Adventures Are To Be Had

Going to a dog show tomorrow. Can't read the premium. Totally lost. That's ok, I've got fresh batteries in my camera and GPS.

First off, let me just acknowledge how much the AKC's recent treatment of mixed breed dogs brings to mind the civil rights movement. Come on, you've all been thinking it. I've even seen the word apartheid bandied about. Now that we've got how down right creepy that is (especially in light that purebred dog breeding and the AKC are both very reminiscent of the Victorian Era's wackadoodle social Darwinism), we can move on.

By now it's circled 'round the 'net that the AKC has abolished the Mixed Breed class and now MB dogs will run (or compete in Rally/Obedience, but since I only just barely care about those I'm not going to deal with them) against PB dogs. Many people are happy about this. Many people are not happy about this. My thoughts, let me show you them.

I'm for it. If the AKC is going to let MBs run at all (they don't have to, they're for purebred dogs and if they choose not to let the MBs play in their sandbox that is their right), then for doG's sake let them run. If your trials regularly fill up, don't allow MBs. That's cool. You're overloaded as it is, don't worry about it. But if your classes are so small that everyone who Q's places, maybe you should think about it (and then stop thinking and just do it).

Repeat it with me folks: It's. Just. Dogs.

There is no inherent value in a purebred dog above the already inherent value of a dog by virtue of being a dog. It's just a dog.

There is no inherent value in a mixed breed dog above the already inherent value of a dog by virtue of being a dog. It's just a dog.

The value comes from purpose bred vs. random bred.

Let's take Mr. Jay T. Gatsby as an example. Mr. Gatsby is a purebred Miniature Schnauzer. His parents are Miniature Schnauzers. Their parents are Miniature Schnauzers. And so on and so forth until there stop being Schnauzers. To the AKC, this makes him "better" than a BC mix that herds reindeer in Alaska (ok I'm stretching a little, gimme a break I should be asleep).

Gatsby is, for all intents and purposes, a random bred dog. There was no outside validation of breeding stock, there was no comparison of sires, there was no health testing, there were just two Schnauzers in one room.

He's a great dog, but he's not really what the AKC had in mind (good earthdogs are not scared of rats and tunnels).

And yet they will take him over the BC mix that was bred for work, who's parents were chosen for their ability to take reindeer from one place and put them in another place, who had record of producing good working pups in the past, who were OFA'd and CERF'd because a working dog going lame at three is a pretty bad deal, every. single. time. Because the two dogs in that room both looked the same.

So for doG's sake, let the damn dogs run, you bunch of filthy dirty apes.