I came across the following statement on a dog blog today –
“we, dog owners, decide on the dogs that are popular and we do it for a whole range of different reasons”
It was in response to the Kennel Club (London) trying to highlight the plight of certain British pedigree dogs in regards to dwindling registrations in these breeds, to the point where if nothing is done about it, soon these breeds will be no longer.
The author of the above statement thinks that it should be up to Joe Public to decide on what breeds survive and which ones don’t. S/he thinks that these endangered breeds are in this predicament due to their own fault – basically they are not appealing enough to today’s potential dog owner.
If Joe Public is to decide on what breeds of dogs survive and which ones don’t then I hope that they have been in receipt of a standard education, and can write by hand, in plain English / their first language, and maybe even spell the breeds of dogs they are interested in.
You see, if we left it to the people that go for so called designer breeds to decide on the fate of the Dandie Dinmont Terrier or Otterhound, these breeds wouldn’t have a chance. These same people would have no problem shelling out over 1000 euro or sterling for a dog of mixed parentage, not having a clue as to the real requirements of both breeds, or where the pup came from, temperament of both parents or the conditions it was raised in. All this just because a Hollywood star or A list celebrity was spotted with one peeking it’s head out of a designer handbag, and is now splashed across some glossy magazine cover.
People that make a breed choice based on the above surely should have no input into the future of the breeds the Kennel Club are trying to highlight, or any breed for that matter, as the lack of proper education that they clearly show by making these designer breeds popular should send alarm bells to anybody with half a brain, and that maybe the Kennel Club are worth listening to. They were after all founded in 1873, so you’d think they would have a bit more to go on when it comes to dogs than the majority of Joe Public !
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