What goes around comes around...
Right now I am watching history repeat itself.
When I went into showing and breeding cats, there was a secretary of a small breed club with which I was involved who had done a fantastic job of introducing the breed, forming the club and jumping through a lot of GCCF hoops. She worked hard, was very personable and charming and deeply committed. She believed she knew best about everything to do with this breed and tried to control everything about it. For the first few years her word was law. This began to be deeply resented by other members of her club and, in particular, by the club committee (of which I was not a member, I hasten to add.) One day she made a mistake and the committee seized the advantage to put her in her place - she wouldn't compromise her principles, resigned and walked out. The club and the breed got on without her.
I am now on the outskirts of an organisation in the dog world which has filled a much needed gap. It was founded by two people, one of whom is no longer much involved. The remaining co-founder has been running the whole shebang, writing the rules and laying down the law to the organisers of events under its umbrella. This person has just made a unilateral announcement of rule changes based on what is said to be scientific research showing that what we have all been doing is harming our dogs. Despite many requests no links or citations to this research have been given (some research has been unearthed, but by other people, and sample size and variables have been called into question.) There is a thick file which, apparently, a person who attends one of the events can read (no doubt one by one.) Because there is no constitution and no committee, her dicta can only be questioned face to face or on Facebook. The result is a great deal of heat, no light, and a total loss of goodwill.
This is an enormous pity. In fact, the changes involved favour me and Bren, but that is not the point. The point is that people do not like being treated like idiots, being dictated to or being accused of being CRUEL (in caps) to their dogs. If this is the case they want evidence and they want it now. The thing is that there are other organisations in this field, one huge player and a number of smaller ones so some people are already voting with their feet.
In any event, there will be confusion and tears before bedtime.
When I went into showing and breeding cats, there was a secretary of a small breed club with which I was involved who had done a fantastic job of introducing the breed, forming the club and jumping through a lot of GCCF hoops. She worked hard, was very personable and charming and deeply committed. She believed she knew best about everything to do with this breed and tried to control everything about it. For the first few years her word was law. This began to be deeply resented by other members of her club and, in particular, by the club committee (of which I was not a member, I hasten to add.) One day she made a mistake and the committee seized the advantage to put her in her place - she wouldn't compromise her principles, resigned and walked out. The club and the breed got on without her.
I am now on the outskirts of an organisation in the dog world which has filled a much needed gap. It was founded by two people, one of whom is no longer much involved. The remaining co-founder has been running the whole shebang, writing the rules and laying down the law to the organisers of events under its umbrella. This person has just made a unilateral announcement of rule changes based on what is said to be scientific research showing that what we have all been doing is harming our dogs. Despite many requests no links or citations to this research have been given (some research has been unearthed, but by other people, and sample size and variables have been called into question.) There is a thick file which, apparently, a person who attends one of the events can read (no doubt one by one.) Because there is no constitution and no committee, her dicta can only be questioned face to face or on Facebook. The result is a great deal of heat, no light, and a total loss of goodwill.
This is an enormous pity. In fact, the changes involved favour me and Bren, but that is not the point. The point is that people do not like being treated like idiots, being dictated to or being accused of being CRUEL (in caps) to their dogs. If this is the case they want evidence and they want it now. The thing is that there are other organisations in this field, one huge player and a number of smaller ones so some people are already voting with their feet.
In any event, there will be confusion and tears before bedtime.