With the SPA shut there is no pressing news, so tonight’s blog is on a subject of general interest, that of fashions in the dogs world. No, I am not talking about dressing your dogs up (no doubt that would be interesting as it certainly divides opinion), but about dog breeds and how they come in and out of fashion.
When Moira was contacting various UK rescues recently trying to find homes for some of our older dogs, gorgeous Kipnak was rejected. This is because there are already far too many husky-type dogs in UK refuges. Want to know why? The answer is simple; Game of Thrones.
Yes, people who watched this series were so taken with the idea of having a “dire wolf” as a pet that they bought the closest thing possible, a husky. Breeders jumped on the bandwagon, as did illegal puppy importers. But huskies are not the easiest of dogs. Many of them have too much of the “wolf spirit” (which ironically is why their new owners wanted them in the first place) and so they have been abandoned in their hundreds.
This is just the latest in a series of fashions in the dog world. Every time a new film featuring a dog appears, my heart sinks, along with those of almost everyone else in the dog rescue world. First it was Lassie (collies), and Rin Tin Tin (German Shepherds) then came 101 Dalmatians. Then it was Beethoven (Saint Bernards), then of course it was The Mask and more recently The Artist (Jack Russells). And anyone of my age (ah-hem) or above will doubtless have been influenced by the border collie, Shep, on Blue Peter.
In the days of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, people were perhaps less fickle, and dogs were more part of a family. But latterly many dogs are just the latest “must have accessory”. The chihuahua explosion following the release of the film Legally Blonde (and the “fame” of Paris Hilton) resulted in plane-loads of these poor dogs being flown from where they had been abandoned (mostly in California) to refuges on the eastern seaboard of the USA.
Perhaps we should be glad that so far no film maker has featured black Labradors, as no doubt this would result in even more being abandoned. In a perfect world people would come and get their own black lab from a local refuge, and keep it forever, but the most likely scenario is more breeders and more abandoned dogs.
Of course you can’t help loving a breed. I am a sucker for beagles, and each breed has its fans. There is nothing wrong with that, providing you accept that not all dogs of a certain breed are identical in character. But why not buck the trend? Instead of being lured into following the latest fashion, why not adopt a dog because of the look in his eyes? That look of love that makes an owner’s heart swell in a way that is hard to describe.
Follow your heart, don’t follow fashion.
A dire wolf is for life, not just for Christmas!
Poor Kipnak, a REAL dog, is just not as good