Kennel Slander

[Petra]

To kennel owners and breeders: What action if any would you take if you found out someone was slandering your dogs? Do you need some form of proof to take any legal action? This is why a friend and I are going to try and form a new reg. that would have more info. about the dog, and with DNA. ie. if someone was making comments about a kennel having bad bites in their dogs, the dogs could be looked up on the reg., and to look at other dogs that are related. Thoughts....... new pictures of my avatar dog at 7 mo.

[R-Heaton]

Petra,,,, sounds like you have got'n some bad publicity out there. IMO,, I guess I wouldn't worry about,,, its just the nature of the beast. For as long as there has been dog games,,, somebody is going to talk bad about the kennel down the street and espcecially now with the tougher economy people are going to be a little more mad when customers make a choice that doesn't benefit them personally.

I don't think a new registration would help at all,,, you'll have the same people cheating at that one as they did with the old. Bad Bite dogs won't be counted, fighters won't be reported, dysplastic dogs don't count,,,, etc.

IMO this is a one of the positives to Field Trials,,,, not only can you see the dogs that are winning,, but in order to win you have to be there with your dogs on display. People that hang around enough, know the dogs, they come over and pet them, watch there manners around people, study there confirmation,, etc,,, its only the computer people that have to rely on what they read to form and we all know how that goes.

Just IMO

[anthonyauto]

I read a book 10 years ago. I can't remember the title, but it was on dog showing. The first chapter was basically about, "If you don't have something nice to say, say nothing at all". The lesson behind it was that it would always get back to the people, and most importantly, if you were labelled a mud slinger early on, it wasn't something you recovered from.

That being said, it seems like people thrive on it. I won't lie. In my own little tight group of friends, we talk about dogs, their lineage, their breeders, etc. and not always with the most polite standards at heart. It's not something open to the public, just amongst my group of 4 friends or so in the grooming area that I go to shows with and breed with. And sometimes, yes, there are lines out there where with briards, there are missing dew claws, or missing teeth, or bad bites, or bad temperments, and we do discuss it. We don't tell other people, because quite frankly, they'll find out on their own when they purchase dogs from those lines. In some cases, bad press or rumors about your line comes as a retaliation for something you might have said about THEIR line. Is it true? Probably not, or maybe yes to some slight degree, but the way you handle it can define you more as a breeder than anything that comes from your line.

Making another registry is most likely not the right response, but something that the briard world has that many don't is a Rassemblement. I think that if this were held for other breeds, it would revolutionize the breeding world for many breeds. Some breeds have equivilents, but most do not.

A Rassemblement, or Rass as we call them, is a type of evaluation of your dog. Your dog is taken, and examined with excrutiating detail to the breed standard. It is recorded, everything from head, size, coat, color, feet, tail, temperment, expression, etc. It is WRITTEN DOWN and you are given a copy! It is done by more than one judge, and they TOGETHER do the evaluation of your dog. You are not judged against the other dogs, but against the standard. Your dog then gets one of varying degrees, such as Disqualified, Fair, Good, Very Good, and Excellent. Dogs that are rated Excellent sometimes go further and are designated as Pre-Select. Pre-Select go further and later are re-evaluated in a ring where people can sit and listen to the judge's commentary on the dogs as they evaluate them. Based on their evaluation, dogs can then either stay pre-select, or can go to Select. Select dogs are deemed such for their excellent qualities that would be an asset to be passed further through BREEDING.

I suppose what I'm getting to is that after all of this, a picture of the stacked dog, along with the pedigree, and the written evaluation from the judges goes into a book, which is available for purchase. This is a great tool for prospective breeders as they can see which dogs look like CHOOCHOO trains, and which ones are missing teeth, or have screwy dew claws, etc.

I think something like this would be wonderful for other breed clubs to explore.

[CherrystoneWeims]

Years back when I had the #2 Weim there was someone who started a false rumor about him having dysplastic elbows. So I told the handler to take him the next week to get them OFA'd. I also started my OWN rumor that when I found out who was spreading the rumor (I actually knew who it was) they would be slapped with a lawsuit. The rumor stopped. About a year ago someone started a rumor that my stud dog had had HOD as a puppy and was producing bad cases of it. UGH.

Petra,

You know when you have ARRIVED and become a force to be reckoned with when people start false rumors about your dogs. They feel threatened by your success and that is why they start those rumors. Consider it a compliment! Anyone who is winning will have false rumors started about them to make them look bad.

[Kiki's Mom]

Consider it a compliment!

EXACTLY!!!!! There was a similar situation going on with us for awhile too. People who bad mouth others, who try to belittle the hard won successes and in general like to gossip and spread lies in order to make themselves feel better are simply jealous.

Pretend you are duck and let the BS just roll off your back. Kharma is a powerful thing Take the high road.

[kninebirddog]

Consider it a compliment!

EXACTLY!!!!! There was a similar situation going on with us for awhile too. People who bad mouth others, who try to belittle the hard won successes and in general like to gossip and spread lies in order to make themselves feel better are simply jealous.

Pretend you are duck and let the BS just roll off your back. Kharma is a powerful thing Take the high road.

Yep I sure remember that ..that person even PM'd me and other people with their venom and wow was it UGLY... But I knew better that the venom that was being spewed about my friend was coming from someone that was just being mean and spiteful.

[nitrex]

This is why a friend and I are going to try and form a new reg.

Petra, you're not serious are you?

Nitrex

[solon]

With regard to bites and obvious conformation issues, NAVHDA already reports this after each test. Sometimes the judges may not get it right, especially with pups that are teething.

Otherwise, a breed specific open health registry can be a very good thing and quite a few breed clubs maintain these. The registries can record health/genetic problems and also report the good information, like OFA, PennHIP, etc and official conformation judgements. This is a major undertaking and takes a group of like minded participants, since it is dependent on voluntary reporting. The versatile dog breed clubs in Europe, especially Germany, have a system something like this for dogs that go through their breeding approval process. I don't think they have achieved a comprehensive reporting system however. A lot of the breeding of hunting dogs in this country is not under the auspices of any breed club, so this system may only work with the smaller breeds that are largely organized through a breed club.

The Small Munsterlander Club of North America has what we call the Genetic Health Project. We encourage dog owners to report health issues to the database and we have formed a group called "Cooperating Breeders". These breeders agree to report health data of their dogs (both good and bad) and to put in any sales contract that they encourage the new owners to report such information. In this way, new owners should not fear lawsuits from breeders for reporting health problems in dogs they have purchased. The database records the source of the information, e.g. breeder or owner, etc. and where possible, a copy of a vet report should be submitted. The peer pressure promotes breeders to become Cooperating Breeders, otherwise, buyers of pups will be asking themselves the question, why isn't this particular breeder a Cooperating Breeder?; the implication being he/she might be hiding problems in their line. When breeders are contemplating a mating, they can ask the database manager if their are any genetic issues with a particular dog and its related dogs-ancestors, progeny, sibs, and half sibs. It takes time for the database to accumulate data and thus it becomes more useful over time.

Hope this info helps.

Solon

[tenbearsviz]

Let 'em talk.

[anthonyauto]

love the visla avatar.

[Petra]

I was so irratated at this person, this is a personal attack, being done at what is important to me, just when I thought it was gone, it keeps coming back, THANK YOU ALL for the great advice it puts me back into reality and takes the emotion out of it.