by Fran Prince, FBDCA Public Education Committee member
If attendance at this year’s Meet the Breeds FBDCA booth was any indication, AKC could have renamed the event Meet the Breed – specifically French Bulldogs. Every ticket holder waited patiently (and some not so patiently) for a chance to meet the BEST breed present November 19-20 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. In fact, on either side, Fox Terrier and German Pinscher folks looked longingly at our crowds. We looked at them with a bit of pity as the crowds surged over to our booth, but also with a lot of envy because their breeds have been spared the ravages of popularity.
A meet, greet, and snort for the public!
We started setting up on Friday: brochures and booklets in place, tables, club banner, finding and setting up chairs. For this third year of the event, AKC was able to move to the lower, and much larger floor, of Javits. There were HUGE aisles that accommodated strollers and crowds. It looked promising…
Saturday and Sunday – the hoards stormed the gates. It was like a tsunami – and we were ready. The smiles of people, when they saw our dogs, were wonderful. The desire for knowledge expressed by nearly everyone amazed us. Most had heard “answers” which weren’t quite right and sometimes downright false. We were giving real answers to their flurries of questions. Answers they could trust. Acknowledgement of this was obvious in their faces. You could tell the public knew they were at a place where they could believe the information being given to them because it was coming from people with no other agenda than the safety of their breed.
Hands-on Frenchie education experience for kids and adults alike.
People genuinely wanted to know about our dogs – about all dogs. Are they the right breed for me/my family/my children??? How do I go about buying a dog the right way? Sadly, most do not know what a puppymill is or about backyard breeders. Meet the Breeds is the most positive venue where breed fanciers can educate the public about what is correct for a breed and have fun at the same time. By interacting with and watching real dogs in the booth, people opened up to really listening to what we had to say. It makes “the medicine go down” easy, as Mary Poppins emphatically sings.
The general public’s lack of knowledge is frightening: shipping dangers, health testing needs, DQ (disqualification) colors, etc. They can’t imagine Frenchies would need rescue; how could anyone give up a dog this expensive?? Again, this type of venue is made-to-order for easily educating people. It’s our best chance because people are going to get dogs haphazardly if we don’t educate them. As the parent breed club, education is our responsibility. This kind of event makes it fun to do.
French Bulldog, Julie Ann, shows the laid-back side of the breed.
By the end of the two days we were all (including the dogs) exhausted. In fact, when one owner took her dog out for a potty break, another dog leapt into the emptied bed to nap. But, our weekend closed perfectly on Sunday with an incident that made it clear how wonderful Frenchies are and how we all love this breed. Shelby, a puppy mill rescue was there. Her miller was giving up some old breeder bitches and literally threw her in with the others for free. He said if rescue didn’t take her he was going to throw her in the garbage. She had no hair from generalized demodex and a hatred of intact male dogs that came from too many forced breedings.
Getting up close and personal with the public.
Shelby was taken into rescue, she recovered, and she was adopted. She has attended the Javits MtB for the past three years. Every year she has behaved as a good Frenchie, unless an intact male came near, triggering an immediate reaction of angry, self-defensive behavior.
This year, at the end of the day, Shelby actually play-bowed to Sam, a one-year-old Frenchie boy just starting his show career – an INTACT male. Sam responded and they played for about 15 minutes. All the while Shelby’s owner looked on with tears in her eyes…tears of joy. This Frenchie, this dog who had been destined for the garbage heap, was happily playing. As we educate about the breed, hopefully, there will be no more Shelbys.
French Bulldog, Dari, plays the quintessential ambassador by gently kissing one lucky girl's nose.
Visit AKC’s Meet the Breeds webpage to learn more about this event. AKC Meet the Breeds
To see extensive photo coverage of the 2011 event, go here: 2011 MtB Photos
Special thanks to photographer Michele Amatrula for use of her photos in this article.
