Americans own more dogs now than at any time in history, but they are not buying Kennel Club dogs because they are not buying crap sold by pretenders at inflated prices.
Over at the Canine Chronicle, a publication for the dog show set, they bemoan their fate without having a clue as to how they got there or how to change it.
Conformation shows and clubs are struggling with declining entries. Exhibitors and club members seem to be older now than they used to be, purebred registrations are a third of what they were 20 years ago, and there are few newcomers to the scene. These are all clear indicators that our culture has changed.
"Our culture has changed."
It has?
In what way?
The claim, of course, is pure bunk.
Americans own more dogs now than at any time in history, but as with every other time in history we are not buying crap products at inflated prices.
Of course, blue-blazer rosette chasers that wince around dog show rings, and who do not have the bottle to admit they are little more than preening pretenders desperate for status, cannot admit that the failure is entirely theirs. Every breed of dog that has been brought into the Kennel Club has suffered, and no breed has ever been improved there. It seems the public has noticed!
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| AKC registrations have fallen by 70%. |
I am sorry to inform the sniffing pretenders that it's NOT the "animal rights" folks who are killing dog shows. No and nope. Almost everyone in this country is eating chicken and hamburgers, spraying their kitchens with roach spray, wearing leather-made shoes, and doing so while eating eggs, and drinking milk.
Deciding not to buy an over-priced and sick puppymill dog from a mall pet store does not mean someone is saluting the "animal rights" agenda (whatever that is); it means they are making a simple, smart, and obvious consumer choice.
As I noted in a post some time back, "It's time we started to think of dogs as breed products."
To that line I would add this one: "And when every breed product you are offering is sliding towards failure due to inbreeding, selection for defect, and failure to perform in the field, don't be surprised if no one is rushing to get into your store."
The core problem is not going to get fixed by the Kennel Club because their leadership has no vision and no courage, and the organization itself has never been about dogs at all
At the Kennel Club it's never about the dog; it's about the ribbon, the show, the judge, the pecking order, the contrived history, the price that can be charged, and the price that is charged.
The AKC does not have a culture of "dogs first," but a long-standing culture of "ego first." That is not going to change, and so the organization is auguring into the ground faster and harder than Buddy Holly's airplane.
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| Buddy Holly's airplane, Iowa, Feb, 1959 |
The result is what we see in the current issue of Canine Chronicle -- a chattering class that says "tsk-tsk" even as they cluck about a "changing culture."
How convenient to cast the problem into the great abyss of the vague and unsolvable rather than face the simple mechanical solution of opening up the registries, requiring veterinary inspections of adult dogs before registration, banning certain deformed breeds, and making the championship of working dogs dependent on performance achievement.
But "carry on," I say!
If the Kennel Club will not change its course, they might as well drive faster towards oblivion.
The dogs will survive, even if the Kennel Club does not, and perhaps what comes next will actually be about the dogs rather than the preening pretensions of people.
What an idea!
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