Sportsmanship

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="09300500dvldtc.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Bradley Hand ITC" ><B>Vanderbilt Samoyeds </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Bradley Hand ITC" >-</FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Bradley Hand ITC" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Bradley Hand ITC" >striving for global breed type</FONT><B>   |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vanderbilt Samoyeds"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="mailto:samoyeds@gmail.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:samoyeds@gmail.com"><U><B>e-mail</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="094d2c00dvldtc.png"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="160" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 559 ><NOBR><bR> <div> <IMG SRC="d62324e0.gif" border=0 width="50" height="78" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>   <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">var site="s10vanderbilt"</script> <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2" src="http://s10.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s10vanderbilt"> </script> <noscript> <a href="http://s10.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s10vanderbilt" target="_top"> <img src="http://s10.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s10vanderbilt" alt="Site Meter" border=0></a> </noscript>    </div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="10ccdba33.gif"> <div> Sportsmanship</div> <div>  </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="758" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 3105 WIDTH="752"><bR> <div> <B>Occasionally in the dog world an exhibitor hits the ring with a real 'flyer'.  Many exhibitors, breeders and judges, particularly initially, will heap compliments on such a dog.   Professional handlers are usually the most effusively complimentary when they see a dog with real potential as they have a vested interest in finding quality dogs.  If they start circling, you know you've got something good. And unfortunately, as is often the case when a star comes along to threaten the status quo - some not so high praise is often publicly broadcast from imbittered competitors.  We usually take this as a positive sign that our stock has given pause to others who feel they cruise at the forefront of the sport - whether they actually do or not.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>As an example, at a recent show one relatively new breeder-on-the-rise smeared a 6 month old young puppy dog of ours, right to our face, with the unsolicited assessment that he was a </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Courier New" ><I><B>"fat head, big hair"</B></I></FONT><B> dog.  In structure circles, that cut-down is reserved for the cute cripples.  Now everyone is of course entitled to their opinion, but most of us don't go wildly spewing up cautic assessments of dogs to their handlers faces! The only purpose served by being so frank is to bring deliberate and hurtful insult to the owner.  By extrapolation such statements obviously insult the dog, but also the breeder/owner/handler, and the judges who've put him up.  In this case the puppy in question won the large Specialty Sweeps and RWD to a 5 point major on the day.  The one who "opened fire" was a person we've previously gone out of our way to help, and who actually owned the aunt to our puppy - who tragically as a young puppy escaped from her care at a dog show and was lost under the wheels of a vehicle.  Perhaps on this day said breeder was threatened by our puppy's obvious quality, jealous of his success - or perhaps she was feeling uncharitable for placing last in her own class under the same judge.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The reason is really irrelevant.  Learning how to lose is much more difficult than learning how to win.  Particularly for ambitious novices whose hard work has led them to victory's door on more than one occasion.  And they haven't yet learned that nobody breeds dogs to suit everybody.  Study, plan, pore over pedigrees, videos and pictures, tap the brains of the successful breeders - you can do it all, and you will STILL never breeds dogs that appeal to everyone.  For that reason we must learn to breed dogs to please ourselves based on our own solid research - and we must be able to defend our selection!  All of this is for naught in our opiion however, when those that are asking for knowledge one minute are mocking you the next.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Another example of extreme unsportsmanlike behaviour we encountered was at one show where we stood ringside with our beautifully bred and conditioned bitch, awaiting the steward to call us in.  Another breeder/owner/handler stepped up along side of us with her Sam and spoke loudly </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Courier New" ><I><B>"I guess this is the difference between the indoor dog and the outdoor dog"</B></I></FONT><B>.  Our bitch had a beautiful coat that she had come by genetically, and that had been meticulously conditioned with a quality diet and frequent grooming.  By contrast the other bitch had a skimpy coat that looked moth-eaten and neglected.  In the face of the obvious disparity in coat alone, the owner was clearly attempting to compensate by impling that our dog was an outdoor kennel dog that had come by it's virtues at the expense of an emotional bond severed as she lived her life outside to grow coat; and hers an indoor "more loved" dog.  This was day 2 of a circuit, and our bitch had won the first day.  Interestingly the competitor's dog had finished the weekend prior, but was being kept in the classes for "insurance points".  After losing on the first day, it was promptly moved up the next.  This person had NO knowledge of our management practices and had never even been to our home.  If she'd only known what a couch potaoe this bitch was!  Why then do people make proclamations about things of which they know nothing?  They do it to inflict a pain that apparently assuages their own sufferance at losing by exacting a retribution at that which they perceive as standing in the way of them and their glory.  Winners and people with class simply don't behave this way.  Both of the above situations occured with no provocation on our part.  Except winning.  Winning consistently.  The ultimate sin.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Then there's the novice who likes to claim that NOBODY takes better care of dogs than she does in spite of her revolving door policy (in quick, out quick) and theory that the most EXPENSIVE dogs should win and only the natural fed dogs have good owners!! I was taking this cheeky novice to her FIRST US National Specialty; I showed one of her dogs; I taught her some finer points of show grooming a Sammy - and the thanks I got was a disrespectful slur to my face where she stated that her young puppy and young adult female should be left loose in our hotel room instead of my one older and totally trustworty dog because, now get ready for it ..., </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Courier New" ><I><B>"my dogs sleep in the bedroom and yours don't"</B></I></FONT><B>.  You know I could've gotten my head around her request to leave her dogs loose if she had stated that was willing to cover the damages that might have been incurred, AND if she hadn't sideswiped me with the "your dogs don't get to sleep in the bedroom" dig.  But she chose to deliver it as a 'kick', and I drove her home and wrote her off.  I even usually accept apologies where the aggregiousness is not too severe and the remorse quick and genuine.  It was never forthcoming in this situation however.  Today this breeder is disgruntled with several top breeders, has a horrible track record obstetrically with her bitches, and in raising young animals.  But hey!  They apparently get to sleep in the bedroom!</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Courier New" ><B>Does one ever get used to this kind of hostility and game playing at dog shows?  The answer unfortunately is yes - and even to expect it.  The trick is to not to engage these types of people in conversation or give them one whit of your conscious attention; dodge them at all costs as they are a blight on dogdom and an albatross around your neck if you grant them court.  You have quality dogs and must expect the guns to be turned on you by the losers.  Seeking approval from those in your own breed is often a double-edged sword.  Only a few will be accomplished and secure enough to not be threatened if you come along with something great.  </B></FONT>"<I><B>Occasionally you don't see the bullet coming, it arrives out of the blue from a surprising source - and so you strike another notch on your experience belt, grow another inch of skin, and become a little more leary of novices waving about flattery in an effort to access your knowledge and skill set."</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Courier New" ><B>  The ones that very quickly develop a bad case of expert-itis and are cutting you down in no time flat.   Most of it likely goes on over the internet - as those who couldn't cut it in the ring arena (due to many shortcomings in their dogs and themselves) try to find ways to damage the reputations or slow the momentum of the real successful breeders in any desperate way they can.</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Sometimes they go too far.  We currently have the police involved in a malicious and vindictive website uploaded by someone who  has been harassing us for years.  It's a true Vanderbilt hate-site, complete with stolen pictures of our dogs that have been distorted to make the dogs appear faulty.  That's aside from the defamation issues on the site.  If we decide to press charges that person will have a criminal record - and won't the Sammy world be surprised when they find out who it is!  And there's even an email chat group in Canada dedicated to maligning the Country's good breeders that is run by minions of the same basher connected to the website above.  We have the archives thanks to one turncoat member who "broke away".  Some of it will be shared with others who need to be enlightened about this internet "gang" that are the scourge of Samoyedom.  They hunt you, they mock you, they masquerade to others in the breed as knowledgeable caring fanciers, and they assume multiple online aliases to look like a crowd.  They are totally threatened by you and the positive forces you represent.  But they are nothings desperate to feel important, and the fact that they become obsessed with your life is a sorry reflection on their own pathetic existences.  Some of them are reading this now, for they hit on this site with clockwork-like regularly to scan the news and litter sections - seeking fodder to scurry back to their holes with; to mangle, worry, dissect, twist, distort and hopefully expunge something from that they can criticize and hold up to the world saying "See! See! Look what they're doing now!"</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Courier New" ><B>There comes a time when some of the bull goes too far and you've got to push back.  Ignoring them would be the prefered way of doing it, but as breeder-judge Jeanne Nonhof recently wrote in her excellent article in the SCA Bulletin - that doesn't work!  We must be proactive in dealing with these hoodlums of the dog world.  Why would we ever let them drive us out of the sport when the real people of the dog world  applaud, encourage and reward our efforts?  We even know of one breeder of a successful special who was receiving death threats!  Thank goodness for the REAL dog people, and the sport is blesssed by many with a true calling.  Find them and celebrate your success together!  I would hope there's no potentially great breeders out there that let the surly hounds scare them off.  Step up to the plate and breed and show your magnificent dogs with pride.  </B></FONT><I><B>CALL ME!</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Courier New" ><B>  Care only what the impartial judges and real breeders of quality dogs say.   Hang with the winners. </B></FONT><I><B>Breeder bashing is a popular pasttime for the ones who can't cut it breeding and showing good dogs.</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Courier New" ><B>  </B></FONT><I><B>We have ZERO tolerance for this.  Read that last sentence again for we will maintain </B></I><I><B><U>no</U></B></I><I><B> relationship with people of this ilk.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Presumably we all have what we want, or we'd go get it.  Live and let live.  Good mentors and breeders are the TRUE deities of the sport - to be revered, respected, and thanked.  Not just today when we want something - but tomorrow, next year, and well into history if their achievement level dictates such.  None of us gets there on own.  Who have you thanked lately? A good mentor is a priceless gem among the rubble.  Extracting the prize can take time and care.  There are no shortcuts but the right hand on your shoulder can definitely expedidite your arrival and place you in the right circles with the right people for continued learning to take place.  If you want what your mentor's got, take his/her advice - but DON'T try to take their place.  They've earned it, and it's theirs.  If you don't want what they've got - leave them in peace to do their utmost - but don't bash them. It's a sign of your own desperate insecurity and greed.  The spotlight can be shared, but first it must be earned.  You WON'T become an original breeder of World Class dogs overnight.  Slow down, put away your matches and be careful who you step on on your way up.  We could write a book about the slurs, innuendo, and lies told about us and our dogs by the malcontents jealous of our dog's winning ways.  Of course if they're NOT talking about you - you probably don't have good dogs!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Do you ever let the detractors shake your confidence in a dog?  Never!  Irregardless of a shows outcome - at the end of the day we go home with the dogs we WANT to go home with.  To go back to my first example for a moment - even if the puppy was a fat head/big hair dog - and nothing could be further from the truth as anyone who'd read the standard once and had 2 good eyes in their head could see - he'd still be 5th generation Vanderbilt breeding on his mother's side, and 4th generation on his sire's side.  Justifiable pride.  Not fluke.  A lot went into producing that dog.  And a lot went into getting him from the whelping box to the ring. Years, money, sweat, joy, sacrifice, tears, love ...  Obviously the manufacturers of the injurious examples above have much to learn, but having failed to learn the very FIRST and most basic rule of decorum of dealing with the people with the good dogs that they might want something from someday - namely KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT when the venom is foaming at and threatening to erupt from your lips; yet another bridge is burned.  Another know-it-all born.  </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" ><B>And you keep scouring the masses looking for the rare special one that has a modicum of intelligence, drive and respect for success ...</B></FONT><B>  And novices wonder why it's so hard to find a good mentor.  Maybe it's because too often the student is too anxious to BECOME the mentor - without the necessary knowledge that comes only from experience.  You don't get that kind of experience in 5 years of breeding one litter a year or in parrotting what the real divas know without attributing it to them.  Quoting Jean de la Bruyere sums up this phenomena well ... </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Courier New" ><I><B>"Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from several--from foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from insolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy. "</B></I></FONT><B>  We note with dismay the effect that competition in general and losing in particular has on the behaviour of a large percentage of the human race.  Truly, few are cut out for it.  What a paradox to preach light, and yet be so very very dark.  Funny how competition doesn't build character - it simply reveals it.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Enough venting.  The dog world is no different than any other competitive sport - you'll always come across the good, the bad and the ugly.  Having the faith to persevere in the face of extreme antagonism is essential - for if you're good at what you do you'll be facing it eventually.  At the end of the day good dogs will still be good dogs - and good people will acknowledge them - and  the mean-spirited babble will bubble on in the cauldrons of the witches who manufacture it ... rising up to inevitably poison only themselves.  </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Courier New" ><I><B>We're not in dogs for the social life or to win a popularity contest.  We serve the breed, and answer only to our most staunch critics - ourselves and a handful of others that matter.</B></I></FONT><B> History will reveal all to the apt and sage student that sincerely seeks truth - records live, bs dies.   Pardon the philosophical interlude, but some things just have to be said.  Thanks again Fred, we still feel your hand on our shoulder.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Judi Elford</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="10cd50460.gif" border=0 width="80" height="70" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>