Dogs vs. Owners

The president of the BRT club of Canada was in Calgary this past weekend, as they were taking part in some agility competitions. We were excited about the possibility of meeting some more Blackies, so we headed down. Now, granted, she had at least five dogs in a big van and was, as far as I can tell, running them all in the competition, so she was probably a little distracted. But I found her to be quite brusque and not really interested in us. In retrospect, she may have been doing her best to discourage us if we weren't prepared for the reality of living with and training a huge, intelligent dog - but at the time she just came across as rude. Particularly once it became clear that we weren't planning to buy a puppy from her!

This is an attitude that seems to be prevalent amongst BRT breeders - if you're not buying one of my puppies, then it's not worth my time to talk to you. In the world of dogs, BRTs are vanishingly rare (I've come across maybe 50 breeders worldwide!) so perhaps it's justified, since they'll always find a buyer. But if they honestly want the dogs to become more popular and be recognized in more venues, then I'd say that a little politeness probably wouldn't be amiss.

On the other hand, my sister's comment was that she often likes the dog better than the owner, so maybe people who get into breeding dogs are the ones with poor people skills? In the end, as long as we get the dog we want, I guess it doesn't really matter whether or not we're part of some happy, happy BRT club.