Episode 700: Re-imagining Dog Shows and Dog Breeding

It’s become a tradition here at Pure Dog Talk to celebrate the important milestones. Episode 700 feels surreal to me! Since November of 2016, NINE years, I’ve been hopping in the van with you guys for your road trips, joining you on the treadmill and the lawnmower, at the grooming table and discussions around the dinner table. Crazy talk! But, here we are. This year we even kicked off a new adventure with the Marty and Laura Show, reaching out to the general public, your puppy buyers and your cousin’s uncle’s girlfriend with trusted, knowledgeable information on all things pet health. We’ve also developed the Pedigrees to Pups Seminar series and are actively in process of making those available as courses on demand. I’ve got a new audio book about to hit the shelves and a long list of really excellent conversations upcoming. So the future looks bright in podcastlandia. I’m just a little concerned I’m going to be talking to myself here eventually. As I watch the sport of dog shows dwindle, litter registrations drop off and dog breeders retire, age out, drop out and give up, it gives me pause for our future. I had a call recently from a long time judge who shared my concerns about the “future of the sport.” It’s not a new conversation. It’s been around for at least the last 25 years. And we’re still here chugging along. A little more spread thin with lots and lots and lots of small shows. A little greyer and gimpier. My friend discussed various initiatives from AKC that she thinks are to blame. But honestly I think it’s simple. Dog shows are expensive. Breeding dogs is ridiculously expensive. And really hard. You get the tremendous highs but those heartbreaking lows are really hard to take. Those of us who have dedicated our lives to this can’t understand why people don’t want to abuse their bodies, emotions and wallets for the chance at creating that one big winner. But a thing one of my guests said recently has really stuck with me. In his book Familiaris, David Wroblewski touches on a theme that I think we need to let roll around in our minds for a while. His fictional dog breeder character describes the importance of creating something lasting and beautiful in the world. The idea of pursuing one impossible thing. That dog breeding is something like a “great quest” and gives our lives purpose. So here’s my pitch. We need MORE dog breeders, not fewer. But we need more GOOD dog breeders. People who put the dogs not the profit margin first. Not saying making money is a sin. It isn’t. But when you center the dogs, the breed and the buyers, you might not retire a billionaire, but you won’t go broke either. We’ve spent a good bit of time this year on providing content that helps people understand HOW to do this and do it well. That’s a big part of why we created the Pedigrees to Pups seminars. We had Matt Stelter on to talk about website and content creation. We talked to my friend BB who started a YouTube channel with his Brittany litter. My challenge, dear listeners, is to extend your involvement. If you haven’t yet, consider working with your breeder to whelp and raise a litter under their guidance. Decide that ribbons get dusty, but building a strong family of dogs who will go on to bring joy to hundreds maybe even thousands of people over multiple decades is a vision worth having. It is a lifetime project that is WORTH your time, your effort, your investment, your blood, sweat and tears. Because I promise you, when you start walking toward the end of your path, and you look back at your “body of work” with pride and love and the extended family of puppy buyers going back decades, it IS worthy of your effort. Building something lasting doesn’t have to be a bridge out of concrete. It can be as real and as warm as the trusting gaze of an old friend looking out at you from the eyes of a new puppy. We don’t have to buy the propaganda that PETA has sold us. We don’t have to hide our dogs and our passion. We don’t have to accept that the general public has zero concept of animal husbandry. WE can be the difference. We can use our voices to educate. If you aren’t comfortable speaking yourself, share resources like this one or the marty and laura show. AKC has resources. Our world is *drowning* in information that isn’t getting to the audience that needs to hear it. Preaching to the choir ain’t going to  fix it y’all. We don’t have to accept anti breeder legislation. WE can introduce ourselves as subject matter experts and be the ones the lawmakers call when in doubt. WE do have the power of our own destinies. Somehow, we have allowed those to be stolen from us by slick slogans and people who have never bred a litter of puppies in their lives telling us how to do what we do. And I don’t mean AKC. I mean YOU. Literally, you. Our numbers may not be legion, but our passion is. It is long past time that we stand proud with that in our communities. So, do a quick check on your heart. Are you showing that gorgeous bitch to her triple quintuple grand champion platinum? How about you breed her? Or at least support someone in the trenches who is doing the work and buy a new dog. And yes, you can find someone to sell you a good dog. I promise. If you’re struggling, email me. I’ll help. We need you guys, All y’all, to hang with it. To dream. To plan. To get knocked down and *get back up again*! No matter what tragedy, what horror, what sadness or betrayal, it’s a safe bet you aren’t alone. Surround yourself with positive people who find constructive ways to improve instead of finding other people to blame. Find your tribe. If you haven’t already, I invite you to join ours. The Pure Dog Talk Patrons community is deep and rich with support and knowledge and camaraderie. Stop by the website and click the Patrons tab to join us. Everyone starts somewhere and certainly I’m no exception. Nine years ago I didn’t know what a podcast even was. Mary kept pushing me to host this thing and I just was baffled. I googled and poked around and most of them were booooooring things about stuff I couldn’t understand. Then I ran across a name I knew! Back in the Seattle days, I was running the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and one of our sponsors was The Stranger, a sort of alternative newspaper. The primary reason it was semi famous was one columnist, a dude I knew to wave at by the name of Dan Savage and his, mmm, quirky sex advice column called Savage Love. And there it was! The Savage Love podcast! He had *500* episodes at the time and I figured I’d make it a goal to surpass that…. I’m past that now, but I haven’t quite managed to eclipse the kinky sex pod, so I guess we’ll just have to keep trying! And that’s kind of a circular way of making my point … Keep going, find a way to motivate yourself and keep going some more. While you’re at it, help me beat Savage Love! Like, share, review and subscribe. Talk ON. Peace….