talkie. "You've got to come and see this... I'm at the GSD ring. I can hardly believe what I'm seeing. These dogs are - literally - crippled." Of course PDE was hardly the first critical appraisal of the breed, but it was Jon's searching lens that illustrated it so very graphically for the world to see. The dog that won BOB that day was a total disgrace and yet the judge told us that she had picked him out because of his soundness. Jemima
Film made all the difference -- and YouTube as a place to put that film and circulate it around the world.
P
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