Legacy Lost, the Other Breeds
Jim Engel
In the beginning, from the advent of serious American engagement in the Schutzhund trial program and the reemergence of widespread police service, that is the era from the end of Vietnam through the early 1980's, the police dog was in public perception as well as the reality of the street the German Shepherd. This predominance, worldwide in scope, was the legacy of von Stephanitz, whose vision and promotional acumen was second only to that of the Apostle Paul himself. Indeed the SV, the mother club in Germany, is in terms of power, wealth, history, influence and all pervasive corruption directly comparable to the Catholic Church.
Other breeds, in particular the Doberman Pincher, had passionate advocates, but objective reality is that the last significant deployment was in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War, now 75 years in the past. The ongoing prosperity and promotional vigor of the German Shepherd movement leading up to the First World War, and war service, had made it very difficult for other incipient German breeds to gain traction. This hegemony would persist for a century, and with deep irony the only real competition the German Shepherd would ever face ultimately was to arise from Belgian ashes.
As the troops returned at the end of the war these breeds experienced an enormous surge in American popularity. This was in many ways mystique driven as Europe was perceived as enigmatic, mysterious and remote; travel, by ocean liner, was the privilege of the elite and enormously expensive, time consuming and difficult to navigate in terms of language and social circumstance. Von Stephanitz, especially through the English translation of his massive book, built on this mystique and mythology, launching the German Shepherd from nowhere to the top of the AKC registration statistics in the 1920s. The Doberman wave came next, and an energetic and enormously effective publicity campaign by American advocates created the devil dog persona of the Marine Corps deployment in the South Pacific.
By the early 80s transatlantic air fares were coming within middle class reach, spoken English was increasingly common on the continent and the transformative emergence of the Internet was imminent. We had so much to learn and learn we did, but in many ways it was a matter of too little too late, of comprehension and knowledge lagging too far behind the critical formative period of our emergence, leading to development being driven by mythology rather than reality. The canine press of the era, consisting of AKC publications and general magazines such as Dog World, were of little help. Later the USCA magazine and then Dog Sports began to bring some light, but even these tended to be promotional in nature, written by those, such as myself, who were learning on the fly, were advocates sometimes to the detriment of objective reporting. At the very beginning few of us had actually been to Europe.
At the American awakening, in the early 80s, there were staunch advocates for these other breeds, particularly the Rottweiler, the Doberman and a few of us, such as Erik Houttuin, Paul DeRycke and myself, who were proponents of the Bouvier des Flandres. We were passionate and optimistic, believed that we were privileged to be present at the creation, were destined to play a role in establishing these breeds as a viable presence on American sport fields and in practical service.
It was not to be. None of this was to come to reality and these breeds have experienced an ongoing diminishing presence. No one regrets this more than I do. No one wishes more fervently that somehow we could go back in time and create an alternate reality, breathe life into this vision. But we cannot, for this was preordained in Europe by the failure of the founders and early advocates of these breeds to prioritize working structure and character in breeding selection over the perverse fashion and transient glory of the show ring. Rather than breeding for structure and stride according to working durability and efficacy they evolved ever more grotesque show dogs: elegant Dobermans, ponderous Rottweilers, fragile Boxers with fashionable foreshortened muzzles, ungainly Bouviers with impossible soft coats. Even more egregious was the character, pervasively deficient in willingness, power, courage and fighting drive.
The unvarnished truth is that apart from the Shepherd no German breed had been able to establish a viable working presence, an ongoing breeding pool producing a sustainable supply of viable candidates for service and the associated infrastructure in terms of working oriented local clubs and advocates able and willing to mentor subsequent generations. In spite of American enthusiasm inexorable reality was that no other German breed was well enough established there to enable and support an incipient presence here. We were, unfortunately, tilting at windmills.
Why was this? How did we come to cling to these impossible dreams? The short answer is that we desperately wanted to believe. The long answer is more nuanced. We had come to believe, chosen to believe, that Europe was fundamentally different, that there was a profound universal commitment to real utility, that these breeds must reliably produce dogs capable of actual police service. While this most certainly existed within specific communities such as the Dutch Police program, the Belgian Ring and a significant cadre of working German Shepherd breeders and trainers it was not true in general. In particular all of the FCI constituents, including the SV, were no more committed to work than the British or American Kennel clubs we so rightly hold in disdain. More to the point, none of these alternative breeds have significant ongoing communities of hard core working breeders and trainers as once existed, for instance, in the KNPV Bouvier lines which have faded to but an occasional individual title, usually by a steadfast veteran carrying on to the bitter end.
Much of the foundation of this mythology was the emphasis on the Schutzhund titles required as a prerequisite for breeding, implying that every German Shepherd pup had the potential to mature as a legitimate police patrol or serious sport candidate. But the system had in more recent years been seriously compromised. Although it was beyond our ability to comprehend and accept these Germans had in point of fact been increasingly condoning and perpetuating massive fraud, systematically bestowing unwarranted titles on unworthy dogs, particularly the show lines. Compounding this was that we somehow looked past the fact that the other German breeds had much less stringent or absent formal breeding requirements, took for granted that these were serious people, knew what they were doing, that the national clubs for all of the working breeds consisted of advocates committed to real working potential, that robust character mattered. We were so incredibly naïve.
As we journeyed to Europe, visited breeders and training clubs, went to shows and trials, searched for dogs there was the gradual realization that something was terribly amiss, that most of the dogs and most of the breeders were in reality little different from the American show and pet breeders that had driven us to Europe in the first place. As we began to see through our illusions we came to realize that European dogs were not universally bred for work, that the vast majority of every breed were for the show ring and the companion market, just as in America. Even more disturbing was that every FCI national breed club, including the SV, was just as much oriented to show ring glory and pet market money, the working pretense being little more than a superficial promotional facade. Many of the real working trainers were outside of the FCI, in spirt if not formally, carrying on in the Belgian ring and KNPV communities or the estranged hard core German Shepherd advocates.
Although this FCI centric canine establishment in Germany was inherently passively hostile to real work, paying only lip service as a promotional façade, the German Shepherd establishment differed in fundamental ways. Although the breed was destined to encounter serious problems in this century, at that time, in the 1970s through the early 90s, German Shepherds were still required to obtain a more or less serious Schutzhund title in order to be bred and while the show and work lines were diverging the chasm was not yet as egregious as it was destined to become. While the increasingly commercial show and pet breeders were more and more predominant there was still a significant community of serious men striving for excellence in work as an end in and of itself, providing an ongoing source of work capable dogs for export.
Beyond all of this was the sheer number being bred; in the middle 1990's the SV was registering 30,000 pups a year, all of them, at least on paper, out of Schutzhund titled parents. Even if many lines were suspect the remainder were predominantly credible candidates potentially available for export. The net result is that it was generally possible for those with experience, connections and a bit of savvy to routinely purchase titled dogs or strong candidates for more or less reasonable amounts of money, less reasonable as time went on, for police service, for a breeding program or as a short cut to the competition field. This was the driving force in the late twentieth century surge in Shepherd predominance in American sport and service. The only cloud on the horizon was the Malinois, but that would not fully emerge until the next century.
No other German breed approached these annual numbers, had this rigor in selection, was guided by a serious working oriented national breed club or was ever able to supply significant numbers of competition or breeding caliber working capable dogs for export. The Dobermans, as an example, were producing but four or five hundred pups annually, most of which were for the show ring and companion market as there was no serious working expectation or ongoing working culture. In the late 90's the Boxers and Rottweilers peaked at about 3000 yearly registrations, much more numerous than the Doberman but only a tenth of Shepherd numbers. All of these figures were destined to plummet in the new century.
While there was much flaunting of machismo the reality was painfully inadequate in terms of structure, stride, vigor, willingness, aggression and all of the other requisite attributes. As a consequence of the ever diminishing gene pools, characteristic of the incessant go only to the winners show breeding, several of these breeds, particularly the Doberman, were and are in deep genetic trouble, further compromising an already difficult situation. The inevitable result has been a diminishing role on American sport fields and a virtual absence from police or military service. In the new century many of these frustrated enthusiasts would transition to the Malinois, everybody's next alternate breed.
Since all of this seems so obvious in retrospect the question becomes why the mythology was able to persist for so long, why were we not able to grasp the reality and adapt our goals and expectations according to what was actually in the realm of possibility? I had been as slow to put it all together as anyone, for my involvement had commenced in the late 70s and I was first in the Netherlands and Belgium in 1984, yet although there were gathering premonitions for several years it was 1993
before this came fully into focus.here
A key causative factor was that our pacifist canine culture, having evolved under British Kennel Club influence, was so completely in conflict with the traditions and mores of police canine service, which had evolved over most of a century in Europe, beginning in Belgium in 1899 and closely followed by the emergence and prosperity of the German Shepherd. We did not even begin to comprehend what we did not know, struggled to identify and seek understanding of even the most mundane principles and historical realities.
There have been lesser factors contributing to the decline. While not a primary factor the Euro bans on ear cropping and tail docking hastened the decline of the Bouviers and most especially the Dobermans, whose appearance and perceived demeanor were diminished, in a way denying even dignity as the heritage faded.
The 1980s were an era of optimism and economic prosperity in Europe as well as America with purebred canine affairs generally still in ascendance. Although the predominance of the show ring was insidiously eroding the working culture even then there still remained viable European training and breeding communities in most of the traditional breeds. When I made my initial journey to the Netherlands in 1984 I saw competing in local trials remarkably robust, alert, athletic, square, short coated dogs which would cause any trainer to think twice. Beaucerons popped into my mind, but then it dawned that these were in fact Rottweilers, not fat and lethargic but rather alert, energetic, trim, sleek, powerful and athletic, totally unlike those I was familiar with in America, including notable German imports. Had this sort of dog come to prevail I am absolutely convinced that the Rottweiler could have had a robust, credible working and sport presence today. The KNPV Bouvier lines, although never producing more than 30 annual titles, were still present, still offered a slim but real possibility of survival. (These are from pedigree records; there were also an unknown number of non-registered dogs, a resource which should not have been squandered. Working dogs are what they do on the field, not what is scribbled down in record books.)
The point is that it was late in the day but still within the realm of possibility for the European proponents of these breeds to rally and preserve their heritage. Had they been willing to break free from the national breed clubs and chart their own course this might have been possible, but onerous national and FCI control and regulation made the task impossible within the system. These Europeans were irresolute, allowed their heritage to slip away and in the process made any cultural transplant to America virtually impossible. The major exception was the Flemish ring trainers, who broke from the Belgian FCI national club in 1963 to establish their own registry and trial system, the NVBK, setting the stage for the Malinois emergence as the twentieth century entered its final decades, initially on French Ring fields then dominated by the German Shepherd.
There are from time to time sporadic transient trends and developments that generate enthusiasm and raise expectations. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Communist regime in East Germany the border patrol canine operations were largely gutted, one consequence of which was a number of impressive Risen Schnauzers coming available, some of which went to America, particularly the Delaware State Police. This made a splash and for a brief moment these Schnauzers were seen as the next big thing, but it was a grass fire, gone as quickly as it had come, for the breeding program came to an end with the dispersal of the stock. The Czech and East German Shepherd lines were far more fortunate in that these eastern bloc breeding programs persisted after the fall, significantly expanding the working base and genetic diversity of the Shepherd working lines.
It has been said that stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This was prophetic, for in creating our American national working clubs it turns out that we were horribly, incredibly stupid in this most fundamental sense. All of the European FCI clubs, including in later years the SV, were about ever more extreme conformation, structurally wrong for work. Every single one blathered incessantly about working character yet evolved soft, passive, dull dogs for ease of handling in the kennel, show ring and the most inept companion homes.
It was wrong. It was profoundly stupid. It was failing. And yet we went right on ahead and created our own national clubs in this image and likeness. How can we not see that we are failing just as the FCI clubs are failing? We had better examples before us, the Dutch police, the Belgian NVBK ring trainers and the French Ring community were selecting and breeding according to trial field success and were prospering; yet we were too obsessed with the mythology to see this reality.
Not only were we wrong, we doubled down on stupid. We knew full well that the AKC paradigm was fundamentally impossible for working dogs. We knew that we needed to go to the land of origin, Europe, to learn a better way. Yet we blindly emulated the same stupidity, the FCI clubs, that was failing here, put unconditional faith in an establishment hostile to our core values, devoted to the illusion of personal importance, pseudo ring glory and money rather than inherent suitability for work. We see the results before us today, especially in the approaching functional extinction of these so called alternate breeds.
The root of the current rupture in the AWDF, the expulsion of USCA, goes to the irrational belief of the leaders of the other clubs that their failure was somehow due to USCA, that they were unfair, that their programs and progress was being held back. But this is stupidity for the third time, for the root of the problem is the effete parent clubs in Europe and our own foolishness in emulating this failing paradigm.
We were seeking guidance and leadership from the wrong people, those who had mindlessly squandered their patrimony in a vain quest for show ring glory. Emulating the FCI breed clubs was an enormous blunder because they had become inherently show and companion market oriented, only pretending to the working heritage as a cynical marketing ploy. In spite of the glaringly obvious fact that conformation shows and the consequent debilitating physical extremes have been the ruination of these breeds in Europe, most of the incipient national American working clubs, including USCA, have nevertheless blindly emulated the absurdity. They have gone on to recreate the conformation shows driving physical degeneration in Europe, recreating and encouraging the banana backed shepherds, the fat Rottweilers, the elegant Dobermans and the impossibly long and soft Bouvier coats.
We wallowed in our own delusional mythology, prattled on about the complete dog, the confirmation ring and the trial field working together to evolve unity, dogs correct in structure, stride and strong working instincts and drives. But it was absurd. But how could anyone with an IQ even creeping into three digits behold the monstrosities of the SV show ring, the banana backs, the extreme angulation, the paw dragging gait, and not see on the face of it that this was beyond wrong, was profoundly absurd?
A variation on this theme was the effort to bring to America the so called temperament tests of the Belgian and French national clubs by elements of our working Bouvier club. These were a transparent hoax, concocted and run by and for the show breeders as a means of pretending to working character, fooling no one but themselves and a few gullible Americans. Over my strenuous opposition these efforts ultimately prevailed, but the die was cast for it was only a matter of time before they became first a farce whose "championships" were literally publicity stunts in the side yard of a second rate commercial breeder and then ceased entirely. Yet this derelict club retains a place at the table, a full vote, in the AWDF. here
Yet the Malinois, founded as a formal breed in 1891, remained waiting in the wings, little changed in the structure and stride that had served the herding function so well for uncounted generations.
As the new century commenced the Malinois surge transformed the American sport landscape as well as police and military service. Although defections came from the ranks of Shepherd trainers this has had only marginal impact, like withdrawing a hand from the ocean. But the other breeds, being much more fragile, have been increasingly depleted, are being pushed to the brink of irrelevance. The Malinois has long been everybody's go to alternate and this trend has accelerated as trainers, yielding to frustration and stagnation, have increasingly defected. That incessant sound you hear in the background is the pounding of coffin nails as these breeds wind down a fragile American presence, a melancholy concluding chapter. There is much to mourn.
As the founding generation of trainers and advocates faded or moved on these breeds saw relentless stagnation and ever diminishing viability. Perhaps the most telling metric is the number of successful IPO III entries at the various annual championships—such as the Doberman, Rottweiler or Boxer— which in recent years has typically been two or perhaps three, hovering on the edge of extinction. (There have been no Bouvier championships, or anything else for that matter, in years.)
Many of those drifting away are among the remnants of the pioneers, well aware of the long odds but resolute and tenacious, ultimately worn down by four decades of treading water. Each in his own time came to the demoralizing realization that it was untenable, that no matter what ongoing sacrifices were made the lack of a homeland with a sufficient pool of available working stock and advocates, breeders and trainers, able and willing to provide support and mentorship rendered it a lost cause, an impossible dream. Neither the long term dominance of the German Shepherd nor the more recent Malinois emergence was the direct cause of this demise, but they did bring the end closer and exacerbate the decline by offering viable alternatives, the opportunity to have a real future. This was a devastating, gut wrenching experience for most of us, but at some point it simply becomes undeniable.
Eventually admirable tenacity and loyalty devolves into irrational enthusiasm, the leadership roles falling into the hands of those cognitively unable to come to terms with reality, proceeding on the basis of blind obsession, unreasonable faith. Or more perniciously to gather profit by pandering to the fading dreams of the gullible. In time this palpable lack of progress creates unrelenting frustration and then the need for a scapegoat, an external agent to blame for failure. Since the founders and their heirs in Europe have been rendered legendary in the mythology they cannot be the root cause, and since they themselves are pure of heart and unrelenting in passion, obviously the evil must lie elsewhere. When floundering and failing those who appear to be prospering and succeeding tend to become perceived as somehow responsible, in some nefarious way taking unfair advantage. For the diminishing breeds this frustration naturally tends to focus on the German Shepherd and in particular USCA, but it simply does not hold water. While the international Shepherd community, launched by von Stephanitz, was generally prevalent over the decades, provided a difficult competitive environment, the Malinois ultimately overcame much more, including German occupation and oppression during the First World War and the Nazi atrocity. The failure of the alternative breeds was predestined by the European founders in failing to establish a working culture, in succumbing to the temptation of conformation show notoriety and profit; it is perhaps understandable but nevertheless futile to blame those who have been, at least in the short term, more successful.
Over forty years USCA, like most organizations, experienced strife and internal conflict and this was at times a hindrance to all of us, but generally the national organization and more importantly a substantial majority of local clubs have been supportive of other breeds and their trainers. It is perhaps the ultimate irony that USCA, through the domination of the SV show breeders, has in many ways been most detrimental to the German Shepherd through the promotion of the SV show lines, seriously sabotaging the credibility of the brand.
The irrational circle the wagons mentality increasingly prevalent among elements of the secondary breed communities has had peculiar and deleterious ramifications. The benefit of inclusiveness, the acceptance and encouragement of those seriously training in IPO or other protection oriented venues, would seem to be obvious. Certainly those with canine related convictions, animal abuse or dog fighting, a Michael Vick, or other serious, documented moral or legal hindrances need to be precluded, but this social elitism is barking up the wrong tree.
Yet the Doberman club, as only one example, has become increasingly elitist, requiring prospective members to locate a member and solicit sponsorship so as to prevent intrusion by undesirable elements. One would perhaps wonder how many thus excluded might have gone on to contribute a third or fourth passing IPO III entry at a championship, but this does not seem to be a priority.
There is a need for nuance, for there must be a balance between eschewing elitism in this social sense and dilution of principle. This means that any sort of conformation competition must have rigorously enforced working prerequisites so as to exclude those seeking only to promote their degenerate show lines, claim the aura of working potential as a sales ploy through association, and to maintain the aggression and fighting drive as fundamental, defining attributes rather than in any sense optional. Dilution of membership, and the vote, by wholesale inclusion of pet or show oriented membership can lead to compromise of core working values, particularly when the concept of some sort of "alternative service" to a diligently applied aggression requirement surfaces. This is more than a hypothetical concern: NAWBA in Retrospect
An alternative to erecting membership barriers would be separating the franchise, voting rights, from membership inclusion by requiring a title, a level of seniority or some combination of factors as a voting prerequisite. The USCA approach of voting by designated club representatives is sound though in need of revision in this era of ubiquitous electronic communication; the election of officers and legislative functions should be on line rather than requiring a physical presence. There is also merit to the concept of proportional representation, weighing the vote according to club membership, just as the individual states are represented according to population in the American Electoral College.
Collapse and failure tend to create frustration, strife, ascendance of marginal leadership as the more perceptive move on and ultimately the tendency to lash out irrationally, sometimes at the innocent or even those who had been loyal allies. This is the fundamental cause of the ongoing collapse of the AWDF. Those at the top, with other agendas, have nurtured and encouraged this to advance their own ends, particularly the promotion of the DVG. Perhaps unexpectedly to the perpetrators this has produced significant backlash, drawing attention to the illegality of a German colony on American soil, aiding and abetting German imperialism.
As we gathered together to create the AWDF in June of 1989, in St. Louis, the spirit was upbeat and the future seemingly bright, but darker clouds were gathering on the horizon. In reality our optimism was based on wishful thinking rather than any objective analysis of the viability of European breeding programs, the rigor of selection criteria and the quality and number of dogs going into actual service. We were uncritically buying into Euro mythology and propaganda because we wanted to believe, not because we had reason to believe. This was and is unsustainable.
The initial AWDF Schutzhund championships drew credible entries, especially from the Dobermans, Rottweilers and Bouviers. Gradually national working clubs for other breeds were founded and were included in the AWDF. But as the initial surge began to wane USCA had what it needed and wanted, an all-breed national entity to line up on paper with the FCI scheme of things for purely political purposes, never having had the least interest in or commitment to the AWDF as a functioning American presence. Over time the escalating SV control of USCA exacerbated this, for their agenda was German imperialism and SV show breeder profit rather than a viable, independent American culture. This pervasive attitude of disinterested disdain on the part of USCA was unwise, created a smoldering resentment that would eventually surface in the most inopportune way. The AWDF championships, which had never attracted the more high profile German Shepherd competitors, became much less prominent. The AWDF itself gradually faded away into the background, playing no significant role in any aspect of American working dog affairs.
The decline of the AWDF and the secondary breeds went hand in hand. The causative factors included:
- The precipitous worldwide decline in canine registrations and competitive participation beginning in the mid 90s, coinciding with the advent of the Internet.
- The increasing dominance and manipulation of USCA by the SV for the promotion of the show line German Shepherds.
- The emergence of the Malinois which drew off ever increasing numbers of trainers, many with an anything but a German Shepherd attitude, thus eroding support for the other breeds.
Although the AWDF had been created primarily to appease the FCI, to create an all-breed facade, there was little interest in their IPO program, which at the time was a sleeve oriented venue similar to Schutzhund but with significant variation in terms of rules, customs and philosophy. America had from the beginning been Schutzhund, that is German, oriented and the SV was willing to tolerate the AWDF only to the extent that it did not interfere with their domination and control of American affairs through USCA, which had been evolved into essentially a subsidiary SV marketing arm. Like good little children we continued to view Germany as the center of the working dog universe with very little interest in what was going on in other European nations or on their sport fields. There were annual IPO championships which were gradually increasing in prominence, but we remained oblivious.
All of this changed when Schutzhund was folded into IPO in 2012, creating a single international venue with common rules, recognition of titles and judges and uniform procedures in every nation. The newly emerging American Malinois community was especially enthusiastic. In America "the world team" had always meant the WUSV championship, which was open only to the German Shepherds. Although there was also a Malinois specific FMBB international championship it did not offer the prestige and desired high profile they were looking for. The FCI IPO championship was to become the ultimate all-breed high profile international venue.
For a number of years both USCA and the GSDCA affiliated WDA had been sending teams to the WUSV Schutzhund championship, providing as it were a double set of prestigious "world team" slots. In the same time frame as the conversion to IPO the WUSV had limited the Americans to one team, forcing USCA and the GSDCA to work out a joint qualification process and most significantly sharply limiting the number of available slots. This created a rapidly expanding interest in the IPO championship among the elite German Shepherd trainers interested in new Euro opportunities.
Almost overnight, after years of stagnation, the moribund AWDF bureaucrats at last had something of value to provide political leverage and influence, that is the FCI IPO championship qualification process. Like politicians everywhere with patronage to disperse there was little delay or concern for decorum as the feeding frenzy commenced. Control of the championship venues and dates as well as the all-important judging and decoy assignments provided a newfound opportunity to help old friends and secure advantage for themselves and their patrons pulling the strings, tilting the playing field in favor of the new insiders. And again like politicians everywhere they began to quarrel over the spoils of political war, eventually leading to the precipitous expulsion of USCA from the AWDF and the inevitable slap down by the FCI.
The ultimate resolution of this has yet to play out, but the one certainty is a further diminishing of public stature and a lessening of the viability of the overall movement. From the very beginning, over thirty years ago, AWDF leadership has represented and promoted their parochial interest with little regard for the viability of the overall American culture; we have never had national leadership whose first priority was American control of our canine affairs. In the early years this domination was by USCA, which was increasingly the captive client of the SV in Germany and thus served German rather than American interests. Today all but a mere handful of AWDF trials are conducted by and under the auspices of a German national organization, the DVG, and the route to the FCI IPO championship is now only through Germany and illicit German IPO titles. Most of those thinking of themselves as important could not care less so long as there is the opportunity to make a world team, any world team. For these very important people nothing else really matters.
In recent years the AWDF has increasingly sought to force participation in the breed clubs, and to extend control, through various onerous requirements and restrictions. This has primarily been directed at eroding USCA predominance and influence but has had little real impact on this, primarily resulting in annoyance and inconvenience for the individual trainers. These regulations have varied over time, to the extent that they are hard to keep track of. At one time there was a requirement that being black balled by one club precluded membership in any AWDF club, not only did they want to be elite, they wanted the power to punish beyond exclusion. It was never quite clear if this extended to rejected applicants or indeed nonmembers they disapproved of, in which case there would have been the power to blacklist virtually anybody out there who displeased them. Enforcement mechanisms have been weak but the ill intent is still there.
Over time score book requirements and procedures have been in flux, to the point where there was a real need of a master score card to keep track. For many years USCA issued breed identifying score books to all members, including the significant minority, about thirty percent, with other breeds. Then, in response to AWDF pressure, they would only issue nonspecific score books to the other breeds, essentially treating them as cross breeds, mongrels or perhaps the term would be "undocumented alien dogs." This was especially onerous and offensive, a low point bringing shame on virtually everyone, USCA for throwing long standing members, in my case a 25 year membership, under the bus and on the other hand AWDF clubs for attempting to bludgeon compliance and enforce membership on unwilling trainers. National breed clubs need to build membership and prosper because of the advantage of their programs and service, not because they seek to exclude those who for their own reasons prefer to prepare for and engage in competition independently.
In the ideal we would have one breed agnostic organization issuing score books, keeping records, certifying judges and like administrative services. Other services such as a magazine or funding for elite world teams could be available from other entities which individuals could support or not according to their own needs, ideals and financial resources.
Even though bloated bureaucracies have unfortunately persisted into the computer age this could be done at greatly reduced ongoing cost, lowering the barrier to younger trainers. There are of course enormous practical and historical obstacles to this promised land, but our bloated national organizations, used primarily to confiscate funds from the rank and file working trainers to support corrupt conformation systems and elite commercial trainers is an important factor in our overall failure to prosper.
Reality today is that only the German Shepherd and the Belgian Malinois are relevant in serious duel role police and military service and the associated sport venues. The other breeds have for all practical purposes been reduced to little more than pretenders. They can and likely will continue to obtain occasional titles, have championships with one or two dogs, be posed with police officers in uniform and portrayed as police dogs and in general persist on the margins of serious canine affairs. They are exceedingly unlikely ever to rise above this.
For these reasons a national organization as an alliance of breed clubs is unrealistic and unworkable, predestined to strife and failure. The AWDF cannot be fixed because it is intrinsically flawed; it is time to move on to a new national order.
This century has witnessed the inexorable, terminal decline of these Dobermans, my own Bouviers and the all of the others. It has been an ongoing personal tragedy for the advocates to stand aside, unable to intervene while the heritage withers, the lights flicker out. For a decade I turned my back on canine affairs, looking for another meaning in life, another cause, and then, having failed, slowly began to write. It is what I do, is now who I am.
Background and Reference:
GlossaryOrginizations and Conflicts
AWDF in Crisis: Unforeseen Consequences
AWDF in Crisis: The Way Forward
Meltdown in America
Bouvier Related:
Bouvier des Flandres: Memoirs of an AdvocateNAWBA in Retrospect
Premonitions of a Traveler