439 — Throwbacks: Competition vs Collaboration; Safety and Grace

Throwbacks: Competition vs Collaboration, Safety and GraceLaura throws back to 2017 As the Wheels Turn columns touching on big topics during the final day of Back to School month.You Win. I Lose.Many of us involved with purebred dogs find purpose, excitement and enjoyment in the heat of competition. The adrenaline rush is part of the passion we bring to the game. Whether it is realized in the whelping box, in the show ring or in competitive performance venues. It becomes ingrained deep in the grooves of our brains…. Winning is good. Losing is bad.That’s fine as far as it goes.But…Sometimes the passion morphs and becomes something altogether different. The “If You Win, I Lose” mindset is the root of many evils in our fancy. It applies to everything from jealousy over another exhibitor’s win to the fiefdoms of kennel clubs. We encounter it in the *expectation* that any friendly overture has an ulterior motive.As a whole and with exceptions in emergencies, we are not a cohesive group. Number one. First. Best. Foremost. Record-setting. These are our golden idols and, too often, we guard them viciously.But that “dog in a manger” attitude serves only to divide and conquer our fancy.How does it hurt you to help someone else? What harm to have two good dogs, ideas or events? What if we celebrate, support and cheer on others who are doing well or doing good?Teach the newbie. Help the youngster. Support someone else who has a good dog, a good idea or an exciting plan. What’s the worst possible thing that could happen? That you wouldn’t be the best? The point of the exercise to challenge ourselves to continue to improve — our breed, our skills, our knowledge. The only way that will happen is if someone comes along with a better mousetrap, as they say, and we have to improve on our design.Ours is a tiny microcosm of the real world. We would do well to remember that making it smaller with petty squabbling does nothing more than weaken our ability to resist outside forces working hard to squash us all like bugs. Anybody read the AVMA proposal about “regulating breeders”? I highly recommend Bill Shelton’s article in the June 6 "Dog News Magazine” for a bit of perspective.Let’s make a conscious decision to see others’ success as the same as our own. Because then, the purebred dog fancy becomes a powerful force for good in the world. When you win, we ALL win takes us to an entirely different level of influence. Whether in legislative matters or in creating an appealing and exciting sport which draws participation and builds our future from within.Winter wonderlandTraveling to winter shows can be a little dicey (heck, in some parts of the country questionable driving weather lasts until May!). Ya’ll down there in Florida, just be careful of the weather envy being directed your way.I can remember driving to the St. Paul, Minn. shows when I lived in Nebraska. Driving on I-80 looking at *hundreds* of cars literally upside down on the side of the road before I decided it was time to pull over and stop somewhere. Or driving home from Chicago and all of the sudden the water on the antenna in the RV wasn’t dripping anymore and the road was freezing around me…In the dog fancy, we sometimes have to make choices. Decisions that should be easy in terms of safety first are often questioned … But, I could win! But, I could starve! But, but, but….In the Pacific Northwest we don't normally get hammered with the type of weather other parts of the country deal with routinely. Snow, ice, and dangerous roads. Here, sadly, we are often poorly equipped to deal with it… snow plows, de-icer, sand and salt being foreign language in the land where it never (well almost) gets above 80 degrees (F) or below 30…I personally missed out on Palm Springs a few years back due to weather. A good friend (another handler) chose to cancel out on...