Our lives are ultimately caught in a kaleidoscope, and as it twists, the shapes and colors that are facts and experience shift in and out of our view. As the twisting goes, we soon see before ourselves a new image, a new reality, and perhaps a new ethos, a new understanding. This process is known to all of us older than the age of 30, and it is such a profound part of living that if we were to live a few centuries, the same individual would be fundamentally a different person every couple of traditional lifetimes. We would be reborn many times without ever dying.
My worldview has changed greatly in recent years. The long screeds against show dogs have disappeared. They aren’t worth the time to write, and I honestly no longer agree with their theses.
And I have had to atone for my own myopia. It is difficult. I find it almost impossible to read what I wrote even three years ago. I am that much different from what I once was.
Back in 2015, I was on a tear about the German shepherd that won best of breed at what we call “the National Dog Show.” It is an event that is held in November, but it is televised after the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving.
The dog that won BOB was Kysarah’s Pot of Gold, better known as a Patrick or Paddy. A German dog expert had declared his locomotion to be among the worst he’d ever seen, and the various blogs that were touting the “evils of dog shows” were quick to lambaste Paddy, his owners, and his breeder.
I left a stupid comment on Pedigree Dogs Exposed that it was shocking that they were turning the dogs plantigrade. You know, pretty much all the things you read on these sorts of blogs (including mine, if you dig a little bit).
German shepherds were never my thing. I generally left this breed alone on here. I was much more interested in the great crusade against brachycephaly, which (newsflash) has been lost and was lost long ago..
But I did get a hair stroppy about German shepherds and sloping backs and hock-walking back in the day.
It was good for my ego, good for my hits, and good for my pathetic little soul.
I didn’t know that Paddy was a beloved pet. He had been a junior handler’s dog, and his young handler had done well with him.
I didn’t know that Paddy had a wonderful life chasing the ball and leaping in the bogs of Eastern Massachusetts. I didn’t know how much he was loved. I didn’t know that he was a loyal and sweet and intelligent dog.
He was merely a victim of my horrid ideology. I had no idea that the animal rights fanatics were sending death threats to the family, including his junior handler. I had no idea that my ideas could be feeding into something that toxic.
What’s more is that the twisting of the kaleidoscope aligned my vision a bit differently.. I had come to, through circumstance, to live with Paddy’s nephew. I never considered Quest to be my dog, though I was on his papers. Jenna could have her dream dog, and I would focus more on the golden retrievers.
But I came to see that Quest was truly special. He is smart and protective, but he is good with other dogs, even other males. I cam to realize that he is a damned good dog, and I have since come to live with Dare and Miami, both of whom count Paddy as an uncle.
Have since come to count Paddy’s owner, Pamela Martin, as a good friend. She was very close to Anya, Quest’s breeder, and she mourned with us when found out that Anya had been killed in a truck accident.
And if that sorrow wasn’t bad enough, we received news that Paddy was euthanized on Sunday.
I never met Paddy, but I know his kin. I know his people.
They jokingly called him the “Broken Brown Dog,” the leaping bog dolphin.
But he was always unbroken.
Though the haters were always going to hate, he was always going to be loved.
I can hardly see through the tears. He was a wonderful dog, with wonderful people. We are so incredibly lucky to have our own “broken brown dogs” <3
A shame. Paddy was the first GSD I ever saw go BOB in person. And like you, I’ve come to enjoy him for what he was. A good dog.
You’ve really inspired me. I used to be like you, a kid (well for me, a literal kid, still wet behind my ears at 19 right now) who thought ASLs were all broken. All crippled. All in pain. Then you got Quest, a handsome young dog. And now, I’m applying for my GSDCA membership and getting in talks with other handlers for opportunities in the breed. I want to apologize to Pamela, personally, I just feel ashamed of my past comments.
Here’s a video with Paddy in it, it’s him winning BoB from that show back in 2015 (I almost didn’t take it, but decided to stay for the last breed ring before leaving the show). The comments are what you’d expect for a video on ASLs, and some of my own comments from back then are a part of them. But I won’t hide them, it just allows me to remember how far I’ve come. :)
Kevin, this is Pam, I don’t know what shows up or not for names Etc. Thank you so much for your comment. You can find me on Facebook via Jenna and Scottie, feel free to send me a friend request, I don’t know where you are but I’d love to talk to you and even meet. And if there’s anything I can do to help you in the breed let me know.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for growing and seeing, and writing about this dog knrw as well.
Thank you.
Dawn Bradshaw
Ellington CT
Sorry for typos…the tears blur
A decade ago and beyond, I myself was going through a crusade of my own against the Spanish Mastiff breed because of a shift of trend that lead to the modern-day exaggeration of its size and other features the breed is known for such abundant loose skin with prominent dewlaps and heavy bone similarly to those of the modern Neapolitan Mastiff. I hated seeing all that in a livestock guardian dog, and it isn’t the only LGD breed that going through or have undergone such a deviation from its traditional form (notable examples: the Chinese-bred Tibetan Mastiff, the Pyrenean Mastiff and some lines of Caucasian and Central Asian ovcharka). Unlike you, Scotty, I never really (as much as I tried) had the public following – at least not over the internet… I’ve moved on as I have (like you) come to realize and confess what a toxic and confrontational person I was to an unhealthy degree… too much negativity… I loved communities such as PDE but in more recent times I started to question their opposition to breeding and maintaining purebreds as I’ve had purebreed dogs since my preteens. It seems to harbor that “adopt, don’t shop” mentality. I don’t have a problem with closed registries if they are done properly. I don’t have so much anger now towards those who breed and show SMs… if that is the breed they love and if they prefer SMs with lots of type, so be it. However, what my problem remains is that since my longtime interest in the breed shifted to the traditional original version of the Spanish Mastiff is the lack of regard and interest among most Spaniards to preserve aboriginal working mastines and this landrace (which I have unofficially branded as the “Iberian Mastín” to distinguish it from the official version) is now endangered because there is increasingly a problem of crosses of IM x SM and a lot of them are ending up in countryside where they are free genetically contaminate remaining populations. This is due to the lack of a formal organized entity in Spain to recognize the Mastín ibérico as a separate breed and govern breeding stock/pedigrees to recuperate the landrace and preserve and maintain its ancestral heritage, health, function and form.