Three years on...

So tonight I watched Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On. And I was inspired to start writing down my take on the dog world, in an attempt to gather my thoughts, opinions and notes to ultimately help me in the future.

Pedigree Dogs Exposed shook the dog world to the core and was a massive "sit up and listen!" to everyone who loves dogs including myself. I'll be honest, I knew dog inbreeding was bad and caused some problems but not to that degree. For anyone interested in the original programme you can find it here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhXHFOrBbEc

Three years on looked at what had happened after the outcry. After Pedigree Chum refused to be involved in dog shows. After the BBC axed the showing of Crufts. And personally I felt it was a very balanced representation of the dog world as it is today. Some may argue that there wasn't much on the good that the Kennel Club are doing, but there was; They praised the donation of funding towards the Animal Health Trust DNA Test centre, they acknowledged the decision to register the dalmation "mongrel" as a dalmation, they confirmed that the Kennel Club has now banned brother-sister, mother-son matings etc. All of which were also echoed in the Kennels Clubs film "Dogs, A Healthy Future" which I also watched.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrWjVFKuAg8

I don't want this to turn into a which is better, I think this, the kennel club is bad, the kennel club os good debate. But a chance to gather my observations and thoughts on all these publications of what is happening within the dog world.

Watching programmes such as PDE and Dogs-AHF is there does appear to be a reoccurring theme. The individuals feeling of attack/competition.
Lets take a step back and look at something which was said in PDE:Three Years On.
"The Kennel Club doesn't even suggest a level of inbreeding. Unlike the Swedish Kennel Club, and there it works."
This reminded me of something I was once told in a lecture at University. The topic was Foot and Mouth disease and how UK managed the outbreak and how the UK manages herd health as a general rule. I remember out lecturer telling us how Sweden was incredibly successfull in controlling disease within their country and remaining free of most diseases. He continually praised how efficient and quick they are at settling most situations which are a cause of concern. So that is two examples now where Sweden is better than the UK. So why can Sweden do it and not us? My answer: Community.

Sweden has an incredible sense of community. Everyone communicates with one another, whether that be the farmers with eachover and the government, the dog breeders and advisory councils, business' etc. They are a community who can listen and adapt opinions to find an overall solution that works. Something that Britain cannot do.

Britain has completely lost its sense of community, and we see it in almost every aspect. Business, banks, family breakdowns, farmers not communicating with the government or advisory bodies like Defra (the reason for the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak) and not to mention the tragic scenes of the rioting last summer. Britain doesn't want to work together, Britain wants to be the best. Britain thrives on competition. Most people want to be the best, know the most, achieve the most, be the popular kid, win the most awards, be the stongest or most shocking. I have even heard people arguing over who raised the most money for charity. It all links to the good old "story topper."

You know the one. If I say "I fell off my horse while riding today." they reply with "I fell off a horse 5 years ago. It was terrible. I had to go to hospital." with not so much as a "Oh are you ok?" beforehand. They are the kind of people who managed to swing any situation back onto themselves. And this is what I am seeing throughout all these programmes.
I was very excited when PDE first aired and couldn't wait to discuss it at a dog show I had the following weekend. I was shocked when rather than talking about the matter at hand (the dogs) I was answered with "Oh its so bad! It labelled all of us with the same brush. I'm going to get people thinking I'm a bad breeder." When the breed club responses to the Kennel Clubs proposed changes to breed standards began they were full of quotes such as "We've been breeding for hundreds of years. We know what our club wants for our breed. Its awful that the Kennel Club is trying the change the way we have been doing things for years." The Kennel Club itself has said "We are slowly making changes but we can't change everything. We don't want to drive our breeders away."

An awful lot of opinions regarding the individual or the club being attacked and not being taken seriously. A perfect example of how each individual is feeling personally attacked and thus is having the harder time, or dealing with the most pressure, or facing a threat or a change for the worse. Typicaly story topping and an act of competition but very little being mentioned about the whole reason for this debate..... The dogs.