Frenchie Theft: The bad decisions AKC makes encourages others to follow suit – two weeks after The Dog Press article came out, the co-owner of my bitch registered a litter of puppies. She forged my name off of my bitch’s papers,  and evidently has no fear of being suspended by AKC. This same person is involved with the theft of a puppy from my home and the cosmetic alteration of a show. Why should any of us pay for dogs, or get properly signed registrations, if we can just waltz into someone’s home and  take what we want for free. Who’s to stop us? The police? Nope, they say these dog disputes are “civil matters”. The courts? Nope, they’d have us pay our lawyers $25,000 to not uphold their own decisions, as I had happen last year. AKC is who we turn to when registration/theft occurs.   BTW, the stolen puppy is the granddaughter Clipper, the dog stolen from Arlie Toye. What are the chances of this happening twice? Or do we have a real problem in the dog show world with theft and deception that is not being addressed? Karen Robertson Rock'n Roll French Bulldogs, Reg.

Lotta Chien Responds:  To those who thought my article against aligning with puppy mills to work against AR legislation was PRO animal rights, I suggest a remedial reading course. To those that think I should grow testicles or write better French – sorry that’s just not going to happen.  Let’s get it clear that I’m PRO the dog fancy standing up for itself!  The mill industry has its own groups, does its own funding, and has its own lobbyists - so why don’t we?  So we create a second organization of dog breeders who oppose the same legislation. What is bad about that?  I’m surprised so many in the dog fancy apparently agree with the animal rights message that a breeder is a breeder is a puppy mill. 

After all these years of careful dog breeding, I resent being told by any side of this controversy that I’m just like the mills. It is as distasteful coming from the AKC and the dog fancy as it is coming from an AR activist.  I’m in favor of quality breeding of dogs, but against breeding dogs as cash crop commodities. I count that as being Pro Dogs not Pro Animal Rights!  Lotta Chien (lets just say they shortened it from Chienne at Ellis Island…)

Older Eyes: While I enjoy reading the Dog Press articles (Registry Redacted is one), the font in some of them (apparently Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif) is really hard to read, especially as my eyes get older and tireder. How about sticking with one that’s more readable?  Stephanie Price  (Editor) I'm with you!  They use Arial in TheDogPlace.org but after trying different fonts, we decided for spacing and size, to stick with Franklin but yes, my older eyes are why we don't use Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif or 10 pt. fonts!  Thanks for caring. 

Dog Shows: I must agree with your article “the new age of dog shows.” I began my interest in dogs when I was ten years old when my family adopted a mutt from Petsmart. While he was a great dog, and I loved him dearly, though he had a multitude of problems the like of which most purebred dogs won’t even see. So much for mutts being healthier! I digress, my 4-H obedience leader was also a breeder of collies and took me under her wing to groom, train and handle her dogs in the ring. I was hooked by the beauty and elegance of not only my breed but the multitude of breeds around me each as amazing in its own right as the last. When our paths diverged I (with the help of my parents) chose a smaller dog as our house was rather small, for a show dog.

So we got Layla, a Brittany, a rather drastic change to my beloved collies. She was a nice looking bitch with a few minor faults which in the opinion of most were outweighed by her ability to move, a must in brittany standard, and her head, which looked nearly identical to a picture of a head study in “The New Complete Brittany.” However, it took nearly 2 years and many, many shows just to finish her. And it was my breeder who put one major and her final points on her. Most of my big wins were outside my “normal” circle where a particular line was always chosen even if they were an inferior dog. I rather quickly became jaded with the whole issue, and determined that if I wasn’t a well known breeder or handler I wasn’t ever going to finish my dog! I became frustrated as I watched dogs owned by others more well known finish by the time they were a year old, or in 5 or 6 shows knowing my dog was better nearly caused me to not finish her at all. I prevailed, and did finally finish her just before her 2^nd birthday, only to find she carried a genetic issue that precluded her from breeding anyway. So when people ask about where we got her I proudly say she is a champion from champion blood lines, and though I encourage people to buy from breeders, I never encourage the average person to try breed ring because my own experience was nearly one in futility. Unless judges become more impartial to who’s holding the leash, and sometimes to quit judging them based on other breed standards (ie the back foot moving in front of the front is highly frowned on in most breeds, but is prized in britts as it means they can move faster, farther and more efficiently), dog shows will surely be reserved only for the idle rich. And lets face it, in this economy even they are becoming few and far between.  Thank you, Rachel