Work Vs Show

[shortstep]

http://www.dogworld.co.uk/News/14-Front-Cover

Clubs split over way forward for Cardigans

07 Apr 2011 08:01

This article has 3 Comment(s)

A NEW Cardigan Corgi club has set itself at loggerheads with the old established societies by claiming that breeders are not doing enough to make the breed more popular.

Arwyn Morgans, chairman of the new Cardiganshire Yard Dog Society – so-called because a Corgi is said to measure a yard from nose to tip of tail – says his club intends to save the breed from extinction.

He wants to do this by reintroducing them to their original function of herding cattle, and charging less for puppies he breeds with no conditions attached to the sale.

However, members of the established Corgi clubs and breeders generally fear that Mr Morgans may not encourage buyers to get Kennel Club-registered puppies nor carry out necessary health checks.

Brenda Piears, vice-chairman of the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Association, said: “I have no problem with this new society developing dogs for working on farms. What I am worried about is that indiscriminate breeding could endanger the future health of the breed.

“The Cardigan has progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) which we have been able to identify through DNA matching. We are trying not to breed from animals that have this disease.

“Increased breeding could result in Cardigans not being registered with the KC which means that PRA could increase again.”

‘Could be extinct’ Mr Morgans, a Builth Wells butcher and racehorse owner and breeder, said there were fewer than 300 Cardigan Corgis registered last year, and that the number was decreasing each year.

“This means the breed could be extinct within 20 years,” he said. “Our aim is to increase numbers so that they can be used for what they were originally bred to do – to drove cattle by barking and nipping at the their heels. “A total of 46 Cardigan Corgis was registered last year – it’s that bad – and I just want to see the breed saved.”

He said he was not worried about what the established breeders thought of him.

“I don’t give a hoot about it,” he said. “They have nearly ruined an old-fashioned breed and we are bringing them back.

“Quite a few people are interested – we have had a lot of response from people saying they have tried to get puppies from breeders and they won’t sell them to them because they are going to be used on farms and not shown.

“I have had to pay £700-£1,000 for a puppy and asked to sign a declaration that I’m going to show the dogs and not breed from them.

It took me two years to get the registration papers for one dog I bought from Ireland.

“There are some stupid breeders refusing to let people have puppies and as a result are nearly losing breed altogether.”

Mr Morgans said he had bred ‘a couple of litters’ and that his dogs were ‘clean’ – free from any health problems – and so any puppies he bred would also be free of problems.

“Whatever health tests need to be done we will do, but if you start with clean pups they will stay clean,” he said.

Mr Morgans bought his first dog for half-a-crown (12.5p) when he was nine and growing up on his parents’ Cardiganshire smallholding. He now has a dog and two bitches he works on his current property.

“It’s like the Welsh sheepdog a few years ago. That was in danger of dying out but everybody got behind it and they are thriving now. We have to do the same otherwise it will have gone.”

‘Resuscitate’

Raymond Osborne-Jones, secretary of the new society, said: “The main purpose is to resuscitate our native Corgi breed as a working dog on farms and small holdings.

“It’s very rare now in Wales, partly because of the popularity of the Pembroke Corgi. We want to revive them in their native home.”

Margo Hackney, former chairman of the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Association, described Mr Morgans and Mr Osborne-Jones as experienced stockmen and breeders.

“These people are not puppy farmers,” she said. “They are disenchanted because they had a bad experience with the breeders in Ireland. Mr Morgans then paid a stud fee and the bitch missed twice and he lost his money.

“He came to me and I helped them. They have a son of my bitch Ch Yardican Diamond Drop and a son of Ch Tamlin King George The First.

“It’s a genuine ideal to return the Corgi to the working dog it was and if that is the truth, and I think it is. There is no evidence of mass production of puppies, although the general feeling is they may not be doing health checks. However, Cardis have very few or no problems and they do have PRA clear stock.

“As far as I am aware they have bred only one litter in four years and they have gone to working homes. They genuinely want to put the Cardigan Corgi back into Cardiganshire and that is a great aim. You would not breed Corgis as a cash crop because they are not in demand like some breeds.”

Mrs Piears said she was not surprised that Mr Morgans’ opinions had been jaundiced by his experience in getting the puppies from Ireland.

“He couldn’t get the paperwork – although he has got it now,” she said. “I and other breeders would have preferred it if he had come to us and used our dogs.

“But they have courted publicity and people aren’t terribly happy about it. I think it would be better if we just work together. No one is unhappy about dogs working on a farm but I’m not sure if we need a new club and the suggestion does seem to be that people should use their dogs and not worry about KC registration.

“With small breed like ours we can’t be doing with people not registering their dogs.”

Mrs Piears said that although the Corgi can suffer from PRA, the health testing regime has been so thorough that a carrier has not been bred from in the UKsince 2002.

“DNA testing dogs is in our club’s code of ethics,” she said. “We were very lucky that it was so easy to eradicate the problem from show breeding shock. But if dogs are not registered we don’t know what their health record is.

“Mr Morgans and Mr Osborne-Jones say the breed could die out, but we can only breed to demand and the demand is not that large.

“We don’t want to be on bad terms with them. No-one worried about encouraging the use of dogs on Welsh farms because that is what they are for and that is great. It’s just that we want to encourage them to come to us. We don’t ask what they want to use the dogs for.”

Lisa Croft-Elliott, secretary of the Welsh Corgi Club, said she thought it was wonderful that the gentlemen wanted to preserve the working heritage of the breed.

“They are charging more in stud fees than we charge for our champion dog and they are saying we’re greedy,” she said.

“They say they want to save the breed from extinction but the breed is not extinct – which is why there are so many Corgi clubs. They are saying they are crusaders of the Cardigan and that put my hackles up.

“I don’t have any problem with there being a new club but why don’t they talk to the other clubs about it?”

Carrie Russell-Smith, secretary of the Welsh Corgi Club of Cambria, said breeders had no problems with Corgis being used to herd livestock.

“That is their original function,” she said. “But we are concerned that Mr Morgans and Mr Osborne-Jones not proactive when it comes to health testing.

“They have accused breeders of charging too much for puppies and not supplying papers but that is an incorrect generalisation.”

[shortstep]

I know no one is interested in this very interesting cultural divide happening in this breed but...

I heard some more information about this, I think this is correct but it was all just told to me and not verified.

A big part of the problem came to a head over PRA testing. DNA testing for PRA which is a simple recessive in this breed. The Kennel parent club which is governing the future of the tiny population of around 40 dogs a year born, decided that they would ban the breeding of carriers, yes ban them. Not allow them to be bred even to normal dogs. The 'show quality' population in very small, only a handfull of dogs and these are the only dogs that have not been sold on limited registration or desex contracts. So the only dogs available to bring the breed forward in the kennel club is the small number of dogs kept to be show dogs, out of this handfull of dogs 8 were carriers and were banned from breeding and had to be desex. (do understand there is not a genetic expert in the world that would approve of banning carriers of a simple recessive disease and certainly not in a breed that is so very small in numbers and so highly inbreed already and that is really on the edge of extinction).

So we have the kennel club folks

only breeding a litter to produce a show puppy for themslevs and to better the breed all other pups sold on desex contract, they believe only show quality dogs should be bred from.

only producing a total of 46 dogs in a year and out of that it is estimated only about 9 were kept intact and out of that some have already been desexed as they turned out not show quality and so should not be bred.

removed all carriers from the tiny population makeing it even more tiny ( at least 8 were removed).

they are very concerned about any ideas of imported dogs being introduced as they may carry disease or might reduce the quality of their dogs

Now the reason they are upset at the folks who are breeding the dogs for work is

that they are health testing (though the kennel club folks say they are not), and they are going to breed carriers as recommend by genetic experts as they want to preserve as many dogs as possible to try to save the breed.

they are not going to remove all dogs that are not show ring quality from breeding, instead they will be looking for soundness, temperament, working traits, fit for function, lower COI and so on.

if they have to work outside of the kennel club to 'save' the breed then they will, however they are keeping pedigrees and have formed a registry.

they already have a larger population of dogs to breed with then the total kennel club population of breedable dogs

they are actively seeking out dogs from other countires with different pedigrees to increase the genetic diversity of their gene pool

there club membership is booming

Just wanted to add, there is another side issue to all this. Because there are so few KC pup offered for sale, and they cost around 1000 pounds (that is about $1555 AU) for a limited or desexed contract pup, people often end up buying cheaper or unregistered dogs, some of which are coming from Ireland puppy farms.

I think this is going to be a very interesting test and I can see that the future of this breed may well hang in the balance. If I had to place bet, 25 years from now if the breed is saved at all, it will be the folks working on increasing the gene pool numbers and genetic diverstiy, breeding to fit for function and are encourageing new people to join them in their efforts.

I looked at the OZ numbers for this breed when I posted the orginal topic and think that I saw about only 20 pups born a year were being born for this breed. I would be interesting to know what the plan is here in Australia to keep this breed going into the future. Are most being placed on limited registration? Are members desexing carriers of PRA? Are people who do not show encourage to breed?

Edited April 15, 2011 by shortstep