- It was a normal-looking dog and, in fact, a working dog breed; a Flat-coated Retriever by the name of Baxter.
- The dog was a liver-colored dog, which is a somewhat less typical coloring for FCTs, which are generally black.
- The dog was shown by his owner, Patrick Oware of Norway, who is not only male but not white. This first and last parts of that sentence are the most notable parts, as the sniffing pretensions of the Kennel Club has always embraced both paid handlers and racism, "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," is practically a defining Kennel Club statement.
Applause here for Crufts actually entering the 21st Century!
Is there hope for the Kennel Club? Perhaps. I'm not holding my breath, but... perhaps.
So is there a downside?
Hard to know without looking at a pedigree, but Flat-coated Retrievers are notoriously inbred and cancer prone. In fact, I have in the past described this breed as a Milgram Experiment as Business Plan
Hopefully this Norwegian dog might have side-stepped these landmines, but who knows?
In any case, congratulations to Baxter and Patrick Oware.
1 comment:
Until the KCs reunite the Goldie and the Flattie---arbitrarily split based on colour and both subject to bad inbreeding and indicators of decline (eg cancer stats)--I am totally unimpressed.
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