Natural History

The best thing you can do in life is admit error and move on, but it is not without risk. I’ve noticed that I’ve lost significant readership on this blog since I’ve tried to distance myself more from the “Pedigree Dogs Exposed” movement. It is not that I disagree with the movement entirely. It is that I have discovered that I was fundamentally wrong about one breed that has been featured in the movement.

This is the comment online of which I am the most ashamed.

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It’s not so much what I said. If someone actually were trying to reverse engineer plantigrade in a dog, it would be a very bad thing.

But what I am most ashamed of is that this was the first comment on a blog post on the Pedigree Dogs Exposed blog, which is about a sable German shepherd named Paddy, who won best of breed at what we call the National Dog Show here in the United States.

If you sleuth around my blog for a bit, you will see a dog named Quest. He is a sable German shepherd from parents who are both AKC conformation champions. If you now that most well-bred German shepherds have their pedigrees listed on a site called “Pedigree Database,” you might want to play around with Quest’s pedigree a bit.

Quest is Hammersmith Can I Kick It. Trigger warning: he’s in a three-point stack. If you don’t want to see a GSD in a three-point stack, don’t click it.

His mother is Kysarah’s Whiskey In The Jar.

If you look at her, you can see that she looks a lot like the dog in the Pedigree Dogs Exposed blog I linked to earlier. She is female and long-coated, but they are very similar dogs.

The reason for this similarity is that if you look at her siblings on the website, Kysarah’s Pot of Gold, which is Paddy,  pops up as her full brother. Indeed, they are littermates. 

So yes, I have been living with a Paddy nephew for several months

This is Quest in a sort of free stack.

This dog has quite a bit of drive. He loves chasing the ball, and he recently discovered that herding sheep was the best thing ever.

This dog does have a show career, and he actually came in second at the 4-6 puppy class at the German Shepherd National Specialty in St. Louis in August (which was judged by James Moses). 

This dog is probably not going to be an IPO dog. He hasn’t been bred for so much drive and an ability to bite hard and hold on.

But he is obedient and gentlemanly as a puppy can be. He dogs very well.

Indeed, in this photo, he has been confused with a straight up working line dog:

He has many years of maturity to go. He will probably angle up a bit as he matures over the next two or three years.

But he’s a fit, active dog with a strong will to obey and do things.

And yes, he does do the stack:

Now, I have since admitted that I was wrong about these dogs, and I’ve noticed something:  readership on this blog has gone down quite a bit.

It is true I’m not writing all that controversial stuff that I once did. I’m writing lots of lyrical and philosophical stuff, and those things do take times to read.

But I can’t help but wonder if my change of mind had something to do with my sudden drop in readership. 

I also know that I have lost online friends over this dog, and his presence has even led to me leaving my Facebook Group over this dog, simply because I got tired of people constantly berating him.

I have learned my lesson about using one’s position online to promote causes:  you’d better know what you’re talking about before ginning up an electronic lynch mob.

And I didn’t when I attacked this breed. Yes, there probably are some dogs that have poor rears and ataxic gaits, but no one is breeding for those traits.  In this country, the goal is make perfect smooth trot.

These dogs are no threat to the police work-type dogs, which are bred in their own lines. I very much like these dogs, too, but I don’t think my criticism of the show dogs is correct.

I was wrong, and if you hate me now because I’ve changed my perspective, then I’m very sorry.

But I’ve changed my mind. I’ve been around enough dogs of this type now to know that I was wrong.

They are not breeding police dogs, but they are breeding dogs that can do so much and make wonderful pets.

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