After two years of indecision and drifting, the North American Working Bouvier Association is about to make the decision that will define its place in the world of protective heritage breeds, its worthiness to stand among the defenders of the canine heritage.
In the serious working breeds the intrinsic purpose of working and conformation competition is not sport, honor for the worthy dog or personal glory - valid and important as these things might be - bur rather the selection of those animals, especially the males, most worthy to be bred and thus carry on the race. Success in competition leads at the highest level to the "select" designation in its various forms, such as the famous "V" rankings at the most important German Shepherd events. This is always understood to be primarily important as a breeding recommendation.
No one growing up in the protection dog heritage could ever question that a strong performance in a high level working examination, such as a Schutzhund or Ring trial, is and should be the working prerequisite. In a breed where there are no dogs or insufficient numbers of dogs to rise to the standard integrity demands that the title be left vacant until the quality can be built up, one dog at a time if need be, rather than shamelessly lowering standards so as to anoint an unworthy candidate.
The temptation to lower the standard rather than to struggle for excellence is ever present, and is especially prominent in those associations where the officers are not committed trainers, who do not live for the heritage, who to use an earthy term lack the fire in their bellies that is the drive for excellence.
At this moment the NAWBA board has temptation before it, temptation to adopt a watered down "temperament test" in the place of a valid and recognized examination, the temptation to betray those struggling in the trenches to obtain their title, to bear witness to the heritage through their own personal struggle. This vile temptation is to offer the "select" designation to the dogs of show breeders and play trainers, dogs insufficient for their work and thus unworthy or owners unwilling to make the effort of training, and thus also unworthy.
Oh yes, the agents of the devil say that this temptation is only a little sin, that the temperament test is not intended to dishonor those who in faithfulness struggle to obtain their certificates, that it is just meant, somehow, to encourage the pet owners and play trainers, as if giving away false honor we could fire the drive for excellence.
But this is a lie. By their own words this temperament test is not to be a minor trinket to encourage the novice, but rather the qualification for the select designation, the breeding recommendation.
This carefully crafted temperament test draft is in fact an interlocking set of malicious lies. The obvious and bald-faced lie is that a temperament test can be equivalent to a working test. Yes, in the fine print they say it is not, but this is disingenuous, for the real intent is to endorse a phony, member judged temperament test, incest at its most ugly, as the most important validation of working character, the breeding recommendation.
We would in fact be poisoning our own well, recommending the offspring of unworthy dogs to the novice as training candidates, puppies out of dogs bred only for the show ring who have passed our phony working test, which every serious trainer and breeder in the world knows to be devoid of relevance or validity. And when these dogs, preordained for failure, do fail, what will be the consequences? Usually the trainer will go to another breed, one being perceived as more serious and responsible.
The more subtle and more fundamental lie is that today's show Bouviers are capable of regeneration, that we can find among them echoes of the legendary defenders of the Flemish plain. We can not. Even though a newcomer is occasionally able to get a lower level or even more advanced title on such dogs, the proof of the proposition is in the fact that they inevitably go either to another breed or to the working lines for their next dog, to take the next step up.
Ever since Halvar Bretta v d Boevers Garden, a generation ago, the Dutch champions, male and female, have not been able to go beyond IPO I, the lowest level for simple breeding eligibility in the serious breeds. In France, those few dogs earning respect in the ring are to a large measure from the Dutch police lines, the same dogs we see behind those in the Dutch IPO championships and on American Schutzhund fields. In Belgium there are a few very excellent working Bouviers, including the winner of last year's Dutch IPO championship. But these dogs are once again out of the Dutch Police heritage, for the Belgian club and its breeders have long since given up selection for working character, a state of affairs in which their own phony character tests are a causative factor and symptomatic of their degeneration. And now we are going to recommend to the novice that they seek to emulate these dogs by buying puppies out of the degenerate show lines, are going to predestine them to failure, put them on the path to another breed, by endorsing show lines as working dogs on the basis of a "temperament test" ?
If this committee and this board is knowledgeable enough to devise effective tests, able to identify breeding and working stock without the sweat of work and training, a feat which has eluded generations of real breeders and trainers, where are their dogs ? Where is the proof of the validity of the program they would inflict on the working Bouvier community ? Since they have accomplished so little, what do they have personally at stake? How is such a foolish program going to stem the flow of serious trainers out of the Association ?
Another fundamental lie is has been the attempt to lend credibility by association with the character tests of the Belgian national club. These Belgian tests are themselves devoid of credibility or validity; were in fact the direct cause of the separation of Justin Chastel from the Belgian club after sixty years of membership and thirty years as President. I have seen it for myself on numerous occasions, and these tests are nothing more than old breeders, conformation judges and canine bureaucrats taking turns at endorsing each other's dogs. The agitators are incredibly weak and the standards of performance absurd. None of these people are serious dog trainers, none of them compete with a Bouvier at high levels in the Belgian ring or any other arena. And yet we are going to allow Frank McEniry to use such an association as a basis for instructing and testing USA Schutzhund judges, KNPV judges and even French Ring judges to see if they are qualified to conduct our silly little temperament tests ? Can you hear the laughter rolling across the working dog world even now ?
The German Shepherd breeders, trainers and judges are respected because we see before us the product of their work and their integrity, because we see the dogs they produce and train excelling on American sport fields and in service in American police departments. If the Belgians are worthy of similar respect, where are the dogs, where is the proof? Why does not Frank McEniry bring over a sample and show us the reason why we should respect this program, put the dogs on the field to prove the validity of the process? The answer, of course, is because there are none, because the Belgian lines are simply not producing serious working dogs today.
In Belgium today, as in France, the younger breeders are going to the Dutch lines just as we are, desperately trying to salvage the breed from the failure of previous generations. Yes, we should seek out and build bridges to these serious people, willing to abandon failed dogma and take the necessary steps. Why should we adapt the mechanisms of their failure at the very moment they are throwing them off in a last desperate effort to survive? Nobody in France or Belgium seeks working stock on the basis of the character tests of the national clubs, why should we hang that mill stone around our necks ?
It is said that we need a temperament test to encourage the new comer, to give them enthusiasm. I say this is nonsense. My inspiration came first from Edmee Bowles and her relentless passion for the breed. She did have wonderful Bouviers, and we took our first dog out of her du Clos des Cerberes lines to Schutzhund III, FH and the Championship and never looked back. And then to Erik Houttuin, who brought over two German Schutzhund III Bouviers, and their handlers, in the fall of 1980. Once I had seen these dogs, so powerful and so well trained, I knew instantly that that was the kind of dog I wanted to have for myself. And two years later it was Ria Klep and Donar, the dog who those privileged to see even once will never forget. Inspiration comes from good dogs well trained and presented, not give away titles to tell people their dogs are better than they are and not games, trinkets and play time at national events.
My experience is that when you send a potential Bouvier trainer, someone with a little exposure to the Schutzhund world, to a NAWBA championship they come back and ask why were all of these show dogs and show people there when they can not and will not work? What is all of this Mickey Mouse stuff? Why is it not like a Schutzhund USA championship where the focus is on the working dogs? What was that French Ring demo with only the Malinois? These people are not going to be taken in by a silly temperament test, they are going to go home muttering if they are polite or laugh out loud if they are not.
Finally, what will this temperament test say to those who are actually putting in the sweat and work to earn Schutzhund or Ring titles? It will in fact take the credibility earned in the trenches, take it away from those out at six in the morning for tracking, and offer it to the show breeders and those who want the glory without doing the work.
A national organization creating such tests and having their own officers conduct it is exactly like the bankrupt nation that prints money: the paper, bank note or temperament test certificate, immediately has no value and the organization, nation or working dog association, spills out its credibility, it's very life blood.
Yes, the pet owners and play trainers may own the association, but they do not own the credibility. They may through the election process have the office and power, but they have not earned the moral right on the sport field, have not put in the work. No, that belongs to the people earning the titles, is not and never has been theirs to give. And one at a time the serious trainers are being driven out of the Association and taking the credibility with them.
Why is it that those with the real dogs will not represent NAWBA at the AWDF ? Why are so few of the people with titled dogs showing up at the championships ? Because NAWBA is not their organization, does not share their values, cheapens their work and struggle by giving the honor, the fruit of their labor, away to the show breeders and play trainers.
Yes, the NAWBA leadership is hell bent on passing and implementing a temperament test; but what will they gain ? All they are going to do is squander what little credibility they have and drive the serious people out of the association. We will no doubt see Frank McEniry conducting his silly temperament test this fall at the championships, but the real question is whether the association will survive to put on an event next year. And there will be a real judge, a Schutzhund judge, present; what is he or she going to say when they return from their NAWBA assignment?
Copyright 1999, James R. Engel