Out of patience

6 months ago by Linda

A lot has happened since I last updated and to sum it up briefly, I can probably say that my patience has actually run out.
For some years I have worked hard to bring about a change in today’s breeding, partly by devoting a huge amount of time to the breed club, partly by being the admin of a FB group where we are close to 400 interested in breeding who discuss research, outcrossing, solutions to small gene pools, etc., partly because I applied to be allowed to enter 1 dog (Gard) that could contribute new genes and thus help the breed to actually survive. Now 1 dog is far from enough, it’s a drop in the ocean but regardless, that dog has caused a huge debate. Since a handful of breeders consider that dog to be a threat to their entire existence, the level of conflict eventually became completely unbearable. I resigned from my post as vice president of the breed club and all but one of my board colleagues chose to do the same. This as we know that continued inbreeding will not benefit the breed and we felt that we were elected to preserve a healthy and happy white shepherd. When we could not do that, but instead were expected to preserve and defend a number of breeders’ livelihoods and worldview, I saw no other way out than to resign from my post. I held that post for the sake of the dogs, not for the sake of a handful of breeders.

I applied to register Gard in February 2023. We are now in November 2023 and it is still not decided upon. SKK is in the process of building up its x-register where he is supposed to be registered. It should be ready in 2024. Since Gard is just a drop in the ocean, I need to add more genes if I want to continue breeding. Just the thought of having to go through this process again makes me rather stop breeding dogs at all. It’s extremely stressful to see in the social media how people (who have never met Gard) discuss him and me, people who also have zero knowledge and/or interest in mentality and genetics. It’s hard not to get into the keyboard war, but I won’t. I just read and observe what is happening. However, it makes me feel extremely tired in addition I feel ashamed. Tired of discussions that are based solely on opinions or feelings and never on verified facts. Ashamed because I am part of a culture that actually thinks it is more important that the dogs look a certain way than that they should be healthy and live long.

All this caused me to leave my post in the breed club and it has even made me consider leaving SKK. I want a good and strong organization behind me and I think SKK is doing its best, in some circumstances, but I can’t bear to go through pure hell just to be able to breed healthier dogs. I don’t want to be part of the crowd that the rest of the world watches and rolls their eyes at, because that’s what people outside of the purebred breeding community are doing right now and probably have been doing for a long time. This is probably one of many explanations why all Nordic kennel clubs are seeing a reduced number of registrations. People don’t want to buy inbred dogs, people want healthy dogs and we can’t provide that because we’re clinging on to a hundred-year-old culture. So people simply buy a mixed breed instead. It is completely understandable.

I know that several breeders are hoping that I will disappear from their radar, they are hoping that I will leave SKK so that they can continue to breed their dogs and sell them under the false pretense that they do not have a high inbreeding rate. I also know that many people hope that I can continue to fight, because I am actually not alone anymore. There are more and more breeders, from different breeds, who are beginning to despair that it is not possible to add new genes. Many of them write to me, many of them have become new friends. I also know that there are many who hope to buy a crossbreed puppy and who look forward to becoming part of (in my eyes) the nicest group in the world, namely the Erövraren family. I thinking a lot about my options and hope to arrive at a decision shortly. I have already drawn up a breeding plan but to put it into action I need freedom to work according to the science of our time, which I cannot do today. Not without going through hell again and again and I don’t think I can take it.

Next time I update I might have come to a decision. The decision will be that I either stop breeding or that I leave SKK, because right now those are my only options as, as previously mentioned, I will never back down from the most important priority of them all – namely the health of our dogs.