Going for the Blue (12 page)

Then comes the matter of who gets first pick. Breeders of fine dogs want their dogs shown well, again to enhance the kennel’s
reputation and because they love their breed. Well-known exhibitors who have shown dogs successfully over the years will usually
be given first choice. Friends are accommodated, too, but most breeders are so serious about the puppies they produce that
friendships are likely to come asunder before a potential champion gets into the wrong hands. Rarely if ever will breeders
let any of their puppies, show quality or not, go into an irresponsible or substandard home, and then only by accident or
misjudgment. The care that is taken is a combination of the love of their dogs, pride in their breeding, ego, possessiveness,
a nurturing instinct, and a few other traits besides. Still, you have to start somewhere, and getting to know the right people
at a show is usually the most productive first move.

Expect to be cross-examined and given both IQ and morality tests. It is best if your police rap sheet is very short and you
don’t have too many speeding tickets. It is very hard on the breeders to let their little darlings go. Never even try to get
a puppy away from a breeder before it is eight weeks old. Many protectors of their breed prefer to wait longer than that.
It can be months. It is always traumatic—but not for the poor benighted mother.

By the time one or two months of nursing is over, the bitch is ready to give all of her get (litter) away. Whether the litter
is small or large, having those greedy little mouths with needlelike emerging teeth and those kneading paws with sharp little
nails assaulting your naked abdomen is not fun after a few weeks. It is the pits. Not to mention that the wee critters are
busy, when they are not nursing, eating their mother’s tail and ears. By that stage most bitches think being a mother is the
worst idea they ever had. You can watch the mother’s patience wearing thin, thin enough so you can read through it. The fact
that the puppies survive is a testament to what really nice animals dogs (bitches) really are.

One fact that seems to surprise most newcomers to the world of dogs is that the honest private breeder is simply trying to
keep his losses to a minimum. The novice notes that the hobby exhibitor-breeder’s Irish Setter has had a litter of eight puppies.
There wasn’t a stud fee involved, since the same breeder owned the sire as well, yet the breeder is asking a thousand dollars
a puppy. In fact, there will be little if any profit. There rarely is. All the costs involved in traveling and showing the
parents, creating your interest in their puppy because both of those parents became champions, have to be factored in, as
do veterinary costs and all the elements of proper care of the dam, sire, and litter. Breeding fine show-quality puppies is
rarely a reliable means of making money unless it is done on a thoroughly professional level with special facilities, kennel
help, a groomer, handlers, the whole nine yards, including, in many cases, financial backers and co-owners.

Although some dealers and pet-shop owners will tell you a different tale, a prospective pet’s “papers” are meant to be free;
they should not add to the price of the dog. In one case I was asked to look into, a pet shop sold an innocent first-time
purebred dog owner a Bulldog at slightly over twice its fair market value and then offered “all the dog’s papers” for an extra
two hundred dollars. The buyer said that he was assured that it was a good deal—by the pet-shop dealer, of course. It was
in fact a terrific deal—for the thieving merchant.

Keep in mind the following considerations regarding a dog’s papers and other information acquired at time of purchase:

1. A pedigree is simply a list of a dog’s forebears. Blank family trees or pedigree forms are available from dog-food companies,
in books and magazines, just about everywhere you look in the dog world. Almost inevitably they are handouts, freebies. Fancy
pedigree forms on parchmentlike paper with lots of scrolling are for sale from vendors at dog shows for almost no money at
all. A pedigree lists the parents of the dog, grandparents, and great-grandparents at least—sometimes going much further back
than that—by each dog’s registered name and its AKC registration number. Computer printouts are generally available today.
Do not do business with anyone who suggests a price for the pedigree or who appears reluctant to supply a free copy with the
dog he is trying to sell you. It should be available at the time of the sale.

As a rule, I would suggest that you avoid anyone
who is trying to sell you a dog. Fine breeders have to be begged to let go of one of their charges. It is like giving up their
children. Be on the lookout for hustlers. There are plenty around. And it is not necessarily a minor backyard business. The
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigated one puppy-mill operation in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
that averages close to a quarter of a million dollars a year supplying poorly bred, substandard dogs to pet shops. Some cottage
industry! Some way to treat man’s best friend!

2. When you buy a dog that is represented by the seller as eligible for AKC registration, you are entitled to receive at the
time of sale an AKC application form properly filled out and signed by the seller. When you have completed your part, it is
to be submitted to the AKC with a ten-dollar registration fee. When the AKC has processed the paperwork, you will receive
a registration certificate. The seller should not profit from this process, despite what some of them will tell you.

3. DO NOT buy a dog from a seller who is unable to submit to you all identifying information at the time of the sale. DO NOT
accept a promise of later identification. Chances are you will never get what is properly yours, and you may never be able
to show your dog or study its lineage, should the time and reason come when you want to breed it. Again, unless your purebred
dog is of show quality and has what its breed needs, do not breed it. Spay or neuter instead. Never even think of breeding
a random-bred or pet-quality purebred dog. Just love it. You will be getting more than your money’s worth. Ribbons and trophies
get tacked up in the kennel or tack room; the dogs themselves are for eternal hugging. They know it and if you don’t, you
will be missing an awful lot in life.

4. AKC rules require a seller to provide the buyer with a properly completed registration certificate including the breed,
sex, and color of the dog, its date of birth, the registered names of the dog’s sire and dam, and the name of the breeder.
Stand firm, get what is yours, and briskly walk away from anyone who tries to put a price on a dog’s papers. He probably sells
snake oil, too.

5. Although not technically a part of registration papers, sellers should be able (and willing) to supply the buyer with a
free copy of the dog’s medical history outlining what shots it has had and what shots are due and when. It should contain
all of the information the dog’s future veterinarian will need. This can be terribly important. This information should be
free; any other suggested arrangement is a hustle. Any true dog lover will be anxious for you to have this paper because it
will help you and your veterinarian keep the dog they supposedly love healthy and happy.

6. The seller should also supply complete information on the dog’s diet. Brand names, quantities, treats, feeding times, should
all be included. Shortly after the new puppy (usually) comes home, you should discuss this paper and the medical record with
your veterinarian, your dog’s personal doctor.

It is the responsibility of a dog’s buyer to get all of the paperwork and registration information required, and if it is
not made available without cost, pass on the deal. Something is amiss in Denmark and probably elsewhere. That can be difficult
to do, but in the long run it is far better for the animal and for your bank account.

A NAME FOR THOSE PAPERS

If you are buying a puppy, it probably will not have been individually registered with the AKC before you came along, so part
of the information you will be submitting with your ten dollars will be your pet’s official name. You can call your pet whatever
you want at home, but Toots and Babe, Spot, Felix, and Phydeaux are not ring names. On the other hand, you might feel a little
silly on the street where you live calling loudly, “Here Nightingale’s Salmon Bracket Tester, come!” You need, then, a registered
name, although you can forget it if you want, once it has become a part of canine history. If your dog’s originating kennel
is renowned for the quality of its puppies and their show performance, you may want to capitalize on that fact and use the
kennel’s name as part of your pup’s registered name: Glorious Household’s Shin Plaster Dandy, for example. But hold on, you
can’t, unless you have written consent. You must get that consent at the time of the purchase in writing from Glorious Household
Kennels. It generally is a good sign if the kennel gives you that permission. It means the kennel feels strongly enough about
the potential of the puppy they have bred to want it out there attracting attention to their presumably good name. If a kennel
refuses, it may be because they have a policy that mandates that position or they feel your pup is a pet-quality dog
or
they do not feel you will do a good job of showing the puppy they have sold you. Either way, it is the buyer’s job to ask
for permission.

A word or two about those fingernail-on-the-blackboard poofy names: the whole idea is to come up with something new. After
all, the AKC registers more than a million dogs a year, every year, and even with the dog’s abbreviated life span, there are
going to be a lot of registered dogs still alive at the same time. Millions! No two can have the same name. Now, go forward
and invent. If you can come up with a new name for a Golden Retriever with
gold
in it not currently occupied you are very inventive indeed. A lot of breeders have a sense of humor, and since the name won’t
be used very much in real life anyway, they like to come up with puns and plays on words. Sometimes it is just quirky. Jill
produced a litter of Bloodhounds and called it her J litter; all the puppies had names beginning with that letter—Jasmine,
Jeremy, Jethro, and so on. Anyway, show dogs are not generally called Babe or Bo, Mabel, Maud, or Musty, except at home.

So, then, you have at last found your breed, you have located and perhaps befriended your breeder, and you know what you want
the incoming member of your family to accomplish. What is more important, you have identified your pick-of-the-litter puppy
and you are anxious to get his career under way. It is time to stop dreaming, time to make the dreams come true. What are
the next steps?

Take your puppy, as soon as possible, to your veterinarian, his personal doctor. Tell the seller you are going to do that
as soon as you leave and have the understanding that your veterinarian’s word will be the deciding vote. No one should object
to that. Have him checked out and establish a schedule for his immunizations. Good health comes first. Don’t try to go anywhere
without it. It won’t happen. A dog that is in anything short of perfect health just won’t show well. The judge will spot it
immediately.

Manners comes next. Check into an obedience course as soon as the professional you have decided to confer with says it is
time. Learn to work together as a team. Everything will be easier after that. This isn’t a matter of turning your companion
into a robot. Rolling over and playing dead is not what it is all about; it is about instilling good manners and encouraging
obedience.
Come, sit, stay, down, off, no
or
leave it, give it up
, or
drop it:
these commands are not too much to expect of a bright puppy that is well cared for, encouraged and socialized, and properly
rewarded. Many people feel you should not teach a puppy to sit until it is more than a year old and familiar with showing.
In the ring, a
come
is followed by a self-stack, not a sit. Either way he will do much better in the ring with obedience training. Praise him,
then praise him again. He will play your game with you—and for you—but he wants to be recognized and rewarded. He may not
be exactly certain what it is all about, but he knows it can be exciting, it pleases you, and there are rewards. He knows
praise when he hears it and he can never get enough of it. It is addictive.

Even before he starts showing, your new friend should rehearse! Setting up—holding the show stance as he is supposed to when
the judge evaluates his qualities—is an easy lesson, something you can do together that will give him a head start when he
does finally get launched as a show puppy. He should know how you want him to relate to his leash and how you want him to
move.

And the business of being handled: few things are more important. The puppy should react well to strangers. He should not
be suspicious or shy or nervous, against the day when the judge’s hands will examine his body. The touch of a stranger should
not appear dangerous or threatening, and a well-conditioned show dog knows that. If he doesn’t, it does not bode well for
future competition. A judge pressing down on his withers, checking how his upper and lower jaws sit opposite each other, spot
checking his maleness, running hands along his back and down his sides: not dangerous, not unpleasant, and it is essential
that the pup understand this perfectly well. A squirming dog or, heaven forbid, a biting one probably won’t have far to go
in his career.

There is one thing about touch that can be a little confusing. When a male dog is being evaluated, you will note the judge
perform a fast darting ritual between the dog’s rear legs. The judge (some do this with a shy grin, others with a slightly
grim, stern look) is checking to be certain that both of the dog’s testicles have descended into the scrotum. (You get to
talk about these things with ease when you are into dogs.) If the two are not there to be counted, if there is only one apparent,
the dog is called a monorchid and will have to be disqualified. I have watched judges do this little examination scores of
times, very often on dogs that are already champions and presumably have been checked scores of times before. Where do they
think the testicles have gone? Perhaps they come and go at will, rather like Mr. Otis’s invention. Bitches don’t have to worry
about things like this. It is not an indignity they are expected to suffer. (Of course, if a bitch has had a litter recently
and has been nursing, she may have to walk around wearing a tight T-shirt or a tightly wrapped bandanna as an extended belly
band. Her owners are trying to get her breasts to shrink and give her back her girlish figure. No one wants to see a show
bitch waddling around with a pendulous belly like teatime at Romulus and Remus’s house.)