At 11:18 AM -0400 7/15/01, Kaye Ames wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
> I have to speak up on this issue. Ask any Bearded Collie breeder from
>the 70's and 80's about their issues on trimming.
I usually lurk on this list, but occasionally feel I must contribute.
I am one of the pioneer Bearded Collie breeders in North America.
Beardies were first shown in Canada, then 6 years later, the AKC
admitted them. While we had managed to hold the grooming line
(mostly) in Canada, once the AKC showing began, the breed began the
rapid turnover to hairdresser's delight. Both Canadian and American
standards have clear and emphatic statements requiring the breed to
be shown in a natural state and forbidding any trimming whatsoever.
So, have you looked in the Beardie ring lately? Scissored,
sculptured, moussed and who knows what else. Breed club letters to
judges and breed seminars for judges haven't helped.
And the style of showing changed, too, once handlers got into the
breed. Beardies were traditionally shown standing naturally on a
loose lead, tail wagging, alert and interested in what was going on,
and gaiting at an easy trot again on a loose lead. Nowadays, I guess
the more the dog resembles a statue when standing (with every foot
placed and glued to the ground, and even the tail draped carefully
across the hock and just lying there) and the faster it races around
the ring when gaiting (and the more steps it has to take), the more
winning it does.
When I started considering a second, smaller breed, I fell in love
with a Cavalier at one of the training classes I taught and started
watching them in the ring. (This was in Canada, way before AKC took
them in.) They reminded me so much of Beardies in their happy
attitude, the natural coat and silly slippers, the way they were
never stacked or strangled. I watched them for years before I
finally got one nearly 6 years ago. And then AKC accepted the breed.
And I saw happening to Cavaliers, with even greater speed, what had
happened to Beardies. Now the silly slippers are "neatened", the
flowing ears sculpted and trimmed straight across at the bottom, the
coat carefully (but not invisibly) shaped. Now they, too, are shown
by handlers as much as by owners, are stacked and positioned, and
judges get impatient when a Cavalier on the table wants to kiss
rather than stay still. And they speed around the rings with their
leads held straight above their heads. And I want to cry.
Whenever this topic comes up on dog lists, some gung-ho exhibitor is
bound to say "But it's a dog *show* !" as though they equate it with
a fashion show. Maybe we should go back to calling them
"exhibitions", so we can remember that the original (and IMHO
*only*) purpose in showing is to pick future breeding stock, by
comparing them to the standard and -- even more important -- by
seeing their progeny (who don't inherit any of the grooming or
handling).
I'll get off my soapbox now and go back to lurking. Thanks for listening.
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Toronto area, Canada
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