I don’t know anyone in my breed who would place a retired CH INTACT (that is not spayed or neutered) in just any home. It’s simply just not done. Now, maybe in some breeds, but I can tell you, that in goldens, that would get you shunned.
Yes, I have placed dogs who didn’t turn out into pet homes, just like I don’t keep every puppy in a litter (on the same sort of spay/neuter contract, or already spayed/neutered). Of course, I haven’t had a zillion champions, so it’s not like I have had to decide what to do with them, but I will say that if I had say 10 champions and I could decide to put a few in good pet homes (and yes, I screen my pet homes quite carefully) or let them be part of a large pack at my own house, I see nothing wrong in putting them in a home where they would be the center of attention.
That’s not the same as going to the slaughterhouse.
Whether or not to show is a very personal choice. For one thing it’s quite expensive. For another it’s not for the faint of heart. It can be gut wrenching ot have someone tell you your dog is not good enough. And, it’s hard work. So, I don’t blame you.
Some kennels churn out champions like butter.
The dog show world can be an iffy place, at times.
I know several Ibizans [even as scarce as they are] who earned their titles, had a litter, then got sent off to a co-owner or other kennel.
It’s almost like “turnover”.
I’m not sure if people just want to keep showing the ‘new’ generation and put aside the old or if it’s simply the adrenaline rush of finishing a dog, time after after time.
Dobermanns being ‘my breed’ are something I’ve watched for almost 40 years.
I’ve seen the breed’s health decline at a horrifying pace.
Since I’m not pressured to breed “pretty winners”, I can afford to criticize the health part of the equation.
Far too many people will compromise health for a certain “look” that -wins-.
Look at Pugs and Bulldogs, for example.
They didn’t used to have flat faces.
Short, snubbed faces yes but not “flat”.
Judges and breeders colluded to that end.
A weird judge likes some ‘extreme’ dog and the other breeders rush to create their own versions.
It’s never beneficial to the breeds involved.
The Dobes of the late 70s’ were so freaking long and over angulated in the hock that they couldn’t trot straight to save their lives. ..but they “looked pretty” stacked.
The last issue of Dog World that I ever bought had a 70’s Hoytt champion on the front cover that was an abomination to the breed but he was “Dobe of the year”.
Bleah!
I’m hardly ‘faint of heart’ and the work doesn’t intimidate me; it was the utter hypocrisy and devastation wrought upon my breed that turned me off.
[imagine Goldens suddenly being shown that were Merles or had Roman noses, swan necks, prick ears or arched backs because somebody ‘powerful’ decreed that was the ‘new style’ for the breed]
When Odin’s papers came back from the AKC, I noted that they still have that great old drawing of a -correct- Dobe on top.
I’m not even sure how they mail those out with a straight face.