It appears that a little-noticed event in Gray Summit, Missouri has gotten some Canadian knickers in a knot. A group which I call the Ontario "Ladies Who Lunch" -- perhaps five in total, from what I can see --have duped the Golden Retriever Club of Canada into releasing a "blizzard" alert for those who fancy "genuine" Golden Retrievers. You know, the REAL Goldens who are "truly gold" and therefore rightly deserve the name. In this "Return To the Ridiculous" an article about English Cream dogs is now featured prominently on the GRCC website. It is unsettling to see that a settled issue such as coat color has become the subject of concern for what appears to be a very small minority of the total Club membership.
In truth, NONE of the eight regional Golden Retriever Clubs appears to find it necessary to repost this essay on their own websites. Certainly NOT on the first page. If you check the GRCC Breeders' List of twenty eight entries, only five seem to share the concern about "white" Goldens.
One in fact still identifies with the nonsensical Oprah Effect which was a topic of concern back in 2011 or thereabouts. On this kennel's website, dogs of the Oprah Type are described simply as a "fad" and were in part a result of the fact that the Big O "bought her pale puppies and paraded them on her (tv) show." (She even had the audacity to feature them in her magazine-- on the cover no less!) This breeder claims that the trio was purchased from a "less than careful breeder, who was breeding for colour and profit above all else." Isn't it amazing that this Canadian breeder knew so much about the "facts" of this transaction?
Similarly, one individual prepared a press release issued by the IABCA (that person is not a part of the organization) which highlighted a fifth show for the Purina Farms fairgrounds held in mid-June of this year. The announcement said that it was to be a Golden Retriever Specialty event for English Cream Goldens. The phone lines, Facebook and Twitter lit up like World War III was about to break out. The publicity release was quickly edited. No harm, no foul-- at least one would think.
But I have since been told by a leading member of the GRCC that there was a Cause and Effect relationship between this far away event in Missouri AND the GRCC article referenced above. Really? C'mon ladies; get real.
The article issued under GRCC auspices is WRONG on the facts. It claims that there are NO English Creams. They don't exist. But they say this by claiming that "English" refers to country of origin. It does NOT. It is a reference to the English TYPE-- Goldens bred to the Breed Standard of country of origin and since adopted by all nations except the United States and Canada.
While leading spokesmen for our breed in America assert that the British Standard describes CREAM as a SHADE of gold, they are factually incorrect. It is an acceptable body COLOR. The Illustrated GRCC Breed Standard states that this has been true since 1936. Are Canadians now having second thoughts? Coat color has long been a non-issue in the Canadian conformation ring. You folks should be applauded for that. Do not weaken your resolve by appeasing a handful of naysayers. You are far better than that.
Nowhere in the world-- EXCEPT Canada and the United States --does TYPE even enter a discussion of Golden Retrievers, if it is a reference to a particular NATION's breed standard. But both north and south of the 49th parallel you have folks who insist that they must have their OWN breed standard-- rejecting both that of Great Britain and the FCI. So we speak of and advertise English TYPE or American TYPE Golden Retrievers. Curiously, no one seems to EVER identify with a Canadian TYPE.
A leading member in both the GRCC AND GRCA has recently imported a fine young Golden from Down Under. Does anyone even think of calling this dog "AUSTRALIAN" TYPE? It was bred in accordance with the rules of the British Standard. There are no Canadian-born or American-born dogs to be found in his pedigree no matter how far back you search for them. (Truth be told, it would be hard to find ANY American or Canadian types running around that huge continent at all. Importing a Golden from North America is hardly to be found on an Aussie's "to-do" list.) The pup in question has Swedish and British lines behind him; in addition, he has six (at least) CREAM-coated Goldens in his three-generation pedigree. True, he is NOT an English Cream, because his birth color was a light gold, not cream. But it can NOT be argued that he is not English TYPE. That is an incontrovertible fact.
I have been told that the debate over color has existed since the time of Mrs. Charlesworth and that it will NEVER be resolved. True it still requires resolution, but there remains only a SINGLE nation where the issue continues to divide our breed. And that is the result of inaction and stubborn resistance to change based upon misplaced loyalty to past tradition. It may be difficult to "move a mountain." But it can be done.
Instead of issuing a "Call To Arms," a GROSS exaggeration of an essentially settled issue everywhere, it would make far more sense for the GRCC to encourage its North American neighbor to the south to accept what all other Golden fanciers know and believe to be true-- CREAM is NOT "UNDESIRABLE."
Coat color in a breed-- any breed --should not be a function of geography.Those who make the rules should know better.
Does the GRCC know what the term proportionality means? Worst case scenario-- the Purina Farms IABCA event went ahead as mislabeled-- a Golden Retriever Specialty for English Cream entries exclusively. How would this have negatively impacted the breed in ANY WAY in Canada? Or the GRCC organization itself? Or was it merely an EXCUSE offered up by a tiny fraction of the membership in order to vent their frustrations over what they viewed an unfair competition in the marketplace? An opportunity to attack other breeders? I think it's admirable that this quintet of ladies were so SELFLESS that their PRIMARY concern was the potential puppy buyer who might be tricked into buying a Golden bred by someone not among their circle of friends .Any one of their number should be fully aware of how cream-coated Goldens are typically treated at AKC venues. Perhaps the Missouri show might even be viewed as payback of sorts for a long history of unfair treatment based upon "incorrect" coat color. It was not the type of dog, not structure, not movement, not temperament that caused cream Goldens to be treated with indifference for so long. And it continues in present-day America. That should be far more worrisome to Canadian breeders than one rather insignificant dog show in Middle America in mid-June of 2014..
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