I have been following all the posts regarding the "decline" of new young
blood to our fancy....something that I did not see mentioned (I may have missed
it) and that is the "baby boomer" clause....the baby boomers have been the
largest generational group (in ages or forever), but most importantly is the
fact that no generation since the BBs come near to it in numbers...an example
of what that can mean is...Say an employer has 100 employees who are at or near
the retirement age...they look at the market place and discover that there is
only 25 potential new employees in the labor pool...obviously that employer
will not be able to replace his 100 employees even if all of those 25 were
suited to (or wanted) the jobs....what to do what to do? a) You scale back
your business? b) you try to run your business with 1/4 of employees than you
previously had, flogging any employee who is not willing to be at the top of
their game 24/7 ...grin!!? c) You throw up your hands, sell your business (if
you can) and retire yourself? ....None of those options are intended to be
solutions to our "issue"....only used as an example...And to those who believe
that other breeds not having the same issues (I personally think that is not
totally correct, I have spoken to people from several different breeds and they
are experiencing some of the same decline in entries)...From a physical
aspect....what does makes the lack of "replacement" manpower more of an impact
on the GSD group is in order to display that "flying trot" in the specialty
ring that our breed is famous for, we have to depend on professional handlers
or at least some young (preferably long legged) healthy fit individual who is
able and willing to handle our dogs for us...why, see above, we do not have
replacement numbers equal to the ones being replaced (100 vs poss 25
example)....we are aged out physically...some of us can still do it in the
smaller AllBreed rings, but there are some of us who can't even manage that.
From the financial/economic aspect....since the majority of us are in the "baby
boomer" category, our focus has also changed; we now have to focus on making
sure we have enough finances to cover us thru our twilight years...and a very
heavy item in that area is healthcare costs....and that is a whole other
topic....remember we have been spending our extra money on our dogs for the
last 20 + years....now we have to take any extra we have and spend/save it for
our own living expenses...Thoughts as seen from the eyes of a baby boomer who
hopes to retire "soon" .....unless of course I develop a fatalistic attitude
which might whisper to me..."Hey, you could be dead tomorrow..." and say what
the heck and spend the extra money on dogs TODAY....Pauline MoonRopaja German
Shepherds