Just Another Dogblr.

90% dogblr, 10% whatever i want. she/her for lack of a better idea. my dogs are more accomplished than i’ll ever be. Mega shy fandom follower.

[spanishmal]

[justslowdown]

AKC show ppl: dog shows are the only objective way to see if a dog is worthy of breeding

AKC show ppl: take out ads for their dogs to convince judges, have friends enter dogs with bad conformation to make theirs look better, do "favors" for judges, admit there are entire breeds you need to hire professional handlers to go far in, breed to match fads even if they aren't to standard, post memes like THIS

[canisitsnotlupus]

r u tryin to get knifed? this is how u get knifed

[spanishmal]

This meme has an element of truth, but it’s not the whole story. Most of this isn’t done by the majority of the show world. And it’s the people who have never shown dogs who are perpetuating the myth that it does.

I am the first to admit the show world isn’t perfect, but it’s memes like this that give everyone involved with showing dogs a bad name. You want to know why good breeders are hard to find? This right here. Y’all are being tricked into thinking show people are pieces of shit.

[spanishmal]

betrayal (a three-part story.)

[spanishmal]

[spanishmal]

How To Find A Decent Purebred Dog Breeder Online (in the US)

The best resource for finding a breeder without leaving your house is to look up the breed's national club. Every breed in the United States has an official club that controls the breed standard. These clubs are made up of the most experienced and most knowledgable people who own the breed. Members agree to abide by the club's Code of Ethics, which usually impose stringent requirements on breeders. You can find a breed's national club by doing an internet search for the breed name, followed by the phrase "Club of America." Even if that's not the exact name, the national breed club's website will come up. This information is also available on the AKC website, but some of the links are out of date.  Once you've found the national breed club, browse their website for their Breeder Referral information. (Hint: if you type "[BREED] Club of America Breeder Referral" into Google, you'll probably be taken directly to that part of the breed club's website!) Some clubs have an actual list of breeders; others just list people for you to contact. Please don't be afraid to contact these people... they literally signed up to help people like you! Not all breeders on these lists are going to be perfect, but it gives you a great place to start. Some breeds have separate clubs for working vs show dogs. For example, the (primarily) show club for Dobermans is the Doberman Pinscher Club of America, whereas the (primarily) working club for Dobermans is the United Doberman Club.

[spanishmal]

I know one of the first places you should go when you’re looking for a breeder is the parent club. But what about AKC marketplace? Is that a good source?

Oof, no. Unfortunately AKC Marketplace is full of really terrible breeders. :(

[spanishmal]

Find someone who loves you as much as Jadis loves her fuzzy rainbow ball.

[spanishmal]

Whippets vs Ibizans

[spanishmal]

Hi! I have a small dog (about 12lbs) who loves to chase birds and rabbits. She isn’t a sighthound to my knowledge. Her records say she is a Pomeranian Poodle cross. I want to get her into lure coursing because I think she would enjoy it but I dont know if its only for sighthound/terriers and if she’d be allowed in. I dont care about titles or anything I just want to let her live out her fantasy of chasing and murdering something without a small animal actually dying. Thanks so much!

True lure coursing is only for sighthounds, and breeds deemed sighthound enough by ASFA and AKC.

Luckily, you have a few options!

AKC offers Coursing Ability Tests (CATs) and FAST CATs to all breeds. CATs are 300 or 600 yard courses with several turns, and are scored on a pass/fail basis. After a certain number of passes, your dog can earn titles. FAST CATs are a 100yd straight run, and points are earned based on how fast your dog runs. Once your dog has accumulated a certain number of points, they'll earn titles.

The American Sighthound Field Association (ASFA) also offers a program for non-sighthounds called LCI, but LCI titles are harder to earn and are much more physically demanding than anything the AKC offers. The dogs are required to run a sighthound course twice, and receive scores like the sighthounds do. It is not a pass/fail event, and placements over other dogs are required for a title. Personally, I feel a Pomeranian mix would not do well in this program since the courses are designed for sighthounds.

Hope this helps!

[spanishmal]

Honestly, wished I was still in the Omaha area so I could learn a bit about the dog world from you. Your posts are always so interesting to read!

Aww thank you! 😊

[spanishmal]

along the line of just.....going to dog shows, i started just going to lure coursings. i wanted to get my hands on sighthounds. i wanted to meet the breeds. i had aussies growing up but hounds are my love. i go every single one near me and as an introvert it was TERRIFYING for like .5 seconds. everyone is SO NICE. they answer questions, let me pet dogs, hell someone i hadn’t talked to asked me to hold their saluki. it definitely feels odd at first to just show up but it’s so worth it!!

Yes!!! Lure coursing people are usually so friendly, and we always need help holding dogs. I always tell people that the lure coursing folks are some of the nicest you’ll ever meet. I’m glad they made you feel welcome!

[spanishmal]

Give me a list of all the negatives on Ibizans!! So so so pretty to look at but I’m not sure if I’m brave enough lmao (I have highly focused and driven herders so sighthounds are a whole different game for me). I have LOVED the handful that I’ve met so far but they’re just so different than what I currently live with

They bark!

Not all the time, but a lot of the time.

They dig!

Some dig more than others, but digging is a primitive breed thing. Many Ibizan owners have a "digging spot" in their yards.

They jump!

Fences, baby gates, onto tables and countertops... they're gonna jump. They jump just to jump, so good luck training them not to. (And truly, and Ibizan not allowed to jump is a sad Ibizan indeed.)

They need a ton of exercise!

Especially when they're young, they have a seemingly inexhaustible energy reserve. You can take them for a ten-mile walk, and they'll still want more. Bike them for six miles, and they will protest if you turn back for home. Most mellow out around age 5-6, but be prepared for intense exercise requirements for the first five years or so.

They're all clever girls!

... yes, like the Jurassic Park velociraptors. They delight in causing mischief. Opening doors, opening gates, stealing items from cabinets, puzzling out things you don't want puzzled out, etc. It's part of the breed - they hunt with their brains, not just their eyes. Without a rabbit to hunt, they're going to hunt your toilet paper. And there is nowhere your toilet paper can hide that an Ibizan Hound won't find it!

[spanishmal]

I have a young Borzoi who is currently not trained to do coursing. I have been told by our obedience trainer to be wary about training him to do coursing because it will flip a switch in him to start chasing small dogs. Now I'm worried to try and take him to training because he gets along well with small dogs/puppies. Is this a legit concern I should worry about?

Haha well, in a sighthound... the switch is probably already flipped. Luckily most sighthounds know the difference between a plastic trash bag and an actual living creature, so I wouldn't be too concerned about lure coursing somehow making a dog want to chase and kill puppies. Take your boy coursing; it's what his ancestors were bred to do for hundreds of years and he'll probably love it. :)

[spanishmal]

Do you know how well a whippet would stand up to a larger dog? I’ve been considering them for a while for whenever I decide to get my next dog, but I’ve got a Great Dane who’s 130lbs and though she’s very sweet and pretty lazy most of the time, she can get a little excited, and I’d be worried about her hurting a smaller dog like a whippet. Do you think they would stand their ground against her, or let a bigger dog bowl them over? Thank you!

It depends on the larger dog, to be honest. I have friends who have giant breeds with whippets, but they aren't left outside unsupervised. Whippets are more apt to let other dogs bowl them over than stand their ground, so any whippet x giant breed interactions should be supervised.

[spanishmal]

I cannot thank you enough for suggesting Pure Dog Talk! It's now on all day while I work, and the insight I've learned is invaluable in all aspects of the dog world.

Yay!!!!! I hoped someone would check it out! 😊

[kufurbabies]

So you want to get into the dog world!

This last week at the borzoi nationals, I realized just how far I’ve come in the last four years, how much I’ve learned and how much I still have to learn!

I have a lot of half-baked ideas. I’m looking for people from all breeds to pitch in and see if we can make / build something awesome. The Problems:  Dog sports are aging out. All you have to do is attend any event and see that the ratio of young to older people is *heavily* towards older people. Us young people have grown up in an era where “Adopt Don’t Shop” is practically a moral imperative. Those of us who actively choose to move towards purebred dogs face a lot of stigma from our peers. Very few of us have solid connections into the dog world. So we turn to google to find breeders. Unfortunately, the mediocre and worse breeders are the ones who tend to have the best websites with the best SEO. Combine with the fact that even if you do locate a quality breeder, most will not take a chance in any form on a newbie, and you get newbies who get suboptimal specimens who enter the breed or performance ring(s) with NO idea of how to handle their dogs and no resources for improvement and get burned out quickly. 

The Dog World Establishment is pretty damn cliquey. If you get a dog from a disreputable or not well liked breeder, odds are good you’re not going to be welcomed into any fold with very open arms.

Learning dog conformation IS HARD AF. There are A LOT OF PIECES and finding someone who is not kennel blind enough to be able to be less biased and more straight forward about what makes a good / bad dog or not AND who is able to analyze, break down and communicate effectively to someone who has NO foundation or baseline for understanding this stuff is at this point pure luck.

Learning handling skills is HARD AF. And again. Unless you find someone WILLING to help you in the first place who also has the skills to analyze, break down and communicate to you small pieces of what you need to work on at a time, you’re up shit creek.

Learning how to effectively train a WORKING quality dog is a whole new experience from the pets you’ve had before who are fine just laying on the couch and easy enough to teach basic domestics. When you get a dog that’s smart, devious and has a temperament designed for having a job of some kind, everything escalates. And if you don’t know where to go for that kind of serious training (read: not petco level training), puppyhood can be super challenging.

Solutions:

We need a network of people who are available to mentor and help newbies. Regional, or better yet, state lists of GOOD obedience and handling classes perfect for people who are new. Lists of TALENTED mentors by breed who can teach from the ground up what makes a good dog, how to read breed standards and how to identify good breeders.

I think ideally, you should work with someone who ISN’T in the breed you’re shooting for, but has experience in that group. I was lucky enough to find an experienced sighthound owner who has been an incredible, analytical mentor who has helped me to understand, see and feel the mechanics of a functional dog in all breeds, sighthounds specifically and we’ve learned borzoi together. In shadowing her search for a silken breeder, I’ve learned so much about what I should have done and am doing for my next borzoi breeder. We need to identify people like those in any and all breeds that are willing to work with enthusiastic greenies like I was. Or else all this knowledge and expertise dies out. And WHAT A WASTE that would be!

I don’t know how to go about this or where to begin. I’m also terrible at effective tagging.

But I think this is a start. IF YOU ARE A PROSPECTIVE DOG WORLD NOVICE IN THE SEATTLE AREA, please know that I’m available to you. I will hook you up with the school and trainer I assist and teach at and with. Don’t be discouraged. This world is a hard nut to crack. The good news is us younger folks are pretty sick, by and large, of The Establishment in any arena and just want to learn and contribute. I think we can stand to change the culture of the dog world for the better. There’s a lot to learn and it’s SO REWARDING. I would hate to see this world die away and out. 

Let’s get a conversation going on how to make this shit better.

[doberbutts]

I’m in New England and travel all over the area and as far south as Pennsylvania on a regular basis! Anyone who wants me to help them get ‘in’, let me know and we can figure something out when dog shows start up again!

[spanishmal]

I’m in Iowa and travel.... guh, like all over the country. Let me know if you need help!

[muttsandmustelidae]

cannot get dog without experience,,, cannot get experience without dog,,, cannot,, get dog ????

[spanishmal]

One can have experience with dogs without owning one. I’ve got a decent amount of experience with Sloughis, Wolfhounds, Ridgebacks, Icelandics, etc. but I’ve never owned any of those breeds.

Sometimes, experience with a breed counts as spending time with the breed. It should count, in most situations. I’m going to drag @doberbutts into this because we were talking about this last night - a certain amount of breed gatekeeping isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it should be realistic. In the same vein, if a breeder denies selling you a dog due to your experience, they may actually be doing you a favor.

Doberbutts and I were both turned down by the same Doberman breeder. Yes, it was a gatekeeping/experience situation. Yes, we were both kind of upset when it happened, but not anymore. The breeder was probably right. (Definitely right in my case!)

[dantesinfurno]

i think it kind of sucks how things like this are super not common knowledge and i wish they WERE. i would never in my life think to like... go to dog shows and just out of the blue interact with people because i like the type of dog they have (probably just because i’m an introvert lol), but that’s honestly a huge way people on here say they get to know breeds. i would never think that things like that would count as experience with the dogs either! when i see that on a breeder’s site i usually just walk of shame out of the page because i haven’t owned that breed before (so better find someone who doesn’t mind firsties). in my mind i would be an absolute FREAK if i just walked up to somebody to talk about their dogs, and you madlads are out here every day just like “yeah you know. got 5 new breeder mentors today.” what’s that MEAN guys and where can i get some!! how do you have the confidence for this!

[spanishmal]

Preaching! To! The! Choir!

I partially blame the media. Dog shows are portrayed as these super exclusive, super fancy, super dramatic events. They're not. Responsible dog breeders are portrayed as eccentric (if not downright crazy) people who think they're superior to everyone else. They're not.

Something changed in the last 80 years to cloak the dog world in shadow. In the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s... dog shows were part of mainstream culture. Results were covered in newspapers, in magazines, on television. It was normal to pack up the family and visit the local dog show. You'd go to the newspaper to find a puppy, and end up connecting with a show breeder. That breeder would sell you a dog, convice you to show it, and fifty years later you're judging Westminster!

Things are different now, but the common denominator is still dedication. Once you know where to look, getting a well-bred pet is relatively easy. But if you want more... if you want to be involved in the dog world, have mentors... it takes awhile. It's a lot harder than it looks. I know some of us make it look easy, but at least for me this has been 20+ years of putting everything else I enjoy on the back burner. (And yes, occasionally I resent that.)

I'll address the Mentor Conundrum in another post, becuase it's gonna be long.