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Golden Middle or the Golden Idol ?

Jim Engel   September 2010

For more than thirty years the United Schutzhund Clubs of America has been the predominant protection style working sport organization in America .   We have lived out the range of the common human experience, expanding membership, a much better training knowledge base, camaraderie among club members, unselfish individual service with little expectation of personal gain or recognition; but also the less admirable side of the human nature, greed, the striving for the glory of the podium at any cost, the purchase of false glory through the acquisition of already of titled dogs, the professionalization of training and sport, the incessant potential for corruption in the power inherent in high office.  But on the whole we can be proud of what we have accomplished, the adversity we have overcome.

But at our core there is an inborn flaw, present from the creation, that must be exorcised before we can ultimately fulfill our destiny, realize the ideals of our foundation.  When the Jewish people escaped from slavery in Egypt they suffered a moral collapse, worshiped the golden idol, the false god.  As a consequence they were destined to wander forty years in the desert, and this generation was denied entry to the promised land.

We also worship a false god.  Through an SV driven conformation system we glorify and justify dogs whose very existence denies the ideals of the founders, of von Stephanitz.  This new breed of fashion dog, this false idol, created by those exemplified by the Martin brothers, devoid of the inherent courage, steadfastness and character - and the physical structure for work - that was the reason for the creation of the German Shepherd dog as a breed, that is to preserve those primitive dogs of the fields, molded in the crucible of agricultural service for untold generations and centuries.

Today we are told that USCA requires a massive increase in revenue, that the membership must be taxed at a level that will inevitably lead to a decline in numbers and influence.  We are told that this is just ordinary inflation, that prices always go up, but this is disingenuous, for general inflation in the price of services and goods beyond the scarcity of energy is low or nonexistent, economists worry more about the savage consequences  of deflation rather than inflation.  Working and middle class Americans have for a decade now seen real income decline and struggle to make hard choices in spending diminished pay checks, choices that could very well include passing up the opportunity to write a $100 or $150 check for a national canine organization increasingly paying more homage to the ideals of the Martin boys than those of the founders, of Captain von Stephanitz.

Among the needs for this money is the  financial sink hole of a sham registration system, recognized by nobody, most particularly not even recognized by the SV whose self serving leadership instigated it in the first place.  And by the support of a conformation system that glorifies dogs who are not in any real sense German Shepherds at all, contributing ultimately mostly to the profit of our elitist "show dog" breeders with no understanding of or support for the Schutzhund heritage that is still the fundamental, original purpose of the USCA.

But in the bigger picture, this is not really about money at all.  It is about credibility, about respect, about our ability to participate in the evolution of an American working dog heritage with the ultimate objective of an America capable of providing the breeding and training of our own dogs for our police and military services, and dogs for those among us who want such dogs for the simple pleasure of sharing life with such a noble creature.

How can we aspire to these ends when we conduct conformation shows that are in reality very little different from the AKC shows, and producing SV show line dogs which are rapidly evolving all of the moral and physical faults for which we so rightfully hold the AKC style German Shepherd in contempt ?

What this new dues tax really amounts to is an onerous confiscation of money from the ordinary member seeking to train and trial his dog in the original spirit of our sport for the benefit of the elite show breeders and their German patrons and benefactors. If this really were for the benefit of the German Shepherd dog it could be justified and condoned, but the fact of the matter is that the conformation trials being conducted today by SV judges are every bit as detrimental to the breed as those being conducted by AKC licensed judges.  Who among us, among the officers and directors, will publicly deny this? 

What is really needed today is a broad plebiscite on the very nature of our organization, a positive, affirmative direction for our future.  The vote on the proposed dues increase can well serve this purpose, for the fundamental reason for all of this money is the support of these conformation events, registry systems and other elements of the infrastructure serving the elite cabal of German show breeders and conformation judges rather than the real interests of working German Shepherds.

By resoundingly rejecting this dues increase, any dues increase, we can redirect our organization according to our original purpose and the ideals of the vast majority of the membership, the people primarily concerned with Schutzhund, with the training and trialing of our dogs in the ways of our founders to purify and refine our dogs on the trial field rather than then in the inherently corrupt and money driven political process of the conformation ring.

Those who profess love for the German Shepherd, the working dog heritage in general and the century old culture of police breed advancement through amateur training and service must now speak out and demand a return to the principles of the founders, of maintaining the working stock in the crucible of the trial field rather than the politics of the show ring.

Jim Engel, Marengo    © Copyright 2010