Introducing 'The Growler'

Not everyone who shows and breeds dogs is happy with the dog world staying the way it is. More and more progressive breeders covertly email me saying they want change too but are too afraid to rock the boat, because when they do speak out Champ show judging appointments mysteriously dry up - or winning becomes a lot less frequent!
One of these potential reformers has offered to be an occasional contributor to this blog and I really am looking forward to hearing future contributions.
I look forward to a day when sensible moderates like the Growler can feel at liberty to speak their mind without fear or retribution.

THE KENNEL CLUB - FIT FOR FUNCTION?

Is our Kennel Club fit for modern times?
I often ask myself this as an 'ordinary' dog person.
There seem to be two lines coming across from our 'higher ups'.
The public persona of 'we are all things to all dogs' wanting to be involved in all doggie decisions at government level and their favourite excuse of "we are just a registry"
There are a growing number of breeders and show people who are fed up of toeing the party line. That are feeling increasingly under pressure as the public sees breeders 'as all as bad as each other’.
We have the Accredited Breeder Scheme.
Join up, pay extra for the privilege - knowing full well that puppy farmers and bad breeders are also members.
And then there’s the new trend of non ABS breeders lying on their adverts saying they are accredited.
The Kennel Club does nothing and even if non-members are reported to them - they will still continue to register their puppies.
We have a telephone directory sized book of rules, many totally out of date - but few are enforced by the KC with any vigor (in fact us exhibitors often have to pay to report when rules are being broken).
Very few registrations are ever refused.
In fact for every new rule or edict there is a loophole and the KC then throw their hands up in the air and repeat 'but we are just a registry'.
Please Kennel Club, wake up and smell the coffee - either make yourself truly the club for all dogs and reform - or be just a registry and stop pretending to be more. You could do a huge amount to reduce the growing dog problem in this country just by tightening up your rules and stopping the unchecked registration of thousands of badly bred, unhealth-checked and farmed puppies.
A simple solution would be don't register a litter without a vets certificate - surely not beyond you to implement.
The excuse of ‘we register so we can influence the bad breeders’ doesn't hold water. As another writer in the show dog press stated, The KC have been saying that for so many years but they don't seem to have influenced the bad breeders yet!
The Growler

Comments

Kate Price said…
Well said Growler.
If I had a pound for every time I had read the excuse "there is nothing we can do as they are not an accredited breeder" and "we are afraid of losing breeders" and "we can keep an eye on non accredited breeders by continuing to register their puppies"....
I'd would be rich enough to have paid the 5000 pounds worth of veterinary treatment on my pug without insurance.
So instead of following the good example the Swedish Kennel Club sets, they continue to register any puppies, even potentially puppy farmed.
SO many of the public still believe "kennel club registered" is a stamp of approval.
You seem to think that the public think all breeders are bad. Well on the other side of the coin, many good breeders are very quick to critisise someone who goes out and buys a pup thats not health tested. If the truth be known, many of the general public that are not in the doggy world have NO idea what a health test is.
Its all about the need for a massive public education plan. Most people just want a healthy pet dog, and do not realise how important it is to do their research and wait.
I would love to see the big charities doing television adverts about impulse buying, puppy farms, even the risks of buying from a friend.
We all need to work on this together and not find blame in each other.
If the kennel club cannot see this they should hand over the job to someone that does.
Julie said…
Beverley said..
"Not everyone who shows and breeds dogs is happy with the dog world staying the way it is. More and more progressive breeders covertly email me saying they want change too but are too afraid to rock the boat, because when they do speak out Champ show judging appointments mysteriously dry up - or winning becomes a lot less frequent!"
I can assure anyone in doubt about this, just how VERY true it is!
After fighting to import my NUA Dals - I have done neither! But I have to say it bothers me very little - after 40 years in the breed I no I breed good dogs I don't need the opinion of anyone else on that matter, I also know I am doing the best for the future health of my breed and that is worth more to me than any judging appointment or show win!
I now hipscore ALL breeding stock & have done for several years now, HD is in our breed but those in power refuse to say anything but... our breed is HEALTHY! our breed is getting more & more health problems due I believe to inexperienced breeders line breeding to champions they no nothing about just because it was a top winner, breeders have got to wake up to the fact that health MUST take priority over the show ring. It's our duty to not just breed great looking dogs but HEALTHY dogs, if we have unknowingly messed up i.e. breeding for a mutated abnormal gene until the normal gene no longer exists, it is our duty as dog lovers to put right this health risk to our breed!?
Julie
Anonymous said…
May be now is the time for a revolution, for all GOOD ACCREDITED breeders to stand together and demand the much needed changes within the Kennel Club. Get them to work for you, get them to OUTLAW puppy farms, get them to enforce the Puppy Contract via every breeder, change breeding ethics, enforce a change in breed standards to help wipe out heredatory diseases.
It is no good all you GOOD breeders whinging and whining about things, STAND TOGETHER for a change, make changes yourselves. You have the power and a duty to DOGS, after all, YOU BREED THEM !!
Do right by them NOW.
The Kennel Club sits on its laurels and has done for too long, they are paid money for old rope and it's your money.
Anonymous said…
"A simple solution would be don't register a litter without a vets certificate - surely not beyond you to implement. " just what would this do to help ? it just means they have been seen by a vet and will not show if they have been raised well, those who puppy farm will have a tame vet or just make up tehir own certificate, its a case of the Buyer Beware
Anonymous said…
Must admit I wasn't sure the vet's cert would make much difference. Puts vets in a tricky situation with customers and it takes a strong one to refuse to sign certs. All the puppy farmers have tame vets in any case and they're probably lucrative customers as they'll be having so many outbreaks of infectious diseases.

But certainly some minimum standards better than none.
Anonymous said…
I do have my puppies vet checked before they leave home but since most of the puppy farms have their own vet I can't see it being any sort of deterrent
Anonymous said…
Think Growler is good at barking, but think they like the sound of their own voice more than anything else. Now if you published a person who could give reasons for their views and not just a rant that would be much better, as it is growler just sounds bad tempered, and a bad tempered dog should never be tolerated.
Anonymous said…
Hmmm well i think vet certificates would provide a good base level of responsibility for all and any 'tame' vets would probably think twice about a certificate on record.If it stopped some bad breedera it would be worth doing.The kc could put a box on the application for registration that a vet could stamp and sign to say the pups were fit to sell and not suffering any visible illness.
Anonymous said…
"The kc could put a box on the application for registration that a vet could stamp and sign to say the pups were fit to sell and not suffering any visible illness." but what about the 60% of dogs that arnt pedigree and of those that are less than 50% are registered with the kc so that means 80% of pups would not have such checks!
Anonymous said…
While I think it's about time those inside the kc spoke out and indeed joined ranks to demand change, it equates to abusing a deceased equine. It has been established by many accounts that staying with the kc to try and reform from the inside is not working. Those who do are either ignored or kicked out. The kc continue to use the same old excuses while publicly professing they have the best interests of dogs. One the one hand they are only a registry, on the other they are a mark of quality.

The fear of speaking out from those on the inside brings about another question - why stay with them. If their standards are wrong, why do you want their approval in shows. While much of the public are still under the impression that the kc means a guarantee, the strides made to improve breed welfare have been done largely by individuals not affiliated with the board of hypocrits.

Just look at the work done in eradicating uric acid in dalmatians, bassets able to work but refused entry to kc and breed clubs and many many more - remember the brambledales! These are the wonderful breeders who were doing what was right long before the Bateson report.

Stand together with the badge of honour that you are not kc registered and this is what we do that they don't.

Emma
Anonymous said…
so just what health schemes do you non KC registered breeds go through Emma, and where are the results published? If they are not the KC/BVA ones which are they? and just who are the people you say the KC have kicked out?, lets have a few actual names
Beverley Cuddy said…
Oh anony-mouse I do sort of love hate you!
Simply turn to the stats for the BVA/KC Hip scoring scheme and you will see a very impressive number of Labradoodles scored.
I spoke with the breeder who supplied Richard Hammond etc with their Doodles and he is now getting lots of 0:0 hip scores, he's really delighted with his breeding programme.
He does all the health tests for Labs and Poodles.
And just as they are definitively un-KC reg, people breeding un KC reg traditional pedigrees can use the testing system too. A microchip is a microchip after all.
The Brambledale Beardies being a case in point.
I supsected you'd not like the Growler, I do think you needed better early socialisation anony-mouse you really are a bit ratty sometimes!
Anonymous said…
Well what a surprise, the anonymous kc supporter. Firstly I did not say that I was a breeder. Secondly, health tests to not have to be kc just bva. Thirdly, examples, do you really not know about Cavaliers. I named three breeds improved outside the kc. Your turn, which breeds have been improved with the kc. And last and by no means least, you want names, then hows about yours first!

Emma

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