A friend who lives in Bahrain forwarded this from the NY Times. We should give it some consideration and weed out those irresponsible breeders who flood the market with the dog of the moment, while self-policing to make sure we are breeding only the dogs and bitches that have characteristics worth repeating. I know we are all tempted at times to be kennel blind, but if you have to breed yourself out of a problem, why start with it? Anyway, I thought it worth thinking about in our post-National planning and it is worth a spot in our club newsletters. Claire DrosdickAvion Kennels OPINION | October 09, 2011 Opinion: Why German Shepherds Have Had Their Day By SUSAN ORLEAN The German shepherd's decline in popularity is good news for its fans, because irresponsible breeding practices will drop as well. Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2011. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in any post. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org SUBSCRIPTION:http://showgsd.org/mail.html NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================