"The Power of Language"

[jdarling]

Author: "Elizabeth Brinkley" elizabeth@dantekenn els.com

Mon Jun 30, 2008

Below is an article I wrote for a breed magazine. It is copyrighted and will be published in 4 breed magazines over the next few months by Reporter Publications. Since it's my article, I am giving permission for it to be crossposted with attribution to myself and Reporter Publications.

Elizabeth

 

The Power of Language

 

What’s in a word? A lot of power for good or bad. When did being a breeder become a "bad" thing? When I first got into Shelties, my mentors proudly had a sign out front proclaiming _______ Kennels. They knew they sold (yes I said SOLD - not placed or adopted) quality show dogs and healthy pets. They were proud of their dogs and their hobby. I was so looking forward to the day when I could have a couple of acres out in the country and do the same. Now I feel cheated. I have a sign out front - in very small letters it says my kennel name but ONLY the name not the word "kennel". There’s another sign nearby. It says "Posted - No trespassing" . Guess that’s a sign of the times.

 

Friends tell me they don’t have a "kennel". Their dogs are kept in "dog rooms" not kennel rooms. Others say "ALL my dogs are house dogs". When did keeping dogs in a kennel become a bad thing? When did keeping multiple dogs become bad? Several of our founders made a substantial part of their income from the sale of pet puppies. Now people hide their numbers and won’t even tell other breeders exactly how many dogs they have. Others say "I only breed for myself". When did it become a hateful thing to breed a pet or two? Or even (horrors - gasp) make a profit from puppy sales? I know I am always proud when I sell a puppy to someone who will show it but that’s not because I am ashamed that I may have produced a "pet quality" puppy but because I am proud that my pups are going to a home where they will be active mentally and physically in breed and performance rings. I am proud that someone who shows would want a puppy I produced. I am equally pleased and proud when I place a healthy pet with someone who will cherish and spoil it for a lifetime.

 

In the last twenty years, there has been a gradual mind change in our country. Part of it is simply that we are becoming a more urban/suburban country and far less rural. People don’t grow up on farms working with animals on a daily basis. Pets have become the replacement for children for many upwardly mobile people who spoil them and treat them as "furkids" and "furbabies". I cringe every time I hear those words - especially from a breeder. The pet industry is a multimillion dollar money machine with clothes, and soft crates and designer treats for pampered pooches. Celebrities use them as accessories. And the fact that they are ANIMALS is forgotten. No wonder people raise such a fuss when a dog "bites" someone. An animal did what animals do and most likely some where a human made a mistake with that animal either the owner in training it or the person who approached it. When I was a child it was drilled into us - NEVER approach a strange animal. Wonder how many kids get any training in that today? If you want to know the true facts on the "dog bite" epidemic in our country read "Dogs Bite But Balloons and Slippers Are More Dangerous" by Janis Bradley. You are more likely to get hit by lightening or slip and fall in a bathtub than you are to be killed by a dog attack. But people have forgotten they are animals. They think of their dogs as their "fur child" and they feel a sense of betrayal and rejection when they get bitten by their dog or it bites someone else.

 

The other part of this equation is far more insidious. The animal rights cult has grown and spread and is fast becoming part of our mainstream thinking. With them comes the use of words such as "puppymill". Every time I hear some breeder pointing at another breeder and calling them a puppymill I want to smack heads and take numbers. I don’t feel a need to go into depth on this issue since Charlotte Clem McGowan has done a fabulous job covering the subject in her recent article. I will simply say that in thirty four years in this breed, I have NEVER gone to visit a so-called "puppymill" breeder in Shelties that actually turned out to be a "puppymill". Sometimes they had more dogs than some people approved of and sometimes they didn’t "keep" their dogs the way others think they should, but never have they turned out to be "puppymills" such as the AR groups love to show on TV with the filthy wire cages and sad-eyed dogs wallowing in their own filth. In fact two breeders that

someone called a "puppymill" have ended up being among my best friends. Jealousy was the reason for those accusations. I have visited horrible breeding situations with rescue but never was it someone who was actually a Sheltie show breeder. Maybe I have just been lucky - or maybe it’s not as common a situation as the AR groups would have us believe.

 

The Humane Society of the United States has just announced to the media that there are 900 puppymills in the state of Virginia, many of them "unlicensed commercial kennels" and selling puppies through the Internet. You couldn’t hide 900 unlicensed puppymills in the entire state of Virginia. Most likely some of those "unlicensed and selling through Internet" breeders they are referring to are US - show breeders who keep our numbers down so we don’t have to be licensed as commercial and have fancy websites to show off our dogs. The animal rights fanatics consider ANYONE who breeds even ONE litter to be a puppymill. Their motto is "don’t breed while others die" meaning the dogs put down in shelters. You can read Nathan Winograd’s excellent new book "Redemption, The Myth of Pet Overpopulation" for a commonsense approach to this "problem" that the shelters and AR groups are using as a weapon to attack breeders.

 

Other word changes brought into common usage by the AR groups is that of "rescue" and "adoption" and "placement" and homevisits. It has become harder to take in a stray than to adopt a human child. I wonder how many people have gotten turned off by some of the attitudes found in the more radical "rescue" groups and gone away when they would have been an excellent home for an animal but didn’t feel like being subjected to an inspection process that requires a life history before they can have a pet. I was refused an "adoption" on a cat a few years ago. The reason - I had intact dogs! What did they think - the dogs are going to breed the cat? Or I am a bad person because I have intact dogs that I show? This goes hand in hand with the move among the AR groups to change the language of the law from animal "owners" to animal "guardians". I am sure a lawyer could address this in far better detail than I but I do know that the word "guardian" has well established limits and definitions under current law. Do you really want some AR slanted animal control officer able to come into your home at anytime without a warrant and tell you that you can’t remove dewclaws or write you a ticket because your dogs don’t have water bowls in their crates 24/7? That could be our future if we become the "guardians" of our dogs instead of proud owners.

 

There comes a point where we have to start drawing lines in the sand and refusing to give in to the politically correct language that has infiltrated society from the far out AR groups who really don’t seem to like animals all that much. Mostly they just seem to hate people. To Ingrid Newkirk of PeTA "A rat is a pig is a boy." To me "a dog is a dog is an animal". I am proud to say that I am a breeder of purebred Shetland Sheepdogs. Shakespeare said "that which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet." And dog poop is still just as stinky.

 

I own dogs who live in a kennel and I am a breeder. And that’s my final word.

 

Elizabeth Brinkley

Legislative Liaison

Three Rivers SSC of Greater Pittsburgh

[bc4pack]

The article is also making the rounds on the yahoo dog lists.

[grenzehund]

Are there any working Shelties around anymore? Or is that just the "historical background" of the breed?

 

Susan

[JaderBug]

This article is awesome... deserves a standing ovation!

[juliepoudrier]

Are there any working Shelties around anymore? Or is that just the "historical background" of the breed?

 

Susan

Susan,

There are shelties that compete in AKC and AHBA herding trials. I guess the folks who own those dogs consider them working dogs, but I think that like a lot of other formerly purpose-bred dogs they are only a shadow of what they used to be. Popularity as pets helped insure that too.

 

As for the article, the author makes some good points. But I think--like Mary pointed out in the thread about legislation in the Politics and Culture section--one has to consider the source, and therefore the spin. At least for the puppymill question, in my opinion the breeder can have the cleanest of kennels and breed beautiful animals, but if they're putting bunches of litters on the ground each year, they're a mill (to me milling is about numbers, not just about conditions). They just aren't as awful as some of the mills publicized by the AR folks. But pumping out a gazillion of them can't really be good for any breed of "livestock."

 

J.

[bcpon]

Interesting article... Although I know the author was simply trying to make a point, having completed an international adoption and nearing the one year anniversary of bringing our son home, I can assure everyone that adopting a stray is NOT harder than adopting a child! Now, I will say that having our biological daughter was easier for me in many ways than whelping my 1st litter of bc puppies. Nobody ever asked me if I'd had my hips checked, my hearing tested, my eyes checked out, and why I thought my husband and I were worthy of reproducing!!!!

[MrSnappy]

This article is awesome... deserves a standing ovation!

 

Does it? Why?

 

Ask Sheltie rescues if the article deserves a standing ovation.

 

I am not philosophically opposed to breeding, but am opposed to most breeders, since the ones who retain their morality once they start pumping out puppies seem to be few and far between. Just about everyone who breeds thinks they are a good breeder, and their opinions are just as subjective as the person who feels that maybe they are not. So these sorts of 'opinion pieces' can go back and forth until the dogs bring the cows in, it doesn't actually expose any truths or facts.

 

I don't think there is anything admirable about making your "tidy" living shucking out litter after litter for sale to the pet owning public. It is even less admirable when you consider how many dogs are being gassed in a shelter right now that could be owned by that same pet owning public. I don't think you can laud this woman and her pride in selling pet quality dogs, while also cursing the sport dog breeder or standing firmly in the "proven working dogs only" camp.

 

I also object to her google-psychoanalysis of today's pet owning population. That sort of pop analysis is fine for casual discussion boards but ultimately pretty lame for any allegedly serious publication. I object equally to statements like "AR activists consider ONE litter a puppymill" and other over-the-top statements with a similar lack of merit. She is pushing her own agenda just as hard as anyone she accuses of having a contrary agenda, and with the same nonsensical rubbish.

 

This article, IMO, does not deserve a standing ovation, it deserves a trip to the dust bin.

 

RDM

[Tea]

I am always interested in conversations like these. I cannot speak for dogs as I do not breed dogs. However I have found some fine working sheepdogs in shelters that I have adopted and they work for their living. They live in the house. They would not be great pets. We also have a rescued sled dog team that if they were not run with the dry land rig or in the mountains with the tobaggon sled they would be pretty tough to have.

 

But I do know horses. I was raised in an agricultural family and turned pro in the horse buisness at an early age. I have made my living in it for over 30 years.

 

It seems a matter of ethics, honor, common sense and reality that have guided me, I was taught these things.

 

I learned something when our non-profit first started.

 

We had horses come into rescue for one of a few reasons.

 

1. Not sound

2. Mentally screwed up

3. Old -should be retired

4. Too much horse for owner.

 

On number one- horses not sound. My feeling is this happens because people do not put soundness, good, feet, legs, first in their breeding program. And if they are not working horses hard. They don't acutually need to. If you need a horse to go 15 miles every other day and pull a plow and hunt on the weekend. If money is tight you will not breed a horse that needs shoes, grain or has bad legs. Also a sound mind will work well.

 

On number two- Most people need to admit to themselves that if they do not know how to start a horse they should not do it.

Get help, same with dogs.

 

On number 3- My old Pop told me that it isn't honorable to not retire a working horse. If a family cannot afford to that is different. If a horse is physically fouled up it might be better off being put down. My last three day horse the one I rode to the top died at age 32 here at the project. I was lucky I could retire him in that way as he put food on my table all his working carreer.

 

Number 4- This is a tough one to admit to. But every rider needs a certain type of horse and not all horses are suited to all riders. I guess this is the same with dogs. One of my lead dogs. A tall Alaskan that just runs forever was bought as a pet by an elderly couple, who loved him. But he was not a dog they could walk in the park on a leash.

Oh my GOSH!

 

We do not rescue horses any more as our project concentrates on wildlife.

 

But I wonder sometimes where all this will lead.

 

I do breed my stallion. He is a working sire. I have all his get under contract. I do not breed lightly. I only breed to sound, sane, working mares that are in a working home. I do this because a life without the partnership of horses and of dogs, and a life without raising sheep is unfamthomable to me. But I must be honorable. They must be very good. And the only thing that really helps keep them that way is work.

 

Old Pop told me that the domesticated animals came to humanity to form partnership because we needed them. But we were supposed to take care of them very well. And that includes keeping them sound and sane and with a job. At least in my humble opinion.

 

As far as pets I do not know how to figure that out. I like a working relationship but our animals share our lives. We help each other. There are so many lovely dogs in rescue that are great pets.

[Shetlander]

Although I know the author was simply trying to make a point, having completed an international adoption and nearing the one year anniversary of bringing our son home, I can assure everyone that adopting a stray is NOT harder than adopting a child!

 

That little vent at Rescues bugged me too. You may not agree with what some Rescues expect of adopters, but that doesn't make it anywhere near the involved process of child adoption. And you can always go somewhere else for a puppy where the options are rather limited for children and babies. There are breeders who have what I consider highly unacceptable conditions of purchase. Again, I can go many other places including some wonderful rescues for my next dog.

 

She had some good points, points that many of members of these Boards have made. And if I was looking for a Sheltie, she sounds like someone I'd at least be interested in talking to. I think good breeders (not that I'm making an assumption she is good, bad or indifferent) serve a useful purpose. The problem really does come down to who is to say what is good or how many is too many, not to mention all the wonderful dogs out there literally dying for want of a decent home.

 

As far as working abilities of Shelties, for the vast majority I've known, they are delightful companions who often excel in performance sports. They are also prone to a some temperament issues (shyness is a huge problem) and the usual assortment of health concerns you find in any popular AKC breed. I adore Shelties but in general see lots of what I consider "confused herding instincts" rather than true ability and potential.

[mbc1963]

Again, I understand the author's point, and her frustrations, and actually have similar viewpoints about a lot of red-tape legislation that affects MY work: education.

 

However, I do think that we live in a different culture than the one from even 40 years ago, when I was a kid. Back then, at least where I lived, puppies were accidentally bred, and carted around in wagons. You picked one, you paid $5 (or nothing), and you took him home. You knew the family who owned the mother, and you hoped your dog was OK. Sometimes, if puppies weren't wanted, they were killed (kindly or unkindly) by the family whose dog gave birth to them. Sometimes, they went to the shelter. The culture that existed in the suburbia of my childhood didn't involve careful breeders or pure-bred dogs; it was all amateur, allatime. Overpopulation of pets wasn't a problem, because people had rifles, and sacks to drown things in.

 

I have no personal experience of puppy mills, nor of "good" breeders, but I do believe that there are people who treat and breed animals as if they were inanimate objects. I think it's a positive thing that our culture has evolved to see that animals are sentient, and to legislate against animal cruelty - just as I think it's a good thing we no longer send children to work in coal mines. (I'll even cave and admit that I think schools are better off now that legislation forbids me from whacking a kid with a ruler!)

 

We have evolved from a largely agrarian society to a largely urban/suburban society. It makes sense that the way we integrate animals into our lives changes, too. A hundred years ago, it wouldn't have created too many problems if a farmer had twelve unfixed dogs running around his property. Nowadays, in my crowded little city, it would be a HUGE problem. Maybe dogs have been bred under cruel conditions for hundreds of years. Seems like a crappy tradition, though. Let's raise the bar for ourselves, since we have the societal wealth and leisure time to do so.

 

As far as "Furbabies," well... I avoid public use of the word "baby" to describe my dog. I understand why it offends women who have real, human babies. I will say, though, as a woman without kids, that there is a whole lot of nurturing energy just buzzing around me like a fruit flies around a rotten banana. Taking in a weird dog and working to get him closer to "normal" has given me something to do with that energy. I've learned a lot about dog and human psychology. He's let me get to know my neighbors the way mothers with toddlers know their neighbors - because people light up and talk to you when you're with a dog or a baby. I think it's a delightful new role for dogs to play in world.

 

Mary

[jamesqf]

I probably am preaching to the choir here, but to my mind the so-called animal rights cult is not all that far removed from the show dog cult. Both are using the dog as an extension of the cultist's ego, without really trying to understand what dogs really are, and how they have co-evolved with humans over ten thousand years or so.

[JaderBug]

I guess I agreed with it because I don't understand why there is such a stigma around breeders like the author suggests. By no means do I support puppymills or irresponsible BYBs. I know some people that breed puggles (blech!)- they have 2 beagles and a male pug- there is no strategy or really any thought to it, it's basically "Well would you look at that! Beagle girl is pregnant!! Gee, I wonder when she'll have her puppies...". They never have any problems selling their puppies and I'm not sure there's any follow-up or return-policy, but they ARE the stereotypical BYBs, breeding to make a buck just because they've got females and a male- I'm pretty sure the male came from a puppymill in the first place, they bought him out of the back of some guy's truck. I don't approve of this type of "breeder" behavior AT ALL.

 

Responsible breeding is extremely important, and if you screen homes, are careful about where your pups go, and breed for a purpose for the betterment of the breed (not 'just to make money'), I don't think you should be penalized for producing puppies. I don't think breeding should be as 'sinful' as people make it out to be. IMO... responsibility is key.

[Pearse]

I find almost nothing laudable in this article. It boils down to:

 

I show Shelties, breed Shelties, and sell Shelties for profit.

I don't care what you think.

If you disagree with me, you're probably an animal rights loonie.

Some people treat dogs like accessories.

I will continue to breed Shelties.

 

There's no refutation of the HUSA and PETA position other than "they say there are 900 puppy mills in VA. I don't believe them".

 

There's an attempt to equate the use of terms "rescue" and "adoption" with radical animal rights philosophies.

 

It's a poorly written, intellectually lazy, self-justifying rant that does nothing to advance understanding of responsible breeders. It also has nothing to do with Border Collies. Someone else drew a parallel with the John Yates article posted in the Politics section, which was equally hysterical, poorly sourced, and propagandistic in my opinion.

 

Pearse

[Ninso]

It's a poorly written, intellectually lazy, self-justifying rant that does nothing to advance understanding of responsible breeders.

 

Well stated Pearse! Regardless of the validity of her conclusion (although I'm not exactly sure what it is), I hate to see "argumentative" pieces like this supported by purely emotional and opinionated evidence rather than sound logic.

[MrSnappy]

It also has nothing to do with Border Collies.

 

To be fair, neither does the scintillating story of someone's nose dripping, or someone else's intent to go to animal personality school.

 

Come to think of it, you raise a good point. I would like to see people remembering not to post the off topic stuff in topical sections. Again. Maybe it's time for another reminder from the moderator, or a link to the off topic / off the board place that someone set up a while back.

 

RDM

[painted_ponies]

Check out her webpage: Dante Kennels According to her, the Hunte corporation and big box pet stores are doing the public a service. I also noticed she's put three litters on the ground at her place since October. I bet I know why she doesn't have much complimentary to say about rescues - I'd love to know what the sheltie rescues in her part of the world say about her.

[Pearse]

Check out her webpage: Dante Kennels According to her, the Hunte corporation and big box pet stores are doing the public a service. I also noticed she's put three litters on the ground at her place since October. I bet I know why she doesn't have much complimentary to say about rescues - I'd love to know what the sheltie rescues in her part of the world say about her.

 

You're as bad as she is. You imply she's a bad breeder because she holds views you don't agree with and she's bred three litters since October, and you imply her dogs end up in rescue based on damn all in the way of evidence.

 

For all you know, she may have placed every one of those pups in a very good pet or show home and until you know otherwise, you'd be best to keep insinuations to the contrary out of public forums.

 

She does not say that commercial breeders are doing the public a service. She says that they are regulated and inspected, are likely to produce healthier pets than non-regulated breeders, and that they would be breeding or selling were there not a market for their product. Not sure that I agree with her on the health issue or on the efficacy of inspections (AKC or FDA) but at least present her point of view somewhat accurately.

 

Pearse

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Wow, Sally, good catch!

 

I vote that this belongs in either "Breeding" or "Coffee Break". Doesn't matter much to me since I read using the "View New Posts" option. But there's a definite point there.

[painted_ponies]

You're as bad as she is. You imply she's a bad breeder because she holds views you don't agree with and she's bred three litters since October, and you imply her dogs end up in rescue based on damn all in the way of evidence.

Nope, based on sad and weary experience, my friend. Not of this particular breeder, it is true. But she sure is quacking and walking for all the world like the duckheads rescues clean up after.

 

For all you know, she may have placed every one of those pups in a very good pet or show home and until you know otherwise, you'd be best to keep insinuations to the contrary out of public forums.

Well, I don't know for sure I won't see little winged piggies flying past my window, but it's damned unlikely. And what do you suppose will happen to me if I make a statement, insinuation, or whatever on a public forum about a matter of public interest posted on another public forum?

 

She does not say that commercial breeders are doing the public a service.

Does, too.

Dante Kennels website:

Petland and Hunte

probably do a much better job of selling commercial bred dogs

than the mass breeders of doodles and poos and the chances of

a Petland dog being healthy are way ahead of what the chances

are for the mutt imported from Mexico or Puerto Rico.

[mbc1963]

To be fair, neither does the scintillating story of someone's nose dripping...

 

Hey, I was grooming my BORDER COLLIE in that story.

 

Personally, I don't mind seeing philosophical discussions of dog-related stories in this "general" section. Sometimes I think the most interesting and educational discussions stray from being "on topic." That's the way human conversations flow - starting in one place, drifting to another. This topic is definitely about general dog breeding and welfare, which I think encompasses BCs as well as shelties.

 

I suspect there's a corollary to Godwin's Law at work, though - something about how off-topic discussions are much better tolerated if neither side has very heated opinions about the topic.

 

Mary

[Lenajo]

Hmmmm....the lady writes an article where she talks about keeping a kennel full of Shelties to sell, at profit, for pets. How does she know they make good pets? She doesn't keep them in the house or under circumstances "normal" to a pet home.....

 

Isn't this the same arguement as when people say they are breeding working Border Collies, but don't own any stock, nor do they even work stock belonging to others on a regular basis?

 

The truth hurts.

[blackNwhite]

Susan,

There are shelties that compete in AKC and AHBA herding trials. I guess the folks who own those dogs consider them working dogs, but I think that like a lot of other formerly purpose-bred dogs they are only a shadow of what they used to be. Popularity as pets helped insure that too.

 

As for the article, the author makes some good points. But I think--like Mary pointed out in the thread about legislation in the Politics and Culture section--one has to consider the source, and therefore the spin. At least for the puppymill question, in my opinion the breeder can have the cleanest of kennels and breed beautiful animals, but if they're putting bunches of litters on the ground each year, they're a mill (to me milling is about numbers, not just about conditions). They just aren't as awful as some of the mills publicized by the AR folks. But pumping out a gazillion of them can't really be good for any breed of "livestock."

 

J.

 

They also compete in ASCA (including cattle work) and ISDS (novice/novice) as well - at least mine do. As to 'a shadow of what they used to be' I'm not sure about this. I'm not clear that shelties were ever the elite of the sheepdog world although given that they have been shown for so long in conformation one must surmise that some of the ability has been lost. I don't, however, have any proof that the shelties of today are significantly lacking in ability over former generations. I don't know of anyone, however, that breeds them that is only breeding for working ability. The best you can get is a breeder breeding for an emphasis on working ability along with everything else.

Shelby