[ SHOWGSD-L ] Winners, gambling and a barbeque
- From: Pinehillgsds@xxxxxxx
- To: cyndoc@xxxxxxxxxxx, showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:29:29 EST
In a message dated 12/16/2006 8:08:41 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
cyndoc@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
My puppy lacks rear drive right now and a handler refused to show her.
Kathy said I was lucky that I was told the truth.
I did say that. I never saw the puppy, didn't know where it came from,
(didn't ask), don't know the breeding, but with all of the bashing handlers
take
I thought it refreshing that whoever Cynthia saw was honest and didn't take a
"newbie" for a ride. It would have been easy to say "lets show your puppy a
half dozen times or so and see what we get". Kudos to that handler!
I was thinking about this subject today on the drive to the show at Lehigh.
I was thinking how as "newbies" we sometimes think bad things don't happen
to those we look up to in the breed and I remembered a pivotal point for me.
I had sent expensive puppy number one with the bad bite and wry mouth to a
companion home then soon after he was PTS with epilepsy. A lovely puppy I
bought was diagnosed w/ UAP. Replacement for puppy number one had come in,
but
at 18 months was diagnosed with hemolytic anemia. It wasn't looking good
and I feared the worst (and the fear was later realized.)
I was a member at that time of Diamond State and Wynn was having a barbeque.
Now, the last place on God's green earth I wanted to be was around happy
people with healthy dogs, so I called to make my apologies and say I wasn't
coming. Well, Wynn wouldn't hear it. I hadn't made anything, so I threw some
canned beans (honest!) into a decorative bean pot, added chopped onions,
mustard, brown sugar, cooked until bubbly and at least it looked like I'd
worked
at it.
Wynn could tell I wasn't right, we went off by ourselves and I told her the
latest chapter. She looked me dead in the eyes and STERNLY told me that I
WOULD keep on going. Then she shared HER year. (I doubt she'd mind me
telling, it's been long enough.) She had imported a very expensive bitch (she
didn't
say how much and I would have never asked), titled naturally, who had been
bred to the dog who would later go Seiger that year. No puppies. Not only no
puppies, but she was full of cysts and would never have a puppy. (ouch!)
Wynn had imported a second bitch, also titled, bred to a very nice dog. This
one had puppies. One with an overbite and two with missing testicles. Wow,
who would have known? Wynn certainly didn't go around talking about it, but
it did me a world of good to realize I wasn't walking around with a dark cloud
over me.
There was another couple who got a talking to that day too. They had
imported a young dog, very expensive, top kennel, top bloodlines of the day and
he
had just been diagnosed with EPI. (For those that don't know, usually the
German dogs come without guarantees.) I'm thinking the talk didn't do them as
much good as it did me, because we stopped seeing them at club functions
shortly after.
(As an aside, no one was happier for me when things went right than Wynn.
Bless her!)
I learned so much from this. I learned the higher the highs in this game,
the lower the lows. I learned people I looked up to had just as many
disappointments, but they kept going and didn't dwell on them. (Most of the
time you
never know about them.) I learned there are health issues and shortcomings
in the best pedigrees on both sides of the pond. I learned later (with the
hemolytic anemia case) not to allow myself to be guilt-ed into spending the
equivalent of the GNP of a small country when in my gut I knew there wouldn't
be
a good outcome and learned to accept there are just some things vets can't
help. (I'm a slow learner...those were some huge bills.)
Getting back to the highs and lows; those in horse racing will know the name
D. Wayne Lukas. Successful guy. Colorful too. Anyway, one of his many
success stories was a horse called Tabasco Cat (winner of the Preakness and
Belmont Stakes.) Well, that horse had more than a few screws loose and darned
near killed Wayne's son, Jeff. I remember someone asking Wayne how he could go
on. His reply was one I'll never forget and one that pretty much sums it all
up. He said (and I'm paraphrasing, it was a while ago), when you win, when
you are successful, you wrap yourself up in the feeling, you savor it and
then you memorize it, because that's what you draw upon to carry you through
the
bad times.
And he was right.
And now, I have nails to grind:)
Kathy
member GSDCA, DVGSDC
three generations of Dual Titled TC'd Champions live here!
visit _Pine Hill German Shepherd Dogs_
(http://www.geocities.com/pinehillgsds/)
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