Amazing Gundog Book! First insider story of a breed
Well, I just finished Joan Bailey’s ‘Griffon—Gundog Supreme’ –‘The History and the Story of How to Improve a Breed’.
Wow! I never thought I’d like a book on breeding or anything about dams and sires. I’ve seen this stuff in the back of breed books and always overlook it. I was hesitant to buy a book with so much on this topic, but since it was thick and from a small press, and since I tend to buy whatever I can on the versatile breeds, I took a chance.
Well, this book was just GREAT! You know why I and probably others overlook the breed info in dog books? Because it’s always so bloodless. (Funny, since it’s all about bloodlines.) I’m sure it’s also because no one generally wants to step on anyone’s foot. So you get ‘just the facts’. ZERO interpretation. Well, in Joan’s book you get an inside look at the colorful facts of an entire breed down thru the years from someone who’s been there a long time. The story goes from 1880 to now. There’s no animosity, but this story needed lots of the human factor and lots of interpretation because it wasn’t about the status quo. It’s about a breed that ALMOST DISAPPEARED about 15 years ago. There was an emergency that I’m not sure many know about. But now they can.
It’s fascinating stuff. Because from the AKC and others point of view there probably wasn’t an emergency at all. –Just another breed getting sick, fluffy and not being bred for its purpose. What’s new in that? I’m sure they were still selling as many puppies as they bred. It seems that’s how ALL AKC type breeds are handled nowadays! The Griffon Club’s suggested cause: uncontrolled breeding. –Which results in three strains of any breed: show, hunting, trial. But moreover results in quickly declining health and reputation.
She describes how in just 10 years they got a handle on hip displaysia which was taking over the breed. Can you imagine a German Shepherd Club helping their dogs similarly?
I’m sure Joan has her biases, but she’s darn clear in spelling them out. She cares about her dogs. That’s why I didn’t put the book name in my subject line. It’s a universal story. I think this book is simply MUST READING for all dog owners. –If there are other books on the CANDID history of a breed just add those books to the list, too. Warts and all! Ups and downs!
Because so much of dog-breeding today involves MONEY (or power), I can see why it’s hard to tell the whole story. In Joan’s intro I notice thanks to someone reading the book from a legal point of view. I wondered what that could mean. When I read the book I understood! Joan details how certain dogs and kennels almost RUINED the Griffon. She doesn’t talk bad about them or blame them. She’s just straightforward: such and such lines had bad blood here and here and that’s OK for the AKC and many others but not with the Griffon Club and here’s why.
The ‘why’ includes many GREAT STORIES about many fascinating people, dogs and challenges.
I’m sure glad I noticed that tiny classified ad in the back of GunDog mag.
WHAT A STORY!!!
I myself own a GWP and I now know a lot more than I used to about the hows and whys of these dear relatives of my dog.
