Just out of curiosity! Do you work in a field with animals, make income off your own animals, or do any organized hobbies with your animals like showing, competitive dog or equestrian sports, riding, etc? Are you a breeder? Are the animals you work with/breed/compete with animals you're attracted to?
I'm a breeder and I show those animals in conformation shows, but they're not a species I'm attracted to. In the future when I get a purebred dog I'd like to do conformation shows and compete in sports; agility and coursing really interest me but depends on the breed of dog I go with and what they like to do. I've also got a tentative plan to breed goats in the future, dunno about showing those though.
How about you? If you don't currently, do you have plans in the future to?
04-07-2018, 06:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-07-2018, 06:25 PM by Saturnine.)
No plans for the future, seeing as how I don't really have one. In a different life, I would've worked with horses in some capacity, maybe even participated in an equestrian sport.
Working farm (livestock producer, no row crops), breeding kennel (5 max, the number you can have without USDA regulation, snap inspections, etc). The breeds and species have varied as market conditions change. Registered farm, registered herd (anti-mad-cow), registered stud.
No showing; did some in the distant past, but the High Drama; hideous show practices (ginger, nightshade, soring, cutting bars, extensions etc) , Hideous Flapping Prolapsed Anuses showpeople with whips throwing stuff, I always went home mad, so why bother.
Attracted to, but some species you have to "firewall" the production stock from your activity or the fertility/production suffers. (No, human sperm can't get an animal pregnant. Yes, human sperm can render a fertile ovum infertile.)
Professional riding instructor certified by the FN (German pro rider association), spent almost half of my life to teach the kids of the wealthy, avid dressage rider currently competing at L-/M-dressage level with my youngster Lipizzaner mare, a very promising and talented lady that probably opens up the S-dressage level and maybe even higher levels (intermediaire and grand prix) for me in the near future. For a living, I currently sell hay I make from my greenland and plastering my roofs with more solar collectors. When my mare partner died after 22 years of relationship with me, I quit my learned job, but can see myself as a pro private trainer helping talented riders to improve, but won´t accept total beginners anymore...I´ve had that way too much in my life.
I used to work as a general assistant at a dog boarding facility. I loved it -- and, no, I did not take liberties. I really enjoyed it, but the pay was inadequate to pay my bills. I would certainly do that work for free if I didn't have to worry about bills. I did lots of different things -- landscaping (mowing, planting, weeding, trimming, de-pooing yards), dog walking/exercising, fence repair, mucking out the owner's horse stalls and turning her horses out in the mornings and making their feed (her horses were all older; the oldest didn't have enough teeth left and so I would make him mash -- horse grain feed softened in water into a porridge-like consistency).
Unfortunately, price of housing around here is too high to get by on that meager income [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/unsure.png[/img]/emoticons/ [email protected] 2x" title=":/" width="20" /> Currently I'm a truck driver.
As most know, I've been a horse trainer all my life (When not in the Army), pretty much from the cradle on have been showing draft ponies, several of my past dogs showed in agility(Shadows father also did flyball & frisbee), and all but Shadow were working herders. I went to school on the GI Bill for Wildlife Rehab and did that for a number of years. Today, I train part time, on my schedule, and just relax with the two dogs and two horses I have now. I have a young apprentice I'm teaching to train the mares as due to health reasons I cannot do everything on my own any longer.
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I've been involved in conformation showing of dogs for the better part of 20 years now, also do obedience work and help out wherever possible with the local kennel club. I'm yet to breed a litter, not for lack of trying believe me...sometimes mother nature just won't cooperate!
And I totally didn't start showing my first dog as an excuse to keep his nuts (my family were constantly at me to castrate him - sorry, no can do he's a show dog!)[img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/tongue.png[/img]/emoticons/ [email protected] 2x" title=":P" width="20" />. Either way, it worked out well enough, I can't imagine life without some form of dog shows or sports now.
Neat to hear from another zoo who's into dog confo, RocketDog. I was starting to wonder if my offline friend and I were the only ones! Even if I wasn't zoo I think I'd still love shows and purebred dogs, learning about the history of breeds is one of my favorite things to do in my spare time. It's a shame breeders and purebreds in general have come under fire so much by animal rights nuts lately. I don't know if I'll breed my future show dog, I guess only if they do exceptionally well in confo or sports. I'm interested in showing UKC hopefully, I really like the shows of theirs I've been to. More casual than AKC so more appealing to me as a beginner lol. I currently do small animal confo shows but those are put on quite a bit different than dog shows [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/tongue.png[/img]/emoticons/ [email protected] 2x" title=":P" width="20" /> Though we do have standards for type just like dog breeds.
I don't think most canine zoo's know what they're missing by not attending dog shows battlecrops. There's so much to learn about dogs and the different breeds and so many people to meet who are passionate dogs in general, it's a huge resource. Ok, some show people are snobs and some are pricks but in my experience most are outgoing and ready to educate anyone that'll listen to them about their dogs. A dog show is also one of the very few public places where commenting on the size of a dogs testicles is not frowned upon! ("Gee, that dogs' got a pair of nuts and a half!" was a comment from a long term breeder at a show recently to much agreement from the assembled crowd beside the ring. Why yes, yes he does, not that I'd noticed...*casually snaps photo*)
To be fair, I think the AR folks do have a point sometimes. English Bulldogs as an entire breed are just about totally incapable of whelping or even mating by themselves, this is a disgrace IMO and they're not alone. Any breed that can't reproduce without human intervention is in serious trouble, likewise any breed that routinely needs artificial cooling after mild exercise is in serious trouble and a sure sign that something is very wrong indeed.
I admit I don't know much about the UKC other than that their papers/titles are worthless here...the controlling body here is affiliated with the FCI, we can import AKC/CKC/KC papered dogs as they have a "gentleman's agreement" with the FCI for mutual recognition and obviously any other FCI affiliates or partners (most of the rest of the world) are fine as well. I'm not sure how hard it is for you to cross over once you've started with one organization over the other so I'll just say that being affiliated with the FCI in some way opens up a world (literally) of opportunities, I'm sure that when some of my friends started out breeding back in the 70's they wouldn't have seen themselves as becoming internationally recognized judges. One of those friends has judged in a dozen different countries in the last 12 months alone and is now in a position that means dogs can be his sole focus, all day every day.
Anyway, remember that as far as showing goes you'll always take the best dog home, regardless of what the judge thought of him on the day...
...then when it comes to breeding forget that, realize that you're often not taking home the best dog and that there is a reason that other dog won (and it's not nearly as often about corruption as some would have you believe)...if you plan to breed at any point being able to recognize what's wrong with your dog and whats right with the other is critical to the future of your breed no matter how much you love him.
Quote:
2 hours ago, RocketDog said:
...if you plan to breed at any point being able to recognize what's wrong with your dog and whats right with the other is critical to the future of your breed no matter how much you love him.
Abso-fucking-lutely! My sentiments exactly!
I was just talking to a friend the other night about deaf albinos and unusual (non standard) colors being sold as rare on places such as craigslist.
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