Seppala Kennels 'SledDogBlog'

Little Napoleons?

One of my most serious concerns for the future welfare of the SSSD Project is a tendency that has arisen in the past couple of years. Here is what seems to happen. People acquire two to four Seppalas, harness a small team, get thoroughly hooked on the dogs -- and then decide that they are Seppala experts in their own right. They no longer feel the need of advice, believing that they already know all they need to know. They don't require a Breed Steward or a support system! They have the "Seppalas" that they coveted and will now pursue their independent course, making their own decisions and somehow "breeding Seppalas" without having any further truck with the Forums or the breed founder -- and without access to the core of broodstock at Seppala Kennels.

J. M. Bélanger's "Gatineau Kennels" was the first example of this tendency. After acquiring an open bitch and two open males, breeding two litters (one of them accidental) and reneging on a stud-service agreement with Seppala Kennels, Jean-Marie is now an independent little Napoleon. His latest achievement was to allow a newborn litter of Seppalas to freeze to death in an outdoor doghouse in winter, or so they tell me. That's what happens when you decide you don't need advice.

Last winter T. J. Shrader left the Forums and the Project after deciding that SK was too distant from his location and SK dogs too expensive. He acquired Sepp-Alta and Sepp-Lok castoffs and started racing, advertising his own dogs as "Seppala Siberian Sleddogs."

This summer another newly-minted Seppala team-owner left the Forums shortly after acquiring an open female to go with the retired 12-year-old male he was given after a six-weeks dogsledding "learning experience" at SK in 2007. Jacob apparently feels he can do without the Forums, without SK, and without the breed founder. Other supporters recently received a PDF-file anticipated-litter announcement from him, together with his own attempted deductions as to the probable acceptability of the mating, by analogy from SK breedings.

On the forums there has been an undercurrent of resentment and disrespect. I get the distinct feeling that although people want the dogs at SK, they don't want me as part of the package. Okay, in a way that's understandable. I'm not a "people person," I'm blunt, direct, no diplomat. (If I think someone has fucked up, I tell them so. I try to offer enough advice to prevent fuckups; that's not always appreciated, either. Mentoring isn't an easy job.) Every winter this restiveness peaks in February, the month when everyone gets sick of winter, the light cycle's on the upswing, and the young males feel the proddings of nature in their gonads. Yes, it's understandable. But it can be pretty destructive.

I found I had had "enough" two days ago after the new W.C.A.C. Secretary told me on the forums that I suck. Even after the moderator intervened, he continued his attack. He, too, has a handful of SK Seppalas and has bred a litter. I have to ask myself whether the pattern will now repeat itself again. (So, if it matters, that was the event that triggered this re-evaluation of the Project's viability.)

The example of Doug Willett and his "satellite kennels" is far from encouraging. Doug has had a long succession of "protegés," his fair-haired boys whom he would introduce to others by saying, "this is Bob Davis -- he has the second-best team of Seppalas in the world!" Bob Davis, Mark Hartum, Uwe Krupp, Deron Kazmaier, Frank Caccavo and a host of others went this route, and all of them went their own ways after a brief spell on centre stage of DW's attentions. So one has to wonder whether anything at all can be done about secessions of this kind.

If it's true that the above is inevitable, then I don't believe that the evolving-breed programme has any reasonable chance of success. If dogs are removed from the overall breed programme virtually as soon as they are sold, then there will be no way of maintaining a coherent breed development plan. The SSSD would quickly become indistinguishable from the Siberian Husky, complete with the traditional race-vs-show-vs-pet dilemma; or from the ISSSC's ragtag collection of dissident racers. So -- are we to have a Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project here, and develop an evolving breed of versatile sleddogs, a population that will be able to survive for the long-term -- or shall we just be an unfocussed bunch of little Napoleons?

If it's to be the latter, then I think I'll let the whole thing die decently. I'll be spending a lot of money at the vet clinic on spays and neuters, and the ghost of Leonhard Seppala will finally be laid to rest.

Posted by ditkoofseppala at March 1, 2009 10:02 AM