In 1858 Abraham Lincoln's immortal words marked the
beginning of the long and arduous struggle to resolve our founding paradox, the
existence of slavery, men and women in bonds for the benefit of an exploiting
class, in a
nation consecrated to individual freedom and democracy:
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave
and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the
house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become
all one thing or all the other.
Our house is also divided, rendered into factions. There are among us those faithful to the vision of our founders, von Stephanitz and the others, of working dogs whose form is according to function, a breed created and perpetuated in the crucible of the Schutzhund trial. But there are also those who, like Judas, have betrayed the heritage and created their own breed of the show ring, fashion and style, the Martin Shepherd. Just as a nation cannot be half slave and half free, this breed can not endure half working dog and half fashion dog.
Thirty years ago, after a decade of struggle and futility, false starts and failures, we went to the motherland, the SV, for guidance, support, dogs and judges. Much good has come of this, for most of these SV Schutzhund judges have been men of good will, experience and wisdom; and the hard core working line German Shepherds being trained on our fields and in our clubs today do represent the proud heritage of von Stephanitz. Indeed, our USCA judges are on a par with the best of the SV judges and in many cases are SV judges.
But on another, higher, level we have been betrayed, for the SV itself is a house divided. The spirit of von Stephanitz lives on in hundreds of German men and woman who devote their lives to breeding and training a few good dogs according to the old ways in their local clubs, sometimes rising to the honor and glory of a stadium appearance in a regional or national trial but always striving to improve, to pass the heritage on to another generation. But the reigns of real power, of the SV establishment, are firmly in the hands of these money people, the show dog establishment with their watered down special trials and their Martin Shepherds.
The price of SV support has been high, very high, for over thirty years they have played us off against the GSDCA and the WDA in order to advance their real agenda, the promotion of their Martin shepherds and their own personal aggrandizement, and, of course, money. The dues of the rank and file working trainers has been systematically used to build the Martin shepherd show system and registry, and the demand is without end, as witness the proposed massive dues increases.
If it were just money, we could perhaps carry the burden; but the real cost is the credibility of the German Shepherd in the working and police arenas; how can we expect these people to take the breed seriously when we run these pathetic Martin Shepherd shows? Is not the emerging dominance of the Malinois in the most prestigious working trials a warning, a sign that the watering down of the German/Martin Shepherd, and the Schutzhund trial, is not going without notice?
The place to begin to take back the breed and the movement
is in the elections of our national officers. The Martin shepherd movement in
Each voting delegate who believes in the German Shepherd heritage, that of the quintessential police style working dog and the Schutzhund movement on which it is based, needs to examine each candidate, Grewe and all others, and elect those who stand for the founding working heritage.
A vote for Johannes Grewe, and those who share his views and policies, is a vote for the Martin Shepherd, and the eventual extinction of the German Shepherd as we know and love it, the legacy of the founders.
I have lived through this once and will simply not stand in silence and see such a thing transpire before me again.