In recent years, the North American Working Bouvier Association (NAWBA) has been in precipitous decline. The west coast faction split off as Pacific Gateway, and after elaborate fanfare and boasting simply faded from view with hardly a whimper or excuse from Ron Gordon or Marion Hubbard, the would be saviors of the working Bouvier.
The remainder of the association retreated to the east coast, where they held a couple of more or less local "championships"in Virginia and West Virginia.
In the fall of 2001 they were slated to hold a championship event in Denver, but after the tragedy of the eleventh of September president Erik Johnson announced a cancellation. This was just another lie, for the truth of the matter is that weeks before the event there were for all practical purposes no preparations or plans in place, not even the announcement of a conformation judge.
This spring, six months late, the "Denver Championships"finally came to pass. They were to feature a ballyhooed French Ring trial, but there were no Bouvier entries. There was to be a herding competition, but again there were no Bouvier entries. The Schutzhund trial did actually feature a couple of lonely local entries. Only three board members or officers bothered to show up and the conformation entries seem to be some sort of embarrassed secret. Kathy Heilenman, perhaps the last person in NAWBA with any energy, entered competition with two Boarder Collies, but no Bouviers at all. Clearly this was a pretend event, akin to children dressing up and playing house or office, an empty charade.
But they are not finished, for this year is to have a second annual championship in Connecticut in October. Hold on to your hats, the featured personality is to be none other than that famous Frenchman Jean-Yves Reguer, who, according to official legend, once upon a time, many years ago, actually trained a Bouvier.
Mr. Reguer is now far advanced, and trains and breeds the Malinois, is much too important to be personally involved in the Bouvier. Is it not the perfect irony that this man, who left the Bouvier behind, is seen as the inspiration, the font of knowledge ? Is it not so nice that such a man should come to America and pat on the head those who have not yet advanced to the Malinois ? If the French temperament test, which he promotes, is such a wonderful thing, why has it not after forty years produced Bouviers worthy of his personal consideration? And is it not interesting that Ms. Heilenman, the de facto leader in view of the virtual disappearance of Erik Johnson, competes with her Border collies ?
French affectations seem to be in fashion, yet the French have failed the breed and abandoned the working heritage. Forty years of Gallic yammering about temperament tests has produced nothing of consequence, for the most notable success in the French Ring, that of Tulasne de la Genesis, comes totally out of Dutch KNPV lines. Tulasne would now be about seven years old; where are his sons and daughters ? Has anybody in France bred to this accomplished dog ? And what of Mr. Denece, the owner and trainer of Tulasne. Will he train another Bouvier? Or will he, like so many others, move on to the Malinois?
Even the NAWBA leadership seems to have rolled over and noticed something amiss. Kathy Heilenman has publicly proclaimed "serious doubts about the viability of NAWBA"and has announced a "private, closed"internet discussion list, so that she can "control the discussion and the participants,"to come up with a yet another plan to save the working Bouvier in America.
What are the root causes of this decline ? In 1996, when the Hubbard Gang took over, NAWBA was prosperous and strong. Their program was to water down the organization so as to appeal to the pet owners, play trainers and show breeders. Their primary cause was the introduction of a home made temperament test to certify Bouviers as serious working dogs, worthy of the select designation, without the work of training and without the time and effort for breeding selection according to working character. Like politicians from time immemorial, their plan was to promise everything to everybody.
The immediate result of this program was to drive out the people serious about working dogs, and to insure that potentially serious trainers would have every reason to pass up the Bouvier and go on to a real working breed with serious working people in leadership roles.
What they never have been able to comprehend is that pet owners, play trainers and show breeders don't contribute, they just want. They want entertainment. They want services. Most of all, they want a public certification of their fantasies that their dogs really could be the bold defenders of the Flemish plane, if they ever took the trouble to train them.
By lowering standards they have driven out the working people that were the backbone of NAWBA ten years ago. In the process, they have discovered that the working people were also the workers in an organizational sense. Now they complain that nobody comes to their events, nobody wants to participate, that they just don't know what to do.
For the people involved it is easy and just to regard them with the contempt that they so well deserve, for their plight is indeed rooted in their own childishness, laziness and foolishness.
But the Bouvier des Flanders, and the founders and sustainers over the past century, deserve more than this.
Jim Engel May, 2002