Having been a member of the Pekingese community for over 15 years during which time I have looked at all the activity as a newcomer and I have also had the opportunity of looking anew at everything as the owner of the top winning owner handled dog of all time for our breed.  I have also had the honor of breeding, out of my first litter a bitch that went on the win Best of Opposite Sex at the 1996 PCA Roving Specialty and a dog that went on to be a top winning Pekingese in Japan. 

I have also bred over 20 Pekingese champions of which quite a few also went on to win Group Placements. All of this was accomplished as owner handlers; which meant we had full time jobs, and we were not showing 50 weekends a year.  We always took off from June to September to escape the heat of shows in our area and we never showed between November and January because of the holidays and the weather.  We very seldom ventured to shows more than a six hour drive from our home and we never double entered shows.   While we worked very hard to ensure that our dogs were presented and shown as professionally as we could possibly show them we actually saw ourselves as breeders foremost.  All of the Pekingese we ever showed were our breeding and or owned by us.  We also never became members of any local breed and or all breed club.  During the ten years that we were active in showing and or campaigning Pekingese it became very obvious to us that something was very wrong with our breed. We also showed Shih Tzu and during the course of the same ten years we noted lots of new people and increased entries at shows.  While during the same 10 years we noted that with the Pekingese breed it was always the same people at the same shows and we noted a dwindling of entries.   Whenever we had the opportunity to discuss this with other Pekingese owners and or PCA board members the response was always, “Who Cares” and a shrug of shoulders…  But there always seemed to be a lot of activity within the PCA but none of it seemed to benefit the breed.   Anyone who knows the history of our breed realizes that up to a point our club has always been run by a very heavy handed person:  A person who controlled the board very tightly and dictated every decision that the board made. That system worked very well for the breed as this person oversaw the glory days of our breed.  Sadly, we have never found another person to hold such tyrannical sway over our breed while at the same time ensuring that everyone benefitted as during this period and thus, the slow but steady decline in our breed.  It is almost as if time has stood still and everyone aged as the PCA squabbled and hoisted imitators to its head.   It almost seems as if the PCA is very similar to some third world country; we sought democracy only to replace it with less than adequate tyrants or worse.  Thus, now we have squandered the treasury and we have divided ourselves amongst the varied “warlords” who have sprang up amongst us.If you watch the news and you see clips on Sudan, Pakistan, and or just about any other third world country do you ever wonder, “…what in that country is worth fighting for?”  Or maybe, “…why do they fight all the time…over what?”    Well, you have to wonder, “…what is all the fighting over within the PCA?”  Everyone claims they want to “…open the club and make it more welcoming…” or that, “…they have the breeds best interests at heart…” You just cannot help but wonder that if this was true then it would seem quite obvious, that if everyone shares the same reasons for wanting to run the PCA, then it would be real easy to find a compromise and bring everyone together.  If another club springs up that claims to be a “social” club that was established for people who love the breed to socialize and share then why not open the membership to everyone who loves the breed and wants to socialize?  Why do they feel that they have to pick and choose who they invite to become members of their club?

I am actually thankful that I left the PCA in 2002 and lost touch with the club and all the troubles until I joined once again in 2008.  In between the thefts, the lawsuits, and the stupidity on all sides, I believe that I would not have been able to ever venture back into the breed having experienced all of the shenigans on a day to day basis, live! It would have been too embarrassing, too humiliating, and too frustrating to watch humans do what they have done especially when all sides of the debate that incurred claimed the same values. No, it is obvious that what people were fighting for was more than what they said they were fighting for and more than what meets the eye. But, reality is, that is the past…and the issue for all of us is:  WHAT IS THE FUTURE?

Now, some people will claim that all that is wrong with the PCA has always been wrong with the PCA but I believe that change can occur.  There will always be people who will find comfort in the past but lets be realistic, our lives have changed dramatically since the past; and whether that past is five, ten, twenty, or fifty years ago, change has occurred and can occur within the PCA.  To move forward you have to quit looking to the past. 

So, rather than continuing to go through a beating in the various forums I want to establish this blog as a way to begin the process of looking forward.  I will post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.   We will have guest columnists from time to time and everyone is more than invited to join in the conversation by posting their own comments.  Thank you for stopping by and reading and I hope that over the next few months we find a way to face the future so that we can begin to move ourselves, our club, and our breed to a new future… 

Carl J. Mistlebauer