British Heritage Dog Breeds

DISCOVER DOGS - Are We Making The Most of This Event?

Please see page one article.
Can I ask for feedback from Discover Dogs regulars about the idea of having a dedicated area for rare British Heritage Dog Breeds.
Full details in the article, post replies either after the article or in reply to this post
Paul K

I'm a big Discover Dogs fan although I think Crufts is still the bigger shop window by virtue of the greater coverage in the media.

To answer the question directly, native breeds are definately not making the most of the event. It comes back to the issues I raised in my post "the elephant in the living room". There are the progressive people who want to actively market our Heritage breeds and then there are the old school who see their job as doing everything possible to put tpotential puppy buyers off the idea of owning their breed.

I'm all for "British Heritage Dog Breeds" as a brand and believe the individual breeds are better served by acting together. Some breed clubs see this point, some do not. An event like Discover Dogs revolves around the breed clubs so we need to be careful not to tread on their toes. [It pains me to say this because I feel some clubs deserve their toes lept up and down on whilst wearing hobnail boots]!

So, I am forced to say, we have to be led by the breed clubs on this one.

I agree with your statement that some breed clubs need a shake up as far as Discover Dogs goes.
My wife and I did it for a few years , and from experience there are some clubs that are not interested. Most of the volunteers that we got were more pet owners who loved there dogs.
We would got breeders telling us if thy had puppies and to pass on there number to any interested people. But by the same token these people did not have time to do a half day session on the breed booth.
Some of the breed clubs do not even try to organise the Discover Dogs booth thy just hope someone will do it and if that person decides to give it up that the out going one will find someone to take over.
So maybe it would be a good idea to have “British Heritage Dog Breeds “ as an area of it's own, like it is divided into Terriers, Working, Utility, Hounds ect.

Hi

My name is Sue Breeze a former trustee of the native dog breeds trust.
The reason I am emailing is that the majority of the ideas and suggestions on this site have already been done, or suggested by the Trust. I wrote to Mr Ronnie Irving and Rosemary Smart asking that at Discover Dogs we have all of the VB's grouped together so as to high light them to the public. I also explained that by high lighting them in this way we could contact the media about this new initiative and really make a big thing of it, thus bringing more publicity to the VB's. The reply from Mr Irving, received many weeks later after reminder emails, was a resounding no. Mr Irving said that this idea would be too confusing - I cannot imagine why.
We also spoke to the KC about putting on VB shows and we were told that the KC would indeed help us do this; they said they would allow us to use the KC building and provide us with a licence. However when it came to doing it they had changed their minds, we were told we couldn't have a licence and that the only way to organise a show would be to use one of the breed clubs licences. The family event you talk about we did at the Midland Game Fair and also had plans to organise a Meet and Greet day at Mypetstop Manchester with the vb's on show as well as various attractions for the family. Even though we advertised and wrote to the breed clubs we couldn't get the volunteers so the event - planned for October- was cancelled. We approached the KC for help with scientific research into the vb's and how best to help them, Mr Irving said it would be a waste of money. We approached the KC about putting an education package together whereby any reasonably intelligent person would be able to put on a talk, with the use of a dvd and suitable literature, at their local college, W.I school etc.etc. The Kennel Club weren't interested. We wrote to all of the championship show secretary's asking them to put to their committees the suggestion that they did reduced entry fees for VB's - not one Championship show did this.
We advertised for "area reps" as well as volunteers to help us with our promotional work but the response was virtually non existent. The list of things we have done or attempted to do is endless, we the Trustees spent many hours working into the night on different plans and many days at Crufts, Earls Court, the YKC , Game Fair, fun weekends and companion/fun shows.
I just wanted to let you all know that we actually spent a lot of time, effort, energy and our own money desperately trying to help these breeds.
The plain fact is that if people don't want to help , are not interested or just don't care we can't make them. I am passionate about these breeds and I have lived and breathed the British & Irish Dog Breeds Preservation Trust/Native Dog Breeds Trust for five years and I was personally gutted when we decided to fold.
One of the main problems with helping these breeds is getting people off their backsides and doing something. Many people sit either at shows, on the telephone or on their computers, professing how much they care but when it comes to putting themselves out and actually doing something it's a different story. They work full time (so do I) they have a family to consider (so do I) they have a lot of dogs to look after ( so do I) they have busy lives (so do I) they don't have much money (neither do I) . Believe me in the thousands of hours I have spent on the phone trying to get volunteers I have heard every excuse there is. The truth is there aren't many people that are willing to travel up and down the country at their own expense, give up hours of their free time, talk themselves hoarse explaining the VB plight to Joe public or perhaps working to the early hours printing leaflets and brochures.The faithful band of volunteers we did have are wonderful and I can never thank them enough for their help.
For all of the Kennel Clubs fine words they are not really interested - at least they wouldn't help us - the majority of breed clubs aren't interested, in fact many feel that we were interfering and the majority - not all - of dog people in general just aren't interested.
I realise I probably sound bitter, the truth of the matter is that I am totally dissappointed in the Kennel Club, the majority of breed clubs and I must say the majority of dog people. It seems to me that the only time the vast majority care and get passionate about something is if there is something in it for them

Sue Breeze

I was saddened to hear that the NDBT had folded. I was never a member and I suppose I did "sit on my backside" rather than get involved.

I totally understand Sue's reservations and to a large extent I share them. She is right in suggesting that talk is cheap and internet chatter even cheaper. The problems will indeed arise when it comes down to asking people to make the committment to actually put themselves out and physically do something.There is, however, no better way to produce a self-fulfilling prophecy than to start off expecting failure.

Unless I've totally missed the point this site is about having the debate and seeing what ideas VNB or "Heritage Breed" people can agree on and sign up to. Maybe this site can build a community and get some real committment to secure the future of these breeds.

As to the KC- we all love to hate them but we need to work with them. I think we have one ace up our sleeve in that the VNB area is one of the very few the KC can use to generate some positive media attention . If the KC can see something in it for them in supporting Heritage Beeds then we will have a chance to get their support.

How about providing each of the breeds one of the Heritage Breed Banner or large poster to go up. This way, despite the KC's inability to provide a set area for all of us, we can provide a cohesive image. Also provide leaflets for each Heritage breed booth highlighting the plight of the breeds, that way after going to one booth the information is there listing the other HB booths.

Also many of the breed stands provide stickers etc. for children, how about getting together stickers that show the breed with the labelling of Heritage breed. There must be loads of other low cost ways of showing that these breeds all belong to the Heritage breed group and hopefully once the KC see how well organised HB is they will be more willing to help us.

How about getting dog shows to have a "Heritage" class(es) so that we can compete against each other. It is hard for us to get breed specific classes at open shows, but probably between us we can get enough numbers to make this an opportunity that club secretary's want to take on. Maybe stakes classes would be an alternative way to go. Look at Darlington and how good they are to do the Vulnerable breed parade, would it take much to get them to do vulnerable breed stakes?