[Belle Noir]

Gemy, I could give you a hundred likes and thumbs up.

The neighbor lady told me she got the txts and is going to look them over. She thanked me for taking the time to show her what to look for, and that while she feels she's ready for a puppy now, she's going to read over those posts and take more time to look for a new dog.
Then in the next breath she told me she's looking into rescue dogs too... so...
I don't know what she's going to do right now, I don't think she knows what she's going to do right now. All I know and the only thing I can report back to this forum is that I'm fairly confidant that she is NOT going to go back to that site again.

I'm going to warn everyone right here, this is one of my over long too long posts that everyone hates. Stop reading now, I'll give you a headache, lol.

Education is first and foremost, but there is also a paradigm of "us" and "them" that a number of people.. frankly.. have to get over.
Yes, there are ignorant people breeding their dogs and giving them away to friends and family and I read somewhere that statistics show that most of the dog in shelters come from these breeders.
BUT there is something else that people forget, and that is that we're all people. When we, the dog fancy, divide breeders up as "reputable" and "bybs" and "millers" and use derogatory terms such as "greeders", you lose your audience if that person in any way may resemble the less savory terms.
How many people have posted on this board saying I have a pregnant dog, or I bred my dog, and I'm looking for advice and help, and they're immediately shot down. They're told how wrong they were for breeding their dogs because they don't have papers, they don't have health testing done, they don't have this, they are not that, they haven't sat at the feet as an acolyte to one of the breed greats and don't know anything they're doing and they're horrible people for it.
How many of those people stayed?
Very few I am sure.
How many of those people continue to breed?
I dare say most of them.

And I understand it's for love of the breed, I understand that it's passion. I love the breed too, I have passion for the breed as well. But there are those who let the love and passion blind them with suspicion and that can cause them to be very hostile, even if they don't realize it.
I wanted to learn more, and I was accused of being a greeder, of having an agenda, of stirring the pot, of starting trouble because I had questions and opinions. I was all of these negative things to some vocal people.
If I had not had a thicker skin and really couldn't give one jot about what a bunch of strangers on the internet thought of me, I wouldn't be here either, and in fact, sometimes I go away for long hiatuses, not because I don't like this place, or because I don't like the people here, but because I get tired of being attacked for having a well thought out opinion that doesn't fall into the party line.

But I am not most people and most people when they feel attacked for asking what they think is an innocent question get very defensive and shut down, and we as a community have lost an opportunity to educate.
And for everyone we lose, we also lose those people they sell too, unless there is an emergency situation, because they actively TELL people to avoid this site.
You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar (unless they're fruit flies, lolol) and when we attack people, we lose the chance to teach.

I think I have made my position clear more than once. What matters to me is the over all health and well being of the dogs. Before I was a yorkie lover, I was a DOG lover. What matter most to me is that people breed HEALTHY dogs.
It wouldn't bother me if those walking conformational horrors on that site were healthy dogs, but we know over all, they probably aren't.
I'm not worried about championships and most people aren't either. It's nice if a dog looks like it's breed, but so what if it doesn't. Breed looks change. Maybe not the yorkie, but have you gotten a gander at the GSD?
Look at how the collie eye and muzzle have changed... The peke went from a dog to a walking dust mop..
These changes were done by the breed stewards, NOT by back yard breeders and puppy mills. If I want to get a straight backed GSD, I'm NOT going to get one from a "reputable breeder" in the American GSD fancy, am I?
I'm going to HAVE to get one from people who might be breeding healthy dogs with the right health certifications, but because they're not show stock, because they're not champion bloodlines, because they breed and sell "pet quality dogs" (because they breed what is actually a structurally correct dog, NOT exaggerated by show ring fad and fancy), there are people who will call them bybs and millers and greeders...
This isn't right.

I don't have the answers, except to push education.
People breeding off standard dogs aren't going to "ruin" the breed. Why? Because no one in the know, no one in the fancy, the "breed stewards" if you will, aren't going to breed to these off standard dogs.
If I were breeding 20 lb yorkies, I'm not ruining the breed, because no one showing dogs are going to breed to my dogs. If I were breeding partis and other colors, I'm not ruining the breed, because the show people aren't going to breed to my dogs.
So what does it matter, SO LONG as I am breeding HEALTHY dogs? Isn't that what should matter first? Health?

Yes, a yorkie should look like a yorkie, and not like a silky. But how many people are going to be really that much aware of the differences when they can be so subtle to the untrained eye.
Most people buying a pet aren't going to go to the show ring anyway, even if they do have full registration.
And a yorkie should look like a yorkie, not like... whatever those poor things on that site look like...
As ugly as they are, and they ARE ugly, I wouldn't care a bit, except I know that in all likelihood, they're riddled with genetic flaws, health problems and are destined for a short sad life.

That's what the middle ground is, I think.
No one breeding off standard dogs is going to ruin the breed for the show people, and the show people need to let go of the sense of entitlement that they have when it comes to breeding, and allow that there are going to be people that breed pet quality dogs. Maybe instead of castigating these people telling them they need to learn bloodlines and have a mentor and all these other requirements that are only required if you're going to be breeding for the show ring, and making these people feel unwelcomed, it would be better to guide these breeders to breed the same way that show breeders breed when it comes to the health of the dogs.
Because I think that is the most important thing.

By saying that only people that breed for show are reputable, (especially when we know that is an out right lie) those people that are doing the right thing, except breeding for show are being spit in the face.
If you're doing the right thing, except breeding for show, and you're still being called names, why should you waste your time doing the right thing, since you can't win for losing with the show people anyway? You know?

Like I said, I don't know what the answer to this is. I do think there has to be a middle ground. I do know that education is key, and it's not just for the buyers, but for the breeders of pet quality dogs as well, and they both have to be encouraged to do the right thing.
To me, the right thing is insisting on health certification on your parent dogs as the very minimal be you breeder or buyer.

I know I'm rambling, and I am sorry for it. I've probably a touch of heat exhaustion, and this has been on my mind the last couple days.