No, your Temu Malinois is no more a ‘working dog’ than you are a ‘working dog’ handler. Just because you
bought a dog breed made popular for its working attributes, those working attributes are not automatically bestowed on every member of that breed, nor does simple ownership convey the title ‘working dog handler’ just because you own that breed. The work defines the dog, not the pedigree. You earn that shit.
Get over yourself. Just because you went out and spent foolish money on a dog that is clearly out of your capability doesn’t give you the right to call yourself anything but foolish.
You are not pursuing criminals with your dog. You may have occasionally gone to a training day with a sport club and may or may not have allowed your dog to bite a rag or a sleeve, but the commitment for such an endeavor is steep, and the hours are long. I don’t see you committing to that kind of effort. Yay if you do, STFU if you don’t.
It’s easier for you to say things that you do not have to prove. After all, your dog’s a ‘working’ breed. According to *you*, that should be good enough, right?
Your dog isn’t searching for contraband on a border, or WMDs in a war zone. “Nosework” is Not. The. Same. Neither is Barn-hunt.
No offense, but a better test of olfaction-based work ethic is the urban ratters; they eliminate pests, and they are actually testing their dogs’ authentic hunting ability. The funny thing is, you don’t need to have a specific breed of dog to excel at this, and it provides a public service. There are dogs better suited to the task, but there are a lot of dogs that meet the primary criteria.
And, it tests everything necessary to make a candidate a good working dog. For urban ratting. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, here.
Too bad the humaniacs freak the hell out at the mere thought of bloodshed. I blame them for the demise of the working dog just as much as the wannabes that breed but don’t test, or the pretenders that pursue soft sports thinking they can replace actual work as a breeding worthiness test.
They can’t.
Anything that gives dogs opportunities to fulfill their instinctual drives is fine by me, just don’t call it “work’. It’s recreational. It isn’t looking for bodies in a rubble pile. It isn’t searching for lost children in the wilderness. It isn’t a live apprehension with a real combatant.
The absolute hubris that these people use to create a niche for themselves in a market clotted with frauds and poseurs is sad.
Owning a dog of a certain breed in no way confers any knowledge or skill regarding that breed’s true purpose, or that individual’s function. You actually have to *do* these things, in order to be able to teach these things, or brag about being a part of a culture that you wish to be a part of. Being unwilling to make the effort to be subjected to the rigorous testing that separates the wheat from the chaff, keeps you on the periphery. You are not a member. You are a pretender.
Because it’s easier to say, with false pride, “my working dog”, when in fact, your dog is a nuisance that you have grown to fear and couch that as bravado.
We are not fooled.
Don’t. Just don’t. You can own any breed of dog you want because you think they are ‘cool’ and you believe they elevate your stature because of their reputation. But don’t call it a working dog, you are not a working dog handler. You are not a working dog trainer.
You may be a dog owner with aspirations, but until you and your dog meet the criterion to be called those things, you are just a person with a power breed that has not humbled you yet.
Really.
I would judge you less, if you came out and admitted that you wanted one because all the cool kids are doing it, but you find yourself terribly over-dogged. The pathway to a solution starts with admitting you have a problem.
Honesty is a great policy.
Especially when it comes to something you are going to have to live with… oh wait, I guess not, really… you can always pawn it off on some other unsuspecting dupe or disappear it because the dog had achieved a level of aggression and ‘unpredictability’ through no conscious effort of yours… if it ends up in ‘rescue’ or in the landfill, your hands will be clean. You’re guilt free. Your convenient narrative will read that it was the dog that was defective, not the fact that you chose poorly, and had no business with a dog like that.
And I say that with all sincerity…
But seriously. If you are going to make the effort to sway a breeder of a ‘working’ caliber dog to sell you one, you better have a plan.
There are precious few breeders I would buy a dog from. The reason I chose those breeders is because I know the type of dogs they produce, and they support the dogs they sell, mentally, physically and by providing networking opportunities with like-minded people that have the same interests.
I am adult enough to know that I do not need a dog that has more energy than I have to commit to it. I do not seek the approval of others, nor do I need to deceive myself into thinking that the dogs I own are some sort of talisman for my ego.
I came to the conclusion long ago that if Suburban Sally didn’t need that Boerboel or Corso, Nosework Nancy doesn’t need the DDR Shepherd or KNVP Dutch Shepherd/Malinois either, but here we are.
Your dog, your business, I guess, but when push comes to shove, and you’re facing the same decisions again and again because YOU NEVER LEARN, at what point to you share any culpability for your poor choices.
A line from the Serenity Prayer, which was written by Lutheran theologian Reinhold Niebuhr around 1934 states:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”
At one point, I hope, folks develop the wisdom to know the difference.
If you see yourself in these words, allow the guilt to wash over you and move on. Do better. Make an effort, at least.
If you are one of those resentful little scrits that want to make this about you, don’t. There are too many of you for this to be singling out any one individual. Lately you have been legion, so, there’s that.
Rant Over.
