ARC MEMBER COMMUNICATIONS
June 19, 2009
Dear Jeff and Board,
Thank you for the reply to my original letter dated 3/14/09. There
are some points in your reply, which cannot go unchallenged.
The Working Dog Sport
You say there are no politics. Yes, there are. I quote your reply, “The
original ARC Working Dog Sport Trial Committee was made up of individuals
who all had titled a dog to a Schutzhund III. When you inquired about
being added to this committee, you were asked to submit your qualifications/credentials.
You have never done so.
The Committee is looking for new members who have had extensive experience
in putting on a Schutzhund Trial. Anyone who is interested is welcome
to submit his/her qualifications to the Chair at ppiusz@nycap.rr.com.”
Please direct me to where I can find the rule that to be on the WDS
committee one must have titled their dog to Sch.lll? I cannot find it
on the AKC website, the WDS rules and regulations or on our website
or in our rules. All I can find is:
“Section 4. Approved WDS Personnel. Approval for the WDS personnel
shall, at a minimum, require attendance at an AKC-approved WDS Institute/Seminar
and the successful completion of a written examination. Such examination
will be developed and updated as necessary by the WDS Advisory Committee.
The examination will be administered at the WDS Institute/Seminar. All
applicants must be members of their Parent Club’s WDS Committee and
approved by that Committee for this program.”
No disrespect meant to these past or present WDS committee members,
but Judi Wilson has not titled a dog to Sch. lll. Chrissie Kovacks has
not titled a dog to Sch. lll. They are or were on the WDS committee.
Tony and Karen DiCicco were asked by Peter to work on the trial committee
in Orlando. Tony and Karen have not titled a dog to Sch. lll. Why have
I been asked to produce documentation of titling a dog to Sch. lll when
these members have not? If you are going to apply rules it must be for
one and all, not just some.
The Measurement Survey
You ask me what I am doing to promote the Survey. I have been deeply
involved with the survey since 2002 and have done much to promote it.
At every opportunity I ask people and clubs if they would conduct a
measurement survey. The NERF Club has taken my advice and held a number
of surveys. I have promoted the survey and seminar at the CRC several
times. If you are not aware, there is an ad on our website advising
clubs about hosting a survey: www.amrottclub.org/arc_measurement_survey/ThinkoutoftheBox.pdf
Did the board read my letter addressed to Lester Cerana, dated 9/5/08?
Did the board read my email to Jim Runck, dated 2/4/09, concerning the
survey for this year’s national? You did not respond to either of these!
Each time I conduct a survey I promote the ARC and its good name. Since
its inception, I have spent thousands of dollars of my own money, attending,
conducting, promoting, cajoling and working to make the survey a valuable
asset for the club. I sent the 5 surveys conducted on Dec 13th 2008,
at the Pocono Area Rottweiler Club, to Tracy Parciak to post in the
ARK. What happened to them? They were never posted.
The problem is not me doing too little; it is the board doing nothing.
The board is the stumbling block to the survey. You do not support it.
In fact, no one on the board has ever attended a survey!!! Each year
the board has prevented the survey from getting the necessary exposure.
The board has prohibited the entry form for the survey to be posted
with the national premium. The entry form is relegated to an obscure
place somewhere in the vastness of our website. Why is this? You have
never answered me on this. How can people know we are conducting a survey
if you prevent its entry form to appear in the national premium? Please
show me the email that requested my presence at this year’s national
to conduct the survey. The fact is, I was not asked.
The Caveat
The caveat was added to highlight serious problems occurring within
our breed. You state “Steve, you also state as a fact that the European
Rottweiler quality is superior to that of the dogs in this country –
however, that is just one man’s opinion - yours.” I did not say that.
I stated, “Our dogs are Europe’s bitches; our bitches are Europe’s Dobermans.
I ring an alarm bell warning of the erosion of breed type; you interpret
that as insulting. If you believe that all is well with our US Rottweilers
then you are perilously mistaken. All is not well.
Yes, it is my opinion. An opinion derived from 32 years of involvement
with the breed and on solid empirical observations I have gained from
judging worldwide. As far as “one man’s opinion” goes, part of the background
on this (and what I think makes it valid to hear and important to say)
is that I frequently hear the exact same feedback in private from other
ARC members, non-members and the international Rottweiler community.
You state in the reply, “The ARC supports and encourages our membership
to strive for the complete dog, including health, structure, temperament,
and working ability.” Working ability! What working ability? The rest
of the world places working ability atop the list. With your own words
you place it last! You prove this by not having a character or temperament
certification provision in the New Mandatory Practices and Principles.
Yet, there was an increase in the demand for health certifications.
Why health but not temperament? There is disconnect between the club
and working ability. This sends a confusing message and is an example
of your misdirected stewardship.
Sincerely,
Steve
Wolfson
BOARD RESPONSE
June 25, 2009
Steve:
In response to your latest letter:
Working Dog Sport
We have sent the “Working Dog Sport” from both your first letter and
this one to the Committee Chairman to answer. His answer appears at
the end of our letter.
Measurement Survey
Perhaps the Board was not clear enough in our original response. Currently
there are only 2 others, besides yourself, that are approved to actually
put on a Breed Measurement Survey and all 3 of you are located in the
Northeastern part of the country (Massachusetts, New York, Ohio). So
in our minds, the biggest roadblock to ever making this
a successful venture is the lack of evaluators. So again, what
are you doing to change this situation?
Some of us were not on the Board last September, but those of us who
were never saw the letter you sent to Lester Cerana, until you forwarded
it with an email which you sent to Jim Runck in February, when he asked
for a summary for the 2009 Annual Meeting (the report will be included
in this year’s Specialty Supplement). Jim had contacted you after you
had sent the 5 surveys which you reference in your letter to the ARK
Editor for printing. He explained to you that we were only interested
in printing in a Breed Survey Booklet. You did reply that done a booklet
of the first 25 surveys and per the original agreement with the Board,
you would do another one when you had an additional 25 (you currently
have an additional 20). We plan to abide by the original agreement.
However, if you can give us a price quote and design an ad for the ARK
and website, perhaps we could reissue the first booklet.
You stated in regards to the National Specialty that “each year the
board has prevented the survey from getting the necessary exposure”.
That is not true. The survey has not even been offered for the past
2 years because there was no evaluator able to be present. And as for
the entry form not being included in the Premium Lists in the years
that it has been offered, that is a Host Club decision. They are the
ones that pay for the printing and mailing of the Premium. With the
exception of this year, if you were to look at the Premium Lists from
previous years, you will see that the only entry form that has been
included is that of Conformation/Obedience/Rally. Agility, Carting,
Herding and Tracking, all of whom have their own Secretaries, do not
have entry forms – just notices on how to get them.
“Please show me the email that requested my presence at this year’s
national to conduct the survey. The fact is, I was not asked.” You are
Chairman of the ARC Breed Measurement Survey / Seminar. YOU do not need
to be asked, you need to do the ASKING. If you or one of the other Evaluators
is able to attend the National and is willing to conduct the Survey
and/or an Evaluator Seminar, the ARC Board and Host Clubs have always
been willing to accommodate that request. But it is up to you to “get
the ball rolling”. Neither the Board nor the Host Club contacts the
Judges Education Chairman; she starts the planning and then approaches
the Board and Host Club and finalizes details. Why should the Breed
Survey/Evaluator Seminar be handled any differently?
And actually we do know for a fact that you were sent an email from
the 2010 ARC National Show Chairman on May 31st and asked if you are
planning on conducting a Breed Seminar/Survey. As of the date of the
writing of this response, you have yet to reply to her.
The Caveat
As we said in our original response to you, this is your opinion. Certainly
there are those who agree with you and those who do not. The ARC will
continue to support the AKC Rottweiler Standard as the only standard
and to encourage our members to use this as their breeding guideline
both for structure and temperament.
As for our word order, “health, structure, temperament, and working
ability”, that was intentional. A dog without good health, structure
and temperament will not be a good working dog.
The subject of adding some sort of temperament test requirement to the
Mandatory Practices has been a matter of discussion over the years.
The end result has always been that the majority have not been willing
to add it as a requirement.
Jeff Shaver for
The ARC Board of Directors
PETER'S RESPONSE
Steve-
I understand that you have written a series of letters to the Board
about WDS and me. In the future, I would appreciate the more direct
approach of writing to me directly, as Committee Chairman, and copying
the Board as needed.
The AKC WDS program is a challenge as it is an attempt to build a program
in a sport that AKC banned in the mid-1980’s. The key concern of the
participants in the sport is the credibility of the effort and its legitimacy
vs. a toned down or “AKCed” version of the sport. This concern will
only be answered by putting on one or more events.
For the credibility of the WDS Committee, I have only accepted people
who have trialed dogs and put on trials.
You focus on Judi Wilson, as someone with experience comparable to your
own. I came to Judi Wilson in 2002 when AKC started the work on Working
Dog Sports. I came to Judi as one of the originators of the mammoth
effort that became the Rottweiler Character Test (along with Mary Long,
Pat Storer, and Sue Suwinski). Judi and I reviewed hundreds of pages
of proposals and proposed revisions up to the issuance of the WDS rules
by AKC in 2006. Judi has put on a SchH I to go with her 3 UD’s.
The other Committee members – Amanda Hoskinson, Janet Noble, Bruce Billings,
and Keith Jenkins are all active participants in the sport. I have either
seen them trial or seen their results published.
When we had to submit the application for Amanda’s trial (November 14-15,
2009; West of Orlando), we asked Tony and Karen DiCicco, Lori Fiandra,
and Eve Johnson to be on the WDS Event Committee. They were asked, because
they are ARC members and understand how important this is. They came
to the 2005 IFR World Championship in Orlando to support the event and
what they could do to help (as did Judi Wilson). I know when November
comes, they will be there and not say “they are too busy”, as you did
with the ARC Sieger Show program.
When you expressed interest in the WDS Committee, you were asked to
provide a background of your experience in the sport. I asked that
because I have not seen you trial and I have not seen the publication
of trial results. If you are interested, please submit this for the
Committee to review.
You reference the AKC’s WDS rules as a basis for your selection. How
each Parent Club operates is up to that Parent Club. In this case, I
have tried to take a reasonable approach on how to structure the Committee.
The Board has always been fully informed of those decisions.
Lastly, Steve, you talk about how I am thwarting your political ambitions.
I thought this was all about people working dogs and the ability to
work dogs under the banner of the American Rottweiler Club. Any credit
goes to the people on the field with their dogs. To me, the working
temperament of the Rottweiler as expressed on the field is the most
important part of our breed. The only point of serving on this Committee
is to make that happen.
Peter Piusz
Chairman, ARC WDS Committee
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