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Titles and health cert

2K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  Liesje 
#1 ·
Ok, so being back on this site has opened me up to lots of new breeders and even though I just bought a puppy, I love looking at breeders websites. I have seen an odd, frankly annoying trend.

The list of titles, a mile long, that include EVERYTHING, the dog had done. For example, Dog v. Kennelhaus BH, IPO1,IPO2,IPO3,FH, FH2, CD, CDX,UD,OB1,OB2,OB3.

Yes it looks impressive, but I find it ridiculous and honestly a red flag. OBVIOUSLY the dog got its BH, and IPO 1&2, or it would NOT have its IPO 3. Same for obedience titles.

Is this dumbing it down for the masses? Is it trying to make a dog more impressive to less educated buyers???

It would be like me telling a potential employer that my education included 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,5th,6th,7th,8th grades, high school diploma, bachelors degree, masters degree, and PHD. Seriously? You think I got a PHD without passing 1st grade???? It's redundant!!

But it's also the same with health clearances. I get that breeders want to show that they health screen their dogs. But I see some breeders advertising health clearances for things that are rarely if ever found in GSD. So great!!, your dogs are free from sebaceous adenitis and Exersise induced collapse!!! Unless you are crossing with poodles and Labs- who cares!!! Same with luxating patella. While possible, not a huge concern in this breed. So why test for it? To say you have? Or is it in your lines?

Sorry for the rant, but I would love to hear some breeders thoughts on this. Why? Do you? Are there things that make you shake your head?

To me it just complicates the bejesus out of things and makes it harder for a relative newbie to distinguish things.

Would love a good discussion.


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#2 ·
I think its part to impress potential buyers who've never purchased a pup from a reputable breeder and part because they're proud of those accomplishments.

Until I joined this board a couple years ago, I had ZERO idea about just which titles were which. I'm STILL learning but I have enough knowledge to look and either be impressed or wonder where they find all this free time to title so much! lol. I came across a breeder not long ago that the dogs were so heavily titled and so heavily health tested and all done in less than a year according to achievement dates listed, it was a joke. I immediately dismissed the breeder. If I were to come across that as a total newbie to searching for a reputable breeder, I'd likely be impressed and go with that breeder.

I do honestly think the majority of it is half proud of the achievements and half dumbing it down. Being a military wife, seeing a Sch3/IPO3, I'd likely assume it was similar to the ranks my husband has earned where a such and such 3 is lower ranking while such and such ranking is higher simply because I don't know for certain. Though I do know better at this point.
 
#3 · (Edited)
The health thing catches my eye more than the titles. I don't really care if all the titles are listed or not. The dog earned them. I know that IPO3 assumes a 1 and 2 but maybe someone else doesn't. Also sometimes I'm interested in the score (and the judge) if the person shares publicly. Even though I do agility, I'm not yet familiar with all the titles and levels so sometimes when I see a good agility GSD I'm curious as to the full list of the titles. On Nikon's page I list his titles at the very bottom so if someone genuinely cares they can scroll down and it gives the dates they were earned. For those that have expressed interest in breeding to him, I provide them with a PDF that is scans of *all* of his paperwork, titles, scorebook, breed survey, and health records. They can take or leave whatever info is pertinent to their decision. I do find it curious what health things people are testing for. A few people have asked me why I don't get my GSDs' eyes examined because pannus is common in the breed. Well pannus you can pretty much see yourself or have a regular vet check for, I'm not paying an eye specialist for a yearly CERF when I have no reason to suspect my dog might have pannus.
 
#4 ·
Yes it looks impressive, but I find it ridiculous and honestly a red flag. OBVIOUSLY the dog got its BH, and IPO 1&2, or it would NOT have its IPO 3. Same for obedience titles.

Is this dumbing it down for the masses? Is it trying to make a dog more impressive to less educated buyers???
Maybe, maybe not.

Sometimes the lower titles do contain useful information. For example, in World Cynosport (formerly APDT) Rally, you can earn an Award of Excellence at the individual titling levels if you qualify with consistently good scores. If a novice handler puts those on a green dog, that is pretty impressive to me. That means the team consistently did well when starting out in a new level.

But those lower-level titles get knocked out once you start earning the combined level championships, so under typical titling schemes you wouldn't continue to list them as you got more advanced. Pongu has his AOEs for Levels 1 and 2 (we're not earning Qs in Level 3 yet), but I don't list them because he has his ARCH and those get subsumed.

If I were trying to provide a full picture of his accomplishments, though -- i.e., if I were a breeder -- then I would go ahead and list them, because it shows that he did well right from the beginning, not just as he (and I!) got more experienced.

It's basically akin to listing the judge or the exact scores with which you qualified in other sports. I wouldn't necessarily consider it bragging or resume padding. It does provide some additional information apart from what the bigger title already tells you.
 
#5 ·
Two reasons: Marketing and/or ignorance. For me it is actually a turn off just like putting legs for OB titles or putting unearned titles in parenthesis (IPO3) trying to indicate the dog is working on that title.
 
#7 ·
I totally agree with this. I like to see the dog in other venues. I just think its ridiculous to list every prerequisite. A UDX, tells me enough. Or a SchH3. They are the higher level, I don't think every lower level needs to be put at the end if the dogs name.


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#9 ·
I don't usually make decisions about breeding or buying dogs based on how a dog is described on a web page anyway. Some of the best people I've met in the breed have horrible or non-existant web pages. I guess for me it's a non-issue. If I really like the dog I don't care if the owner makes up a bunch of silly titles and if I hate the dog no national level SchH3 is going to make a difference.
 
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