Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: If you are easily offended by sheer honesty, or you think me having my own opinions is "being negative", then this is not the place for you, and I suggest you leave and head elsewhere. I call a spade a spade, and I don't sugarcoat anything.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Judge Not

HA!! The Young Turks on YouTube has just answered a question (or maybe just confirmed) that has been burning in my mind for many years, ever since I began associating with dog show breeders. LOL!! I know I talk a lot about show breeders and how much I despise them as people. This video had nothing to do really with show breeders, it was about religious kids. But it spoke of why religious kids are more judgmental and less forgiving than non-religious kids. But these are qualities I have also noticed in a lot of show breeders I have encountered. They are always judgmental, and not at all forgiving. One thing I noticed when dealing with show breeders, they are very good at carrying grudges. Once you have clashed with them, they never forget it.

Well, several years ago when I began this campaign against show breeders, I theorized that the reason show breeders are so judgmental is because they get judged by the dogs they breed, so they think it's OK to go around judging other people on little things. It's the same mentality The Young Turks mentioned is the reason christians are so judgmental towards others. GOD judges them, so they think it's OK to judge others. I admit to judging people too, we all do! Let's face it, it's human nature. It's a survival mechanism. Part of it is instinct and part of it is experience. This is also true for show breeders. But the difference between how I judge someone and how show breeders that I have seen judge someone, I have an open mind. I don't completely form an all-ending opinion of someone based on one single meeting with that person, or their online personality, or something someone else has told me about said person. Show breeders I have seen, both online and in person, are very much the opposite.

For example, I met Rio Bellon through someone who bought a puppy from me back in 2001. That puppy was sold as a pet to the person who introduced me to Rio Bellon. On the first introduction, I greeted Rio pretty much like how I greet everyone; with a smile and a hello. She however, was quite standoffish and somewhat aloof. As time went on, I learned she resented me because of the pet-quality puppy I sold to the person who introduced me to her, even though I did not have the female who produced that puppy anymore. She had been spayed and adopted out. But Rio continued to carry that grudge, even when I asked her for mentoring. That alone should have told her I wanted to do breeding better, but she turned me down, again because of that one puppy that was produced by me in 2001 by a female I didn't even have anymore. I bet if I was to meet up with Rio again today, even though it has been 14 years since that puppy was produced, and 12 years since I adopted out the mother of that pup, I bet you all, Rio would still be bringing up that puppy and thinking that I am producing bad-quality chihuahuas. Even though I have not bred any dogs at all since Vegas was born back in 2006, 9 years ago. I would try to tell her that, but everything I say to her seems to go in one ear and out the other immediately. Nothing sticks to her brain. She's like the first computer my grandma bought back in the early 90s. It had a keyboard and screen, and you could type on it, and the words showed up on the screen, but it had no memory, no hard drive. So, anything you type on the screen would not be saved. That's what it's like talking to Rio Bellon. Poor old fool, she probably has the early stages of that Alzheimer's disease.

Anyways, she was a great example of a show breeder who was a good breeder, but sucked as a person, and was far too judgmental. I still remember how she jumped to the conclusion that my sis and I went to one dog show with both Groucho and Odessa in heat, looking for stud service. Not 100% true. Yes, I was looking for stud service for Groucho, but Odessa was already pledged to have stud service done when we got there. We were just unable to find the person who was supposed to take her because unbeknownst to us, she was showing a different breed in a different ring. I was going to breed Groucho another time. She just happened to be in heat at the same time as Odessa, don't ask me why. Ask mother nature. But the reason I had both Groucho and Odessa with me is because I didn't want to take one and leave the other one at home alone. No point in that. But Rio continued to judge me and my sis because of that. She thinks that was the only dog show I'd ever been to. She couldn't have been more wrong. I went to several, in Washington AND Oregon. But she was not always there when I went. So, she can stop believing whatever falsehoods got set in her brain because she refused to listen to facts.

Another example of a show breeder who was judgmental, there was this other breeder from Memphis who called herself Amberleigh. She had nice dogs, but as a person, she sucked!! I remember her telling the story on the Pluba forums about a meeting she had with a person at a rest stop, as she was walking her own dogs around, this woman with extreme Taco Bell dog lookalikes was walking towards her, and asked Amberleigh what kind of dogs she had. Amberleigh told her that she had chihuahuas. The other woman doubted her and said her Taco Bell dog lookalikes are "what chihuahuas are supposed to look like". Amberleigh said she lost it and the only other thing she remembered was her husband pulling her back in her car and driving off. I thought to myself "How is that helping educate someone?" Funny thing about Amberleigh, she was once judgmental against me, when Bischis brought up my name on the anti-merle chihuahua forum. And then she tells that story, and I think she sucked in the way she handled that. I sure wouldn't have handled it that way. I would have asked that woman "How many show wins has your dogs had?" and "Has your dog been analysed by a certified AKC show judge?" If the answers to those questions was anything like "I don't need an AKC judge to tell me my dogs look like chihuahuas. My vet/customers/neighbors/kids in school/little old lady in a grocery store motorized cart tells me my chihuahuas are the cutest they've ever seen and they all want one like them" I would remind that woman that those people are not reputable sources, and to look at the chihuahuas on AKC's website for comparison. I'm glad I never met Amberleigh! If I did, I think I would need to carry a baseball bat!! Not the wooden kind either, one of those heavy aluminum bats, in case she tried something like that with me! LOL! But more likely to happen would be I'd ignore her and just admire her dogs.

But anyways, those are some examples of the mentality I have seen in show breeders. They are loony!! Well, there is something wrong with them. I can't figure out what. I can't see any reason to attack a random person at a rest stop just because that person was uneducated. Or, I don't see any reason to keep digging up dirt on someone over a single breeding that took place years before, but had since wanted to improve her results, and then turn around and not help that person just because of a single breeding with a female that person doesn't even own anymore. I kinda wonder how these people are with their families. I can kindof imagine it being like Sophia and Dorothy on the Golden Girls. For example...

Let's say Rio has a daughter named Heidi. At 4 years old, Heidi draws a picture of a green elephant. Rio yells at her and says "Elephants are not supposed to be green! Do that picture over again and do it right or I'll send you to your room!" So, Heidi does what her mom says and draws a big, gray elephant on a piece of paper. Rio looks at it and nods, "That's better!" 16 years later, say Rio and Heidi are visiting a zoo and sees an elephant. Heidi says "That is such a majestic looking elephant!" Rio says "And he's not green. Is he?! You think he's green though!" Then when Heidi is 40 years old, she is visiting Rio and they sit to watch a documentary on TV about elephants. Rio turns to Heidi and says "Now look at that! That is how an elephant is supposed to look. They are not green! Got me? Stop thinking elephants are green!" Heidi says "Mom! I haven't thought elephants are green since I was 4 years old! Why do you keep bringing this up every time we see an elephant?" I would put an answer to this scenario here, but I have no idea what Rio's problem is. All I know is that this is what it's like talking to her.

And what about Amberleigh? LOL! Oh my GOD!! Let's say she has a daughter named Amy. Amy wants to read a story she learned to Amberleigh, it's called the Little Engine That Could. She opens the book and begins to talk... "Once upon a time there was this bear cub who wanted to pick a flower in the forest and asked some friends to come and help him. So he went to the house of this chicken, and then went to the house of this rabbit and they all went into the woods..." Amberleigh says "This is not what the book says! Why are you making this up? You are not reading the fucking book! You need to stop making shit like this up and read the damn book you little moron!" and starts hitting Amy over the head with the book. I mean really! People usually tend to treat strangers better than their own family, as most of us don't want to make enemies. But not show breeders! Show breeders, at best, seem very anti-social. And I never have met a more judgmental group of people in my life.

But it's not just show breeders. Rescue people and even backyard breeders are very judgmental too. Backyard breeders are just a little bit less judgmental than the other groups. I still remember the little quarrel I got into with the people on the Craigslist pet forums. I was called names, judged harshly, accused of doing things I never said I did, never even implied I did. Yet I still managed to keep my cool. They totally lost it though. But that's how animal people are. Or so I have noticed. And once these people get that idea that you are that certain way that they don't like, they hold on to that forever! It's like the federal government! You cannot pass gas in front of them and not expect years down the road they are still going to bring that up to you. Even if you present them with facts, and possibly character witnesses, they still believe you are a certain way and they hate you for life because of it. Even if what they are thinking is as far from the truth as the sun is from Uranus.

No comments: