Page 34 - K9 News - Issue 15 - March2021
P. 34
Brace’s
BIT S & PIEC ES
BITS & PIECES
Political Correctness,
Boundaries and Trust
When I first became fascinated by the world reverence as film stars. These celebrities were
of purebred dogs I was an eleven year old to be observed from afar and never spoken to,
schoolboy. I had been given my first Boxer unless one was actually spoken to first, and
by my parents and began attending local dog if that were the case a brief encounter with a
shows. When I eventually became an exhibitor superstar was something to be dined out on for
(a few years later and with a Boxer bitch as my weeks!
original pride and joy, bought purely as a pet,
turned out to be a monorchid and so never saw Basic manners have changed in my lifetime.
the inside of a show ring) I was a rank novice, Not only is it now a rarity to see a man offering
trying to learn and mixing mainly with other total his seat to a lady on a crowded train, doors are
greenhorns who were as ignorant as I was, if not seldom opened and “please” and “thankyou” are
as obsessively enthusiastic about the magical becoming a thing of the past.
world I had stumbled into.
As I started off in the dog world at such a
I don’t think it’s a question of distance lending young age I gradually found myself having a
enchantment because I have observed how circle of friends who were considerably older
society at large has changed outside the than myself. To me my school friends were
microcosm of the dog fancy, but in those days immature and shallow. All they were interested
we humble exhibitors had huge respect for in was getting drunk and pulling what were
the older breeders and consistently successful referred to in the sixties as “birds”. As you
exhibitors, and possibly even more for the can imagine, one of these activities held little
judges who were treated with the same kind of attraction for me. While my schoolmates were
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K9 NEWS DIGITAL / MARCH 2021
