Our Campaign

The ‘Docked and Denied’ Campaign was launched on 17th November 2010 to increase public awareness of the threat to the future survival of many of our true ‘dual purpose’ gundog and other working breeds, posed by current legislation on tail docking and policies of certain championship shows.

What is the campaign about ?

All breeders remember the ‘Pedigree Dogs Exposed’ programme shown on the BBC in August 2008 and the subsequent ‘fit for function, fit for life’ campaign of the Kennel Club which proclaims ‘that every dog, even if its function is solely to be a pet, should be able to see, breathe and walk freely’.

As HPR, gundog and working dog breeders, we have higher ideals for our dogs. We are passionate about the welfare and retaining the working ability of our dogs, which underpins the reason for the breed’s existence and feel the combination of current legislation and the policies of certain Championship Shows, including Crufts, need challenge – especially as it falsely promotes that show are ‘open to all’ – they are not – and excludes true ‘fit for function’ dogs.

The docked and denied campaign grew our of a simple idea – people who had dogs with docked tails, who have qualified for Crufts 2011 but are denied the ability to enter, wanted to make a point – to do so we donated what would have been our Crufts entry fees for a simple ‘protest’ advert. What started as a simple small advert for one kennels, has grown and grown as more people became aware of the idea and agree with its principles.

What is the law ?

Laws are not always well thought through, they are full of political compromises and trying to please the majority. However most laws are also intended to protect minorities from persecution also.

Like many European countries, in April 2007, the UK decided to ban the docking of tails on dogs, other than where it was classed as a ‘working exemption’. For those of us who work their dogs or breed dogs for people who wish to work their dogs, we all understand that we dock for no other reason than we know from experience and truely believe it is in the best welfare interests of our dogs. The working exemption was therefore an acceptable compromise.

Even before the new legislation, all dogs that were docked had to be docked by a veterinary surgeon, the new legislation simply added the need for proof that the dogs were intended to be worked and mandated microchipping to prove the future identity of the legally docked dog.

This campaign is all about the subtle threat to the future of all these working breeds by the last aspect of the new law, which prevents docked dogs being shown at an event where the public pay an admittance charge. Basically the message was it is fine to dock, we accept the welfare justification, as long as the public do not have to see it.

So why target Crufts and other Shows ?

The showing dogs originated from trying to compare the best dogs suitable for breeding so that bloodlines can be improved over many generations. This is not unique to dogs.

We are fighting to keep our HPR (hunt, point,retrieve) breeds dual purpose. The same HPR’s that can and do become Show Champions attend Field Trials and Working Tests to prove their ability and go on to become Full Champions thus endorsing the Kennel Clubs “Fit for Function” campaign. Crufts advertises itself as the Worlds Biggest and Greatest Dog Show, where dogs have to “qualify” to attend and is supposedly to be the “cream” of the British Dog Scene, when in fact all the truly “Fit for Function” dogs are denied entry.

Show societies that proclaim ‘open to all’ and then exclude an ever increasing population of the UK’s top working dogs are basically misleading the public and gradually destroying the dual purpose nature of the breeds we hold so dear. Those societies do not deserve the support of the HPR and wider dog community, including Crufts.

At a Kennel Club Roadshow event, we were laughed at by the Kennel Club officials when we suggested that Crufts should joint the other societies and not charge the public entry to the show – after all the origins and the purpose of the event is supposed to be for the exhibitors.

Throughout this year we have contacted and worked with many of the Championship Show Societies that have kindly dropped the admittance charge, thus enabling the true “Fit for Function” dogs to attend, – our grateful thanks to Blackpool, Richmond, Bath and Paignton who all made difficult decisions in the current economy to support us and join the majority of show societies that have never charged.

We hope that the handful of other societies who are still charging admittance will consider very carefully what damage they are doing to the working dog by splitting it into “Show types” and “Working Types”. There are other ways to gain revenue rather than gate admission fees.

The supporters in these pages don’t just have one dog to enter they have multiple dogs but won’t make an entry with an older dogs knowing they can’t bring along their youngsters , this will only serve to reduce the ever falling show entries in time.

Why Show Working Dogs ?

It is important to retain the ability to keep the working instincts of dogs through careful breeding programmes – it is these subtle, but important differences between breeds, that created the different types of dog we see today – for example the specialist Retrievers, the Setters whose job it is to point but not retrieve and the HPR’s that hunt, point and retrieve (as well as track game).

It only takes 3 generations to breed out working ability from a breed and likewise it is important when breeding for working ability that we retain a good construction and conformation too. Hence many breeders both show and work their dogs to ensure they understand all aspects of their bloodlines – many of us have invested our lives in doing so.

If we continue to be excluded from key shows in the UK, in a few short years the dogs that are the best ‘fit for function’ examples of the breed will no longer be seen and people will lose sight of what ‘fit for function’ actually means.

Join Us

Many of us have started to come together, on Twitter, on Facebook on forums – to make the Kennel Club and the remaining Societies understand that they are failing us by falsely promoting shows as ‘open to all’ when they are not. They are misleading the public.

Our recent campaign covered 8 full pages of adverts in Dog World – One of the biggest advertising features they have had this year – paid for by the show entry fees lost from those dogs that have qualified for Crufts.

CRUFTS – the World’s Greatest Dog Show’ that has to exclude some of the ‘UK’s Greatest Working Dogs’ because it continues to charge the public entry.