Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Begin at the Beginning

Hello there Internet-land,
My name is Ka'iulani, and this is my irreverent DogCentric blog. I am realizing lately how much I have to day about this subject that is so close to my heart.  I recently returned to the world of dogs after a brief hiatus. So before we begin, lets start with the background.

I grew up in the world of purebred show dogs. My family always had dogs, and from my earliest memories they were my siblings and partners in crime, I grew up as a Junior Handler, and that made the transition to Professional handler and trainer seem like an easy one. In addition to the dogs (we bred Dobermans) we also bred and exhibited champion horses as well. My father was a former Elite Athlete and Athletics Coach, and Athletics were also a point of focus, and for me specifically that meant a lot of time was spent at the ballet bar learning to master my own body and its movement.

When I reached my later teens, due to numerous other interests and opportunities which involved travel, for convenience of size, I switched my focus from Dobermans to the much more "travel sized" Miniature Pinschers. In spite of the many other options for breeds to focus on (I was also active in greyhound rescue and rehab at the time) there was a beautiful "familiarity" with the Pinscher breeds, because I was raised with them, quite literally, as my family.

There is a very entertaining and well recognized fact about the way people tend to choose their dogs, and about dog show communities in general. It always seems there are really 3 kinds of dog show people;
1) The people who bear a notable resemblance to their dogs. Psychologically speaking, this makes perfect sense as we do tend to find comfort in familiarity and visual continuity, and what could be more familiar than one's self. Even the childhood book "101 Dalmatians" pointed this one out.
2) The people who are the polar opposite of their dogs in appearance. The Psychology on this one is also pretty simple; the dog is their way of living out vicariously what they cannot do themselves. A good example is the short, heavily set woman who has the tall, elegant and graceful Greyhound... she lives out her fantasy of who she wishes she was by overcompensating and living vicariously through her dog. Or the 90lb computer geek seriously lacking in the social skills department who has the GIANT 200lb over sized War Mastiff.
3) The third kind is just a gross generalization for everyone who doesn't really fit into the first 2 categories. Usually they are the people who either haven't figured out what they like yet, or the trend chasers, and the bleeding hearts who haven't really developed any clear personal preferences. And of course the Professionals who are just doing their jobs.

The third category is a minority, and because I know you are curious, YES, I do fall into the first category. I am fully aware of it, and yes, I do have a very well developed sense of humor about the whole thing. But lets be honest, appearances do matter (they aren't everything, but they DO actually count for something in terms of judgements, even on a subconscious level) and as a slender, athletic and elongated former runway model, I look pretty ridiculous handling a slow moving, stumpy legged collection of wrinkles and drool that is a correct basset hound. Obviously the continuity of look and athletic ability means I look better with fast moving, sleek and long strided animals on the other end of the leash. Many of my handling clients were often  the second category of people, who had social anxiety and didnt want to be seen (they would rather hide behind their dogs) so they would hire me to present them in public for them.

Anyway, a lifetime of experience seeing any different breeds, different personalities and individuals... and a degree in psychology, because few things are as fascinating as the infinite complexities of human behavior, social maladjustment, and all the various intricacies of the way different individuals interact with each other. ...which makes for an endless amount of material to run the social commentary of a bog on!