Have you been watching it?????

Well have you.... Every chance I have had I have been watching Crufts. I made them video the bits that I wasn't there for and I checked on all the bernese classes as soon as I could. Congrats to nanny Broels and a certain close relative of mine, and to nanny Sonja too. Funny how some of the names keep popping up and then some almost totally disappear. There is that core of about ten or twelve names that are always there or there a bouts . I suppose really since this is my first Crufts I shouldn't say too much, but at least our breed seems to have passed all the medical tests. Guess the KC has to make a stand because of the way people feel about the animals they love...I know had mad mum gets when she thinks about Finny and all his problems that were caused by the breeder.... Now St Bernards are on the refer list as they well should be. Finny made it to two and a half that's all... He was cheated and nothing can change that now. It doesn't matter mum rescued him, he was cheated of so much love and happiness and time with a forever family. It's bad enough when a disease strikes, but to knowingly breed animals that you know will die prematurely or suffer great pain is obscene. Then for every animal bred like that there is a family that can do nothing to stop it happening and then have to make the final decision. They will always wonder if they were at fault or did they make the right decisions? All because somebody else wanted to win a dog show or make serious money. It's time we all started looking at things a but differently. I want to live till I am twelve or more, I want to have a great big party when I am a hundred with all my friends there with me. There will be sausages, bones liver cake with candles everything we like to eat. I don't want to end up at the vets with cancer at six like so many of my breed do... I want to stay with my forever family forever! To do this you need to look at what you are doing and not just worry about how "pretty" a dog will look in the show ring. You need to widen the gene pool and stop line breeding so tightly. If you translated it into human terms then kissing cousins wouldn't even be in it. Grandparents to grandchildren , a set of grandparents the same on both sides of the family... You would get arrested!! Thankfully for me, my nanny looks after her dogs in this respect so I hope I am safe. It's quite possible to do for any breeder who will act responsibly. My mate Merlin has a breed coi of less than one and he comes from a posh well known place that's always winning stuff. As I said, I want to live a long happy and healthy life without my breeds past coming back and taking it away from me. As you can see I really do feel strongly about this, yes I would love to go there myself but if I never get there and get my party, which do you think I would rather have? And this applies to every dog there. When you look at all the good things that can come from Crufts, Pat dogs, discover dogs, the agility assistance and hero dogs, why have we let one side of it take such a toll that certain large organisations no longer support it or put it on tv. Dogs need all the help they can get, and remember that we love unconditionally , so perhaps that's what people need to do with us. Love us for what we are, not for the colour of the rosette they want us to win. Ok now I will get off my soap box.... Mum wants it to put the washing out anyway. Did you see that new poop scoop. Magic it was. Yellow and black I think it was... Ideal for the garden, but too big to take on a walk, and all that lovely food. I really really liked that bakery stall, with the biscuits scones and chocolate fairy cakes for dogs. It was amazing and so big. Looked every where for Aunty Judith on the Fish4dogs stand but guess they were in a different hall. And did you see all the special coats about now... No reason to be too hot, too cold or not float when you are out on a boat..... Anyway time for me to watch a bit more. Don't you just love the dancing and the agility and all the things we can do if we put our paws to it. Hope you are enjoying it too. Cool runnings Gryff