The Dog Star: Let’s Not Be Unreasonable About Dog Demands
(The Dog Star is a symbol of power, will, and steadfastness of purpose, and exemplifies the One who has succeeded in bridging the lower and higher consciousness. – Astrological Definition)
Bentley is a member of the American Kennel Club, the German Shepherd Dog Association of America, and the White German Shepherd Dog Association of America. There is along-standing, political, acrimonious argument about allowing white German Shepherds to be “shown” in competitions such as Westminster (they can currently compete in various performance competitions). I won’t go into the imbecility of this debate (recessive genes, demeaning the breed, various blood lines) because dog people at this level of intensity are unbearable. I was once telling the wife of a doctor who is a Westminster judge just how ignorant she is, in some detail, when she made disparaging comments about white Shepherds, as my wife and the boutique owner ushered me out of the place, I believe at gunpoint.
I tell you this because I’ve just received a communication from the aforementioned WGSDAOA asking that we vote for a proposal being put before the GSDAOA to petition the AKC to allow white German Shepherds full admission to compete in all events. (Koufax would have told them all he had better things to do, and Bentley would organize a massive game of fetch.)
The truly memorable aspect is that I received the “disqualifyers” that would remove a dog from the competition even after the breed were to be accepted. They are:
1. Noses that aren’t black.
2. Ears that droop or are cropped.
3. An underslung lower jaw.
4. Biting a judge.
I am not making this up. Biting a judge gets you disqualified. And they need to tell you that. The only reason I’d go to these events would be if I had some reasonable expectation that the dogs of any breed might be biting the judges.
© Alan Weiss 2013
