Education

I am a strong believer in education.  I believe that as we learn - through mistakes, through science, through books, through people, we ourselves become better.  More.  It appears based on my last post that some may believe I'm whining.  Am I upset?  Of course.  I have an emotional attachment not only to the dog, but the people around the dog.  

Today, I go to FarmFair to compete at a large trial.  Today, I go to sit with people I call friends.  People who just happen to own some of these wonderful, talented dogs on Reba's pedigree.  Today, I will sit down and tell them about Reba.  Will this be fun?  Easy? Not particularly.  Today, I will gently, politely and nicely suggest that perhaps testing some of their dogs would be a good idea.

These are people I care about.  They have value to me.  They are NOT bad people.  They have GREAT dogs.  But I need for us (a big, huge collective) to get better at making breeding choices.  Testing dogs DNA is somewhat new out here.  It's something I wasn't even aware was possible up until about a year ago.  For this reason, we must get on the program.  As a collective.  

Don't get me wrong.  Reba is still a spectacularly talented and well bred dog.  And so are her parents, and grandparents.  Perhaps that's why I was so surprised to find out she is Affected.  

If I hadn't been down with the flu, I would have been on the phone.  As it is, I will see at least three owners of dogs on her up close pedigree today.  And I will burst their bubble of naivety, just as mine disintegrated.  And no, I will derive no pleasure out of doing this.  Reality is, that keeping my mouth shut and head down would be the easy road.  But I've never been one for doing things the easy way.  This way, while hard, in my opinion is the right way.  Let everyone learn from this is all I ask.  It's become clear that no dog is "safe". And the word needs to get out.