NAWBA today is a derelict ship floating on the sea of irrelevance, having conducted no events, published nothing for a decade.
Beginning with the 1980 inaugural Bouvier Working Championships in Labadie, Missouri under the auspices of Erik Houttuin the American Bouvier des Flandres working movement prospered until the early twenty first century, when the wheels came off and NAWBA collapsed. How did this come to pass? Read all about it:
After years of abuse and decline NAWBA just hit bottom.
NAWBA was founded in the nineteen eighties primarily as a national level organization to support serious working people, those engaged in the new to America protection sports such as Schutzhund and French Ring.
This year there will be no Ring trial, no Schutzhund trial. Basically, nothing more than the little old ladies afternoon play herding, some carting demos and I suppose the pathetic character test.
Oh yes, and the conformation show with a real live French judge.
What an irony, the working dog organization founded to break free from the grip of Mickey Mouse dog shows reduced to nothing but a pathetic Mickey Mouse dog show.
In the end, the events foretold in this ten year old article
have come to pass:
November, 2001: The long planned AWDF conformation show has been
cancelled, placing the future of the Federation in serious doubt. Prior to
the cancellation, the Catalog for the Beauty show in St. Louis had
confirmed that the Bouviers would have been allowed to masquerade
as working dogs on the basis of the Temperament test. Other breeds,
including the Doberman, also would have had similar requirements,
rendering the whole thing a farce..
In the spring of 1999, the NAWBA board conjured up a
"temperament test" as a shameful shortcut for those
whose dogs can not earn real titles or whose owners
are unwilling to do their work. Read all about it:
So who are we going to see popping up as "Official
NAWBA Temperament Testers" ? Perhaps some of the
same committee members who know how to verify
working dogs even though they never demonstrate
relevance by training a serious dog ?