1. First Step. 2. Second step.

1. Change what the judges give ribbons for.

After getting council from lawyers, who don't breed dogs/ have a conflict of interest, plan the changes in what dog show judges look for in dogs.

There is no need to get every dog breeder in the country stirred up about this - you know what the vast majority will want - they will want changes that give themselves the best advantage over the other breeders.

You are planning changes that will help the dogs themselves, and the public at large.

Why are you doing this? Because the animal loving public increasingly doesn't like what you are doing.

2. Second step: Respect pets and the people who love pets. Pets are NOT any animals that doesn't show well.

The public who are buying "pet quality" puppies, expects that to mean the puppies have been bred to be quality pets.

The term "pet quality" is a misnomer. Aren't they really just "not good enough for the show ring"?

If I breed dogs as pets, can I label the puppies that are too bad tempered to be sold as pets, "show quality"?

It is the same thing. Call it a lie if you want, but the truth falls on both sides.

If Mary breeds puppies with most of the right instincts to be good pets, and who are usually good with children, can be left in a pack loose in the house, don't bark much, don't require much coat care, and don't shed a lot, and she sells them as good pet puppies - what do you call those puppies who have a bad temper?

Are they "nothing"? "Culls"? "Show Quality"!
Terms like "nothing" or "culls" wont sell the bad tempered puppies. So can Mary call them "show quality" to sell them?

If Joe breeds puppies with most of what it takes to win in the show ring, what do you call those puppies who don't have what it takes to win in the show ring?

Are they "nothing", "culls", or "pet quality"?
If you think they are "pet quality" then, in all fairness, aren't Mary's rejects automatically "show quality" when they aren't good enough to sell as good pets?

Giving it a go (or a heave-ho)

For the people in the small upper percentile, who know what the problems in dog breeding are, have some big picture of the situation at the breeder level, AND who care enough to want to improve dog breeding -

- but for some reason don't want to send the old structure into the trash bin, I am going to try to write a patch up job.

I don't know that it can be done. The world is full of greater minds than mine - and no one has done it yet, but then it doesn't look as if anyone has tried.

My ego is NOT so grand, that I think I can do this, but I am going to try, and if anyone comes along and takes it to the next step, that'll be good with me.

So consider it a first rough draft - that I am letting the public read - not so much because it is great, or even good, but because nothing will get done, unless people try.

I have written about some of the problems (below), now I am going to try to find a few answers, or rather, a few possibilities that might be worth discussing.

I have no idea where this will lead. I might give up after a short while, but for right now, I am going to try to be helpful, and constructive not destructive - although I won't hesitate to conclude that the whole system will never meet my standards and should go down, if I can not find a step by step way to chart a course for improvements.

So lets start off with the assumption that dog shows could be useful to the future of dogs, and that it is possible to divide dogs into separate breeds and still have things go well. (Start with the least likely scenario?).

Patch it Up, or Toss it Out?

There are major problems in dog breeding.

There are puppies being sold with genetic diseases.

Puppies are being bred for one purpose but sold for another - bred for the ring, but sold as family pets.

Health and temperament are often NOT priorities with show dog breeders.

The person producing the puppies (the dog breeder) is often trying to produce traits which the buyers (puppy owners) don't want, or don't care about.

While traits that the family buying the puppy want their puppy to have, are often traits that the dog breeder doesn't want or care about.

Genetic variation is being lost very rapidly. Some of it can never be recovered even if we could stop the inbreeding, and popular sire trends right now. There is no recycle bin for genes, once a gene is extinct, it is gone forever.

There are puppy mills, and smaller scale puppy mills: basement-puppy mills, garage-puppy mills, and extra-bedroom puppy mills, where dogs are kept in crates or cages. It is cruel to the dogs, and often produces inferior puppies that are not bred to be good pets.

Salon agriculture?
There are people breeding purebred dogs who don't even like dogs. They breed a few litters, so that they can claim to be in the business of selling puppies, so that they can use their dogs as a tax shelter. They can be a bossy and very vocal group, trying to get the rules changed into their favor.

Real puppy farmers?
Covered that, under puppymills. That is what for profit breeding often is.

Hobbyist?
On their own, hobby breeders might not be too bad. But they tend to get social, and led around by craftier people who are using dogs as a tax shelter, selling dog related services, using dogs as sport objects, or using dogs in experimental research or product testing.

Dr. Frankenhound?
That bunchers get dogs and sell them into research labs (laboratories), and product testing centers is a fact. It is a business. Pets do get used this way - it can be torture.

Some breeders produce puppies with genetic diseases to sell into research. But many of these puppies end up being sold into pet homes, or to other dog breeders.

Competitive Sports Breeder?
They only want the few puppies that are most likely to win in the ring or in the field. Their left-overs are taking over other areas of dogs, like kudzu in a southern summer. Like someone who breeds fancy carp, and sets the not-fancy-enough carp loose in public waters.

Family Pet Owner?
Pet puppies traditionally have come from other people's pets. A neighbor's dog has a litter of mutt puppies, and one of your kids asks "Can we have one?". This seems to be the best way to produce pet puppies.

It is often best that ranchers produce sheepdogs, that mushers produce sled dogs, that hunters produce hunting dogs, that pet owners produce pet puppies.

Two things have messed up this traditional method of producing puppies.

1. The pet market is the largest demand for puppies. Commercial breeders have pushed the pet owners out of their own turf. Pet owners are too naive, and the business people too organised.

2. Some uses for dogs, produce a large unwanted surplus of puppies.

Competitive events, like dogs shows, means that only those puppies most likely to win in the ring, have any value to the show breeders - the rest of the show-bred puppies will not find a home with a show dog person.

So the left over puppies are sold as pets, or as "pet quality", although there were not bred to be good pets. The traits selected for were NOT: how good they are with children, how easy they are to house-train, if they can be left in the house without destroying it, if they don't bark all day, and if they have a desire to please.

Other competitive events have a similar effect. Only the most likely to win puppies have value to their breeder - the rest are sold as pets. This includes breeding fighting dogs: the puppies that are not quite "game" enough, or not "game" at all, are sold as pets.

Time Magazine

One of the best articles on buying a puppy or dog, what NOT to breed dogs for, and a general understanding of the problem. By Time Magazine.

And, no, nothing has been done to fix the problems in dog breeding.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981964,00.html
A Terrible Beauty.