Sunday, July 22, 2012

Coffee and Provocation


Dog World Turbo-boosted to Oblivion: 
U.S. magazine Dog World has published its last issue.  Not a complete surprise.  As the AKC withers on the vine, and so too does the print media, the twin downward curves worked to turbo-boost the magazine to oblivion.  They say they will keep an online presence, but I cannot imagine it will be much other than a rehash of show wins and rehashed paid puffery ads masquerading as "news" articles. 

Evaluating Breathing:
Here's a nice little video about evaluating the breathing problems in brachycephalic breeds.  This is from the Swedish Kennel Club.  The fact that this video is needed is an indictment of breeders and show ring judges who seem to be idiots.  Who needs to be told not to put up a dog that breathes heavily on a short walk around the ring? 

A Dog Show You Would Pay to See!
You know what's needed in the world of dog shows?   A whole new structuring.  We need something that is a bit more basic and a bit clearer about what we are trying to do, and the cost of failure.  My modest proposal is that there be a veterinarian ringside to do a mandatory spay-neuter on at least one dog and one bitch put up at any major, with a good Tasering for the owner-breeder of said dog if is is deemed that the dog has a breathing problem, an eye problem, or a gait problem.  Come on, you KNOW this would boost admissions, and it would also result in the rapid improvement of dogs, wouldn't it? 

Inbreeding Makes for Stupid
Inbreeding makes for stupid and for shorter
.

1 comment:

PBurns said...

Dear Patrick,

When it began in the early 20th century Dog World was the only independent US publication for dogs and maintained their independence until it was bought by a media conglomerate (late 90's) where it became a cash cow.

It was independent enough to publish Herm David's anti-AKC columns (It really P.O,'d them that Herm knew more about dogs than they did, had good sources inside "the fancy" and published their Vice-president's salaries.)

Annoyed by the dog press whose book reviews summarized PR releases and managed (like the Dog Writers Assn) to utterly ignore any worthwhile dog book, I offered to do a column for Dog World reviewing as if for the Post or Times. The column lasted for a couple years.

Dog World operated out of Chicago and was the first job out of college for most of its editorial staff who knew not much about writing and zipshit about dogs but although the editor was often on the phone saying how I couldn't, in the end, I always could.

No, it wasn't the dog magazine I would have wished for and I haven't read it in years but in its best years Dog World was necessary.

- Donald McCaig