Schutzhund is Over in Europe
Beginning in 2014 there will no longer be stick hits in the FCI IPO championships, and stick hits will disappear from the sport within two years. The Europeans will lower their gaze and submit, again. Bringing further shame on themselves, individually and collectively. This is about subservience, about crushing the human spirit, about emasculation.
When they banned the cropping of ears and docking of tails,
those who did not
do so did not notice, did not care, thought that it did
not involve them.
When they banned the prong collar and the radio collar, they thought they could pretend that it was a formality, could be evaded.
When the courage test eliminated the pursuit and turn, more truly testing the dog, they acquiesced.
When they noticed that the attack on the handler revealed the weakness of so many of their show dogs, they eliminated it.
When the vertical wall became too difficult for the evolving extreme structure of the show line German Shepherd, they eliminated it.
When the nanny scolds decried the stick, they padded it.
When Schutzhund transformed into IPO, the die was cast. Why did this happen? Why did the SV give up the legacy of von Stephanitz? Because this is exactly what the SV leadership wanted, the emasculation of the German Shepherd so that they could sell pathetic show dogs without the public shame of the trial field.
The FCI is a show and pet dog organization, and what we see before us was preordained. Working dog affairs are in the hands of show and pet breeders, and their agenda is to trivialize and emasculate us.
Furthermore, the SV is no longer a working dog organization, no longer holds to the values of the founders, of von Stephanitz.
The SV leaders have their thirty pieces of silver, why do they not weep and hang themselves?
For Americans, this is the moment of truth. Our European idols have revealed their feet of clay, their shame, their weakness.
But there is a silver lining.
This is the opportunity for the American working community to arise, to set aside the shackles of European subservience, to stand together and conduct American working dog affairs by and for Americans.
If we fail, there will not be another chance. The opportunity is before us, and if we do not seize it then it will be our shame, our weakness that denies us the legacy, the heritage.
We must resurrect traditional Schutzhund, by and for Americans, and take responsibility for our own heritage, our own dogs.
And we must remember out debt to our real brothers in Europe, those whose spirit remains free, who refuse to submit in their soul even though they are shamed on their sport fields.
We must welcome our European brethren to come to America and participate in a real Schutzhund championship, to pay homage to the founders on American fields because European fields are denied them.
Free at last. But free to be weak and fail as well as succeed.
Our fate is in our own hands, failure would be our own shame.