Rapping up Crufts

Things have been getting a bit surreal recently.
KC-number-one fan Sirius ("no I am not a KC employee") christened me "fluffykins".
A man in Poodles swears blind he's met me on Hampstead Heath - somewhere I have never been.
Then Lynn in Utonagons was so convinced I had a secret Country and Western career that she went up to "me" after a performance and was most upset when I claimed to not know her and that I even went so far as to deny my doggy past.
And more recently Our Dogs Polly King says she saw me at Crufts on Thursday - when I was actually live on Sky News in their London studio. Spooky. Wasn't at Crufts. Wonder who I really was?
And now the new pro-show Blog on the block ("This is NOT a pro- Kennel Club blog....it is a PRO responsible breeder, exhibitor and purebred dog fancier blog, and one that aims to counter much of the negative and biased info that is spewed out by the media on what seems like a daily basis.") has tagged me "B-Cud" and compared my writing to the work of British girlband Mis-teeq.
I'll admit, I was kind of hoping to be allied to a more successful band, Destiny's Child perhaps or even Girls Aloud. But to be honest, until today, I hadn't given a lot of thought to it.
Good to know though that despite the earlier swipe in this still young blog, Jason the author thinks we might actually all be pretty much on the same side.
In the words of Alexandra Burke or preferably Jeff Buckley, "Hallelujah!"
There's no need for breeders to perceive themselves to be on the other side to the health reformists. I will watch this new blog with interest and see if it does indeed call for the KC to reflect the modern, progressive dog breeder and elevate the bar for all.
Wouldn't it be great if the next wave of campaigning for change comes from within the ranks. Let's have some of the KC badge wearers with a pulse and an IQ over 100 standing up and saying what they really think before it's too late.
Do see the earlier post about the huge leaps forward on Rough Collie inbreeding when the breed was imported into Sweden. The effective population size increased from a frightening 33 in the UK to an amazing 500 in Sweden. If we had the Swedish controls on the overuse of popular sires, their searchable Internet pedigree database with automatic COI calculation and targets... now that would be something I'd want to sing about - in any genre.
How could any dog lover not agree we'd be better off with these measures in place. In only a few years the Swedish Collie breeders made massive advances... the sooner we change our system the sooner our breeders can start putting ancestor erosion into the history books.
And Jason, congratulations to you and Mike on winning Reserve Best In Show at Crufts. I thought Donny moved beautifully and showed with all his heart. If I'd been the Crufts Best In Show judge I think he'd have been my winner.
(Although there's more chance of that happening than me reforming girl band Mis-teeq and getting them to do a Country and Western concert on Hampstead Heath!)

Latest installment. Click here to read what the Swedish Kennel Club said on reading Caroline Kisko's outburst on Sky News. You need to go to the 'Pinboard'. Here's what it says...

We are told that British KC spokeswoman ms Caroline Kisko in a debate aired on March, 5th by British Sky News, claims that Swedish dog breeders are leaving the Swedish KC because of discontent with breeding regulations. Is this true? We haven´t heard any information to that purpose, but will be back with a comment from the Swedish KC as soon as may be!

I fail to recognize the description of the attitudes of Swedish breeders to Swedish Kennel Club policies, nor that breeders should be leaving the Swedish Kennel Club in discontent.
For my part, I strongly doubt that Caroline Kisko could have said so, as she is quite familiar with our work, and as the Swedish KC and the KC regularly meet to exchange views on the experience we have of various breeding matters.
If we look at the numbers of new breeders who, for instance, apply for a new kennel name, that group has grown by more than 35% over the past five years, which I think is a pretty clear signal of breeder attitudes to the Swedish Kennel Club.

Ulf Uddman, Executive of the SKC





Comments

In the pink said…
I thought the whole point of Best In Show was the star quality on the night? We KNOW all the finalists are superb dogs. Donny had that *****STAR***** quality but if you watched Crufts Live TV you will have heard comments re the judge and the winning dog BREED before the result.......say no more. PS Dear Beverley love the new red hair - saw you in a local shop (or was it you) Ha ha. Title for new post: 'Where have you spotted me'

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