Everyone is I think touching on what I think the real issue is.... Education of both the public who are out looking to buy dogs, and of the byb who think they are providing a good service and who feel they ARE doing it ethically. I am not a breeder in any sense. I have 1 male Cavalier who is 9 years old and was neutered at around 1-1/2 years. I had the opportunity to be instructed in what breeding really entailed and decided that I was not in a position to do it, but previous to that probably shared much of the same thoughts and feelings that some of these byb's do. I grew up with dogs around me all the time. They were all mixed breed dogs that my parents either picked up at the local shelter or found in the paper. We had some good ones, and some that suffered the ills of improper breeding. I grew up though hearing that 'purebred' dogs were high strung, that breeding to try to set a type only brought out the worst in personality. As an adult though, I had decided I wanted a dog too. I was a bit concerned that I might end up with a dog that matched some of the more problem dogs I remembered as a child and wondered how I could be sure I would get a good dog. I headed off to the local library to get as many dog books as I could find to see if I could figure out if there was a trick to finding or raising a 'good dog'. That was a real eye opener! It really changed my view on purebreds and breeding/showing. I attended my first dog show soon after and for the first time was introduced to what purebred dogs were all about. So now I was feeling pretty enthused about this, it looked like fun and I thought 'maybe I should get into this breeding thing'. I went back to the library to do some research now on what type of dog I would like to breed. After going thru numerous books I found Sheila Smith's book CKCS Today. That was it, I wanted to breed Cavaliers. I started my search for a breeder to get my first female to get started. The response I got from these breeders though was not at all what I expected. I thought I could just phone one up, place an order for a top quality female and then go pick it up and away I would go. You can imagine what the response was, but what surprised me was how upset these people got and how rude they were telling me there was no way they would sell me such a dog. I finally contacted one breeder who listened patiently and thru a lot of questions found out where I was coming from, being very nice and helpful the whole way. She invited me over to have a look at what breeding entailed and to talk some more. Thru the course of a few months she introduced me to breeding, never selling me that female I wanted though since she said none of these were the quality I wanted ( I know now that those dogs have done very well but she convinced me she was trying to help me find the best, very sneaky). All the time though my eyes were being opened to what was involved in this, how important the health checks were, the lines behind each dog and the value of showing your dogs to see if what you thought you were seeing was true. She then offered to do a breeding with me - I would help pick the dogs, go thru the whole process of mating etc, raise the puppies in my home for a few weeks (from about 4 weeks old to 7 weeks) and help find homes for them. And if we produced the 'top quality' female I was looking for I could have that one to get started. What a big learning experience again. This was just not as simple as I thought it would be. Thankfully she had arranged homes for all of these puppies long before they were all bred, because that really shocked me - how do I find a good home for these puppies I had put all this work into? I couldn't trust an ad in the paper, what if those people didn't really appreciate what they were getting! I was lost! So without my knowing it, she had changed my mind on breeding. I took one of the males and decided to move on to just showing dogs. We had fun and while Duke only showed as a pup (he just never came back into his own after his teenage years) I learnt a lot from that. Now if this breeder hadn't taken the time to be truly helpful, I might have found a Cavalier in a pet shop or from some other source and continued down the path my mind was set on - breeding. So I think education plays a big role in really helping some of these people. And kindness will go a long way. I hinted back at the beginning of this thread that I was a bit put off since I hadn't been welcomed to this list. That wasn't entirely true. In my intro I summarized my whole experience with cavaliers into a couple of sentences thinking that I would be welcomed more if people realized that I have had some experience with Cavaliers other then just being owned by Duke. I assumed that people would think the best, not assume the worst. I was wrong. Some thought that the way I had worded my intro that both I and the breeder who took this time to educate me were bordering on being millers. I got a call from this breeder shortly after as she was upset since while she isn't part of this list, she had been called and questioned about what she was doing. She asked that I never mention her name on this list and that this part of why she refuses to participate in these discussions. So I did get welcomed in a round about way, but negatively. I understand why some feel that way and commend their love of the breed and everything that is good for it. But it is possible that the way we react to those who haven't been given a chance to learn properly may be the very thing that stops them from learning, and we have actually done a big dis-service to our lovely dogs. It is at least something to consider.
Bruce _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
