[darkwood-sleddog]

Soft lady

[alittleblackdogblog]

I still cant wear normal shoes so Im stuck to wearing these damn things but Jon’s thrilled I can walk him again. 

[healingheartdogs]

Nothing shows the built in racism of the dog world quite like the fact that multiple breeds in the big kennel clubs across the world are registered under names that contain literal slurs used by colonizers to refer to the indigenous people those breeds were taken from.

[darkwood-sleddog]

Just another day where I remind all my followers that the RCMP culled thousands and thousands of Inuit sled dogs in an attempt to control and destabilize the Canadian Inuit population in the 1970s and 80s and it still is taking an active campaign by the Canadian breed club to change the name of the dog to Inuit Qimmiq instead of Canadian Esk*mo Dog. 

When I posted about it last year many of you asked me why we should even bother to change the name when we should instead leave the Inuit alone. Like I can’t believe I have to explain that a racial slur should not be the official term used for a native dog breed. Do better guys.

[a-tiny-angry-bisexual]

Is there anything people can do to help on this particular issue?

[healingheartdogs]

These breeds have other names that don’t use the offensive slurs that you can use. Like instead of American esk*mo you can say American spitz, for l*pphund and l*pponian I believe the suggested alternative is Sami herding dog or reindeer dog. Yes, people will be confused when you use these names so you’ll likely have to explain it, but explaining the name is also a good chance to explain why you should use that name instead which helps with education on decolonization. A good source for alternative names for these breeds are the indigenous people they originated with – what are they calling their dogs?  What does that translate to in our language(s) ((if you must translate it, arguably translating it is unnecessary and another form of colonization since we do not always translate dog names from other countries but seem to always do it for indigenous dogs))? And if you really need to refer to the people in order to specify for sake of clarity between similar breeds or breeds of similar origins, then what do those people call themselves? Use that name, not the name colonizers gave them. Also call out the use of the slurs in their current common names when you hear them being used in your circles, because making that name rightfully socially unacceptable is the quickest way to getting it changed.

[dhole-pineapple-deactivated2024]

Purebreeders as a whole always rub me the wrong way. They purposely inbreed to get IDENTICAL dogs over and over again. Oh, this German Shepherd has a white spot where there shouldn’t be one? Better toss it out. This husky doesn’t have the exact same markings as every other husky? Better toss it out.

It’s also extremely racist??? If you’ve noticed, purebreeders like to use “backyard breeder” as a way to validate what they’re doing. Backyard breeder almost EXCLUSIVELY refers to lower class people of color. An Inuit family is trying to breed their two natural dogs together? They call them backyard breeders. Only rich white people can breed dogs. When the average person does it, they’re labeled as a backyard breeder.

Indigenous people have been breeding dogs for centuries, and WITHOUT your toxic breeding standards and inbreeding obsessions. Let them be.

[smellyoldblanket]

Kind of weird of you to imply that the majority of BYB are POC (they’re not, but okay)

People who shit on BYBing are not shitting on some random Inuit family breeding sled dogs together, they’re shitting on Joe Blow down the road who thinks he needs to breed his “King Shebbard” with his “bloo nose Pitt Bull” to make money.

People who have money can be BYB, and in some circles of BYB the “breeders” are almost always upper middle class WASP people (cough doodle breeders cough)

It’s weird how you used Inuit people breeding working dogs as a strawman

[healingheartdogs]

They didn’t imply that all BYBs are POC, they clearly said that many purebred breeders tend to use BYB to refer to lower class POC, which is 100% true. The purebred breeding hobby is very full of racism and classism, and I see dog snobs online literally hunt down, harass, and dox dog breeders who are lower class or POC, especially if they don’t breed approved kennel club registered purebreds. The goalposts for being considered a responsible breeder by many white dog hobbyists are different and constantly changing depending on your class and race.

This is pretty clearly a post about racism so I’d appreciate it if you don’t attempt to derail it arguing semantics about what you personally think qualifies as an actual BYB when the other commenter was actually talking about purebred kennel club breeders being racist and accusing POC – especially lower class POC – of being BYBs as a race issue, which is a thing that happens all the time. This post was literally sparked by a discussion I participated in yesterday personally with an indigenous person who is unable to access their own culture’s dogs because of white breeders who are worried about their precious made up show standard gatekeeping the breed from them and treating their breeding goals like backyard breeding, so yeah this is a real issue.

[canisitsnotlupus]

also just fyi making fun of how people spell breed names ( “shebbard” ) and stuff is literally classist and ableist so let’s not do that either

[doberbutts]

I agreed with the original post but honestly I can see where the other person is coming from as well-

There is a lot of white people accusing POC in various breeds’ country of origin, frequently the original people breeding the very same breed they claim to love, of being BYBs simply because they’re holding them to American/British/Westernized standards of breeding which does not apply to the entire world and also how it applies EVEN IN Westernized countries/US/UK varies breed by breed. And that absolutely is a problem, yes.

But I would also agree that the majority of people in certain breeds and types considered BYBs are um. Not POC. The majority of people considered BYBs and are breeding bully breeds and certain types of toy breed and mastiffs, sure, are POC and lower income. And the majority of people considered BYBs and are breeding doodles and bulldogs and guardian breeds are going to be white with quite a lot of disposable income. Puppy mills are majority Amish-run on the east coast, so they are white people with a lot of income deliberately living as though they are low income due to their religious values. There’s some nuance here that you two are missing.

How the problem is handled is different, too- in my area there’s a lot of people BYBing doodles, berners, and newfies (in the words of a local friend- pretty WASPy breeds and types tbh). The vast majority of people producing these dogs are white, with plenty of disposable income, selling puppies for $3-6k, meaning their target demographic for sales is certainly not going to be lower income POC either. While these people are met with complaining, there’s really not much else that’s being done about them.

However if you go into the cities you will see pit bull ordinance after pit bull ordinance along with added pressure to spay/neuter pit bulls and a lot of guilt tripping regarding just how many bully breeds and chihuahua/mixes are in shelters. There is a lot of effort to keep the population that predominantly has these breeds, lower income POC, from breeding their dogs. And nearly no effort put into keeping the higher income white people from doing the same outside of some minimal complaining in breed circles.

There’s nuance in this conversation that I don’t think should be glossed over. I agree with the OP and honestly made a similar post about the breed names thing a few years ago, but the whole byb thing is super nuanced and I don’t think can be broad-brushed as simply a ‘people say byb when they mean lower class and poc’ issue.

[specklemutts]

this is Lester. he's available for adoption. someone please come adopt him

[specklemutts]

He Embarked exactly 50% Collie and 50% Pit Bull

[winedogs]

sometimes she cries and only stops when you tell her she’s pretty

[bagelhound]

Movement

[sidetongue]

Our friend Cleo <3 

[pawtycity]

just a poodle

[mulgi]

equipped a fancy new toy holder to the hyena

she does not approve

[pulldogs-deactivated20210622]

[meangirlnurse]

the most effective means of preventing dog homelessness are 1) providing material support to impoverished and marginalized pet owners and 2) preventing and addressing behavioral issues before they become cause for relinquishment 

but that’s far less fun and takes way more effort and human compassion than self-righteously chirping “adopt don’t shop!” 

[despazito]

hfjgkgh

[despazito]

scottish fold breeders: our cats aren't fucked up

scientists: ok prove it (for free)

scottish fold breeders: no <3

[doberbutts]

Additionally I think some of the disconnect between what dog trainers who actually have clients and do this every day vs what people who consider themselves dog trainers because they’re pretty decent at training their own dogs but have never had a client is that variety. I’ve been doing this for bordering on 14 years and this week I have had a lot of firsts. Not for any other reason than because the variety that I see every day will continue to change and challenge my methods until I’ve literally seen everything. Maybe that will happen when I have 50 years of experience.

But there comes a point where someone who’s only trained their own dogs hits their limit of what they know how to do simply because they would never have their own dogs act like that, they would have selected a different dog, they would have done more research, they would have started sooner, they wouldn’t have let the problem get that bad.

There is a huge difference between fixing your own problems vs fixing someone else’s. And usually when you fix someone else’s, you’re doing it by their specifications and also on a time crunch.

These dogs would never have been my problem in the first place if I wasn’t a dog trainer that sees ~30 different cases per week (COVID19 numbers- multiply that by 5 for pre-COVID numbers).

It’s one of the reasons I think all mentor/apprentice programs for dog training should include training a different rescue dog per week. The dog itself gets some much needed training which ups its chances at getting adopted and also ups its chances at actually staying in its new home, and the trainer-in-training gets some much needed experience and variety instead of only training dogs they’re well suited to.

It’s like I say to my clients- I can get your dog to listen to me just fine. I have to get that dog to listen to you. That’s the hard part. If these were my dogs I could have them where I want them, for the most part, without much effort. But they are not my dogs. And because they are not my dogs, it changes things dramatically.

[agilitylabs]

I don’t have near as many years of experience as Jaz, but I learned quick that you better know/learn how to train people more so than the dog and problem solve on the fly because people and dogs will come up with some interesting situations for you to solve. As Jaz said, if I had the dog, pretty sure it wouldn’t be in the predicament but I don’t have the dog and it doesn’t live with me, so therefore I have to figure out a training plan that will work for THAT person, and not necessarily how I would go about it if I did have the dog. It’s what makes dog training professionally a fun job because of the challenges but also a job that sometimes makes you want to hit your head against the wall!

[doberbutts]

Re: your tags- don’t mind the chime in at all!!!

But also re: your tags- That’s something my pet trainer mentor said to me once. I get dogs because I like training and competing. Literally all of my pet clients do not want to do that extensively level of training and none of them are as forgiving of “bad dog behaviors” as I am. I’m willing to wrap my entire life around making my dogs happy and my clients would just like a companion that bounces around the yard and sometimes goes for a hike. I don’t correct the puppy biting because I just teach bite inhibition and then a retrieve. I don’t correct the jumping because I just put it to a cue and leave it at that. If my dog bowls me over it’s just a part of owning a dog. Meanwhile I’m also out teaching highly specific behaviors under stress and prepping my dogs for real world jobs.

There’s a difference between what a lot of people on social media consider to be “how to train and own dogs well” (and it’s mostly competition-based) vs how the general public actually wants to own and train dogs and being a dog trainer that competes and also works with the general public there’s a line one must straddle in order to make everyone in the situation happy.

There are plenty of dogs that I get in that have no business being owned by the people who have them. And Yet. And what am I supposed to do about it except formulate a lesson plan and hit the ground running? There are plenty of times I bite my tongue when a client says something exceptionally stupid, such as needing to hit their dog in order to show them who’s alpha, because I first need to address the dog’s behavior that makes the client want to hit them in front of the client without hitting the dog so that I can show them there’s a better way to fix their problems. Just yelling at the person not to hit their dog isn’t going to get anyone anywhere except the class returned and the dog back to being hit at home.

I even joke that sometimes as a dog trainer my actual job is marriage councilor and babysitter, because sometimes people bring me a “problem dog” when the actual issue is a serious relationship problem or an inability to control one’s children around the dog. Sometimes people know that’s the real problem and got a dog to “fix things” (much like how many people have babies to “fix things”) and surprise! The addition of a young terrible creature did not fix the stress in your home life! Now there is more stress! So I have to fix that too.

There are many ways to theorize how to train a dog. There are many ways to decide how to train your own dogs. But until you work with the public and have to train the public’s dogs… you don’t always realize it’s not as easy as all that.

[darkwood-sleddog]

Anyways I get really irritated at the buzz words “preservation breeder” and “purpose bred” in the dog world because while these concepts are not bad in theory, the breeders that use them are not using their dogs for a purpose nor preserving some of the natural aspects of the breed. 

They are so hung up on the look and type for the show ring that the dog could have zero drive to pull but if it looks the part it’s “purpose bred”. So intent on the dog getting its Championship and being worthy for breeding before the dog has even proven it is a ACTUAL good representative of the breed (aka a dog that can do its fucking job). 

Acting like working titles are just for fun as if it is not a crucial aspect of the breed (The malamute’s function as a sled dog is to be considered above all else re: the standard). Getting a barn hunt or a low level obedience title on their show dogs and acting like this = a working dog. Like this is why I get so up in arms about the show only people. This is why I roll my eyes at these same people saying “form follows function” over and over because if form followed function you’d be working your dog and ensuring that not only does the dog meet the standard from a visual standpoint, but meets the standard from a working standpoint before deeming the dog worthy of a Championship or breeding.

Chortling on about “preservation breeding” when their dogs look NOTHING like the original dogs we brought out of the arctic and at the same time looking down on dogs that DO look like those dogs as “lacking type”. Acting like the people that work freight dogs in the arctic no longer exist so it is up to us, the breed club, to carry on this ~noble work~ of preserving this ancient breed. When. Literally. Inuit. People. Still. Work. Dogs. In. The. Arctic. Acting like the Malamute is 100% different than those Canadian Qimmiq and Greenland dogs, refusing to see the connection, calling the native peoples that see them as one in the same as “lacking the nuance to see the difference between the breeds” when we took these dogs out of the arctic and molded them to a kennel club ideal, when the people we say are lacking nuance literally made this breed for their purpose. I can’t.

[darkwood-sleddog]

Like why even try and compare which breeds have the most endurance in a trot if you’re not even going to mention any of the sled breeds??

[jointhevortex]

[alien]