The Tack Box Podcast
The Tack Box Podcast is an informative and relaxed show that covers all aspects of dog ownership. Join AKC judge and Renowned breeder, Dale Martenson, and new enthusiast, Tyson Wald, as they discuss topics ranging from acquiring your first dog, showing, breeding, marketing puppies, and running a Kennel.
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The Tack Box Podcast
Modernizing Clubs for the 21st Century | Ep 68
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Sakurajapanesechin.com
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Tyson discusses modernizing traditional clubs and organizations, emphasizing the need to adapt to today's digital and social landscape. He advocates for streamlined membership processes and embracing change to stay relevant.
keywords
organization modernization, club membership, digital transformation, community engagement, organizational growth
key topics
Modernizing traditional clubs and organizations
Streamlining membership processes
Digital transformation and social engagement
Adapting to contemporary standards
Membership growth and retention
takeaways
Organizations should move away from outdated methods like letter-based approvals.
Implementing probationary periods can modernize membership and reduce barriers.
Embracing digital tools can make organizations more relevant and accessible.
Organizations need to adapt to current societal norms to attract new members.
I think that's probably that's probably a lot of the like the biggest area of opportunity for local clubs, kennel clubs, parent clubs even, is like how can we get out of the eighties and get into like today? How can we how can we do today? You know, like you know, you shouldn't have to have, you know, a bunch of people write a a letter for you to say like this person's good enough to be in our club. We should be able to probably just sign up to be in the club, be on a probational period for a year if we don't look like a fool or do something stupid in a year, and and we, you know, we're learning, we're growing. You know, in a year, maybe we get offered a full-fledged membership. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Tac Box Podcast. We are here on this wonderfully warm Tuesday in Texoma to record episode 68. Can you believe that, Dale? Wow. 68. Yeah. We're almost to the good 69 and half, well, three quarters of the way to 100 pretty quick here. So, you know, just keep chugging along. Man, it doesn't seem possible, does it? No, but we're, you know, it seems like we're right in the middle of the heat of Texoma. We're in that July time frame where every day is like 95 and and humid, and the sun feels warm, and we're trying to get work done and all the things, and it's like, all right, here we go. This is where we water a couple times a day to get our crate myrtles looking as good as yours and and uh you know, keep the dogs cool.
SPEAKER_03It it's it's a it's the time of year. We're gonna, you know, we got we've got this month and next, and then a little bit of the other, but it'll start cooling off before it before you know it. I mean, heck, we're we're cruising on in. We're already in July, you know, before you know it. August will be here, and then September, you know, it's just bam, bam, bam.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. The time just cruises right on. So so you were judging this last weekend, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh went out to Seattle 68 degrees, did a Frenchie specialty over there. You know, didn't work for the Albre Club, but I judged for the specialty club out there and uh did uh a specialty with at over there in Seattle. But very nice. Uh yeah, that's a long, that's a long flight. That's uh you know, you're you know you've it's not international long, but it's still long, you know. To to get out of the way. I mean long enough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's long enough. That's kind of like you know, thankfully you don't like you're not like on one of the coasts and have to fly the other coast, like mid-country, but still like you get one of those coast cities and it's like further south in the middle to the furthest northwest is like holy cow, this could be a little bit long, but for sure.
SPEAKER_03For sure. But we got a couple weekends at home to get caught up on our on our our summer stuff, you know, and uh before you know Chin National will be here in next month.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's coming along. Uh that's coming up soon, you know, and a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes to make sure that that's good to go with you know awards and getting things lined up and just laps minute details, all the fun stuff that the uh everybody on the committees and and members are really working on on getting getting done. So that's flying by. We'll be there before you know it. And yeah, then we'll have some good content that we can do for the podcast from Chin National Specialty. That'll be fun.
SPEAKER_03All of the Kebler Elves working to make the national happen.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that kind of like I guess that's kind of a segue into what we're gonna talk about today, because we today we want to talk about parent clubs, kennel clubs, breed clubs, what their purpose is, what's the difference between them, why somebody wants to be a part of them, and and and what they actually do. And I think one of the big key main points that a lot of people probably don't know is it's like without these clubs, there's no dog shows because these people these clubs are the the reasons that they're the ones that put the dog shows on. And you know, a lot of times we think AKC when we think dog show, because that's where you get your points and you know all the things, but yeah, it's uh it's really these these clubs. So let's jump in and and talk about local clubs, kennel clubs, breed clubs, and and uh parent clubs today.
SPEAKER_03Well, so historically speaking, going back, if you were interested uh dogs, show dogs, your hunting dogs, performance dogs, whatever, you're really your only resource for finding out about that would be to like join the local kennel club. And the the local kennel club was kind of like uh kind of like the 4-H extension office of all things canine in that region. And they would usually be involved in putting on your local show, your local events, maybe a match. Uh they sometimes would uh get the like if there was health testing or something like that together, obedience classes, handling classes, all that stuff. So uh at one time, and you made a lot of your contacts uh for for the people, you know, like if you were wanting to get a show dog, maybe somebody had that breed that was in the club or you know, or not, you you made all of your, you know, getting to know all the in and outs. If you wanted to have any kind of uh doggy information or doggy social life, you know, then your kennel club was your stronghold of for you know of information available and participation, a little sense of community going on there. That's a damn big mug.
SPEAKER_02It is.
SPEAKER_01When it's this hot outside, you know, you feel this mug and you take it out when you're working outside, and it's like, if I can drink that before I come back in, you know, it's like then I know I'm not gonna die. I'm staying hydrated, you know. Iced tea and lemonade.
SPEAKER_03If you can drink that and and and make it all the way through the podcast, I'll be impressed.
SPEAKER_02So again, people, if you're not on YouTube, you don't know what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01I got a big ass mug here that I'm drinking out of, and and Dale has to it's so good that Dale had to stop. Yeah, he had to stop talking about what he was talking about just to mention my mug. So you have to watch YouTube. There you go.
SPEAKER_03Does this mug make my hands look small? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, it's it doesn't, yes, absolutely it does. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So, so that those that was really your first segue to get in any kind of, you know, if you had a puppy that's you're trying to join that club, you're gonna get a part of that. That's kind of where you would learn about dog shows and learn about showing your dog, and if you get in touch with your breeders and stuff, and you're gonna find your your mentors, your best friends, maybe your worst enemies. You're gonna find them all right there in that little in that group of people there. And and also that club would probably bring on an event that was fairly substantial to the community. Like, you know, put on a weekend show, maybe like take out the fairgrounds uh rented out or the civic center. I mean, it's I mean it's uh becomes a little bit of a they were, you know, it could be a some of the most of the clubs were not for profit. Couple privately owned ones, they they not very many of those, but uh it was really your only real uh connection to the purebred dog world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was all, you know, like I can see I I guess maybe the maybe instead of making a statement here, I should ask a question. And maybe the question should be so how has that changed since social media come along? Because I can I can sit here and I can think about like in the 80s, you know, and I can sit and think like how great that would be because you didn't have you know a phone at your fingertips and social media, so the only way to meet dog people was to join your kennel club and participate in some of those events. And now we have social media, so we kind of look at it and it's like you meet a lot of those people in on Facebook or in groups and things like that, and the Kennel Club still has a place for for holding those events. But how have you kind of seen those local kennel clubs changing since you know social media has come along?
SPEAKER_03Uh well, okay, that's kind of they've caught you know almost all of the real benefits of joining the club have been negated by social media social media, you know, and and online. You don't need the kennel club in their breeder referral because you're online. It's kind of like kennel clubs used to sell advertising in their dog show catalog. Like you could advertise my champion, you know, Bowser, you know, put an ad in the in the catalog, and everybody at the show would see it, and they'd come home with a picture of Bowser. You know, all of that stuff, you know, kind of like my you know, time in dog starting in the 70s on through the 80s and 90s, you know, those were that was kind of where it was at. And those those clubs really were sought after, and there was there was a lot of benefit to be joining them. And now not so much. I mean, now be people people get all of their stuff online, all of their content is online. A lot of the stuff with the with the dog show part of it is uh is really it's it's like you don't have to belong to a club. You can find out all of the stuff by click, click, and you got it. So you so what's your what's your benefit from that? You know, now and and just having been judging for the last couple of years, when I look at um the clubs that the wonderful clubs that have hired me that I uh love and they're you know fabulous members.
SPEAKER_01Obviously, they're the best.
SPEAKER_03They're wonderful, they they are discerning people. But you go over there and there's a a whole event and you had like three people, you know, with the with the combined age older than the country that are doing the whole show. And like it's it's like crazy how it's like you know, you have you know, uh I got three uh 70s to 80s year old people and they're they're like making it all happen, you know, it is Beth, you know, and I and I think to myself there isn't uh the draw the need to join, and I think that is beginning to reflect in uh a lack of participation in clubs. Because really, truly, uh if you think about it, you know, most people don't like it used to be if you belonged to a club, you usually didn't show at your club show. Usually you were a club member, you would work the show, you would sell catalogs, do RB parking, do this, do that, you know. May, you know, maybe, maybe, you know, sometimes they, you know, then sometimes they thought certain people, you know, could not the board member, you know, that kind of stuff, but it was usually like people were busy working the club, getting the judges picked up, getting all of this stuff, because it's so multifaceted as to all to making one of those events happen. And uh and now I I don't really feel like there is a strong burning desire by the next generation to jump in and take over all of these things and work about doing Kennel Club Awards and and doing all the work that that goes into it. I I'm I definitely see the the group that's running these shows is is aging out for sure, with not a lot of replacements standing behind them.
SPEAKER_01That's one thing that I've kind of noticed just going to shows and just meeting the people putting the show on and the and the count club people is like the like where are the young people? Where are the the younger generation of people participating in a club event? It's always it's always, you know, a 70-year-old, a 70-year-old that's the show chair, or you know, the the president of the club and not knocking it at all. Actually, I'm giving a ton of credit because the amount of work that they're freaking doing at that age, you know, is this like you talk about love of dogs, you know, and what we're doing, because they're doing a ton of stuff. But yeah, it's like where's the the younger crowd? And obviously the younger generations don't have the work ethic of the older generations, but you know, then it makes you kind of think like, how do can we utilize AI or social media and things like that that the younger generation is really good at to help with these shows? You know, how can we how can we implement some of that, which I don't know, you know, that's that's all stuff that we gotta we gotta try to figure out, you know, if you're part of the local club. But is that something where you know I feel like it could be a double-edged sword because like obviously the the clubs want nice entries for their show? Um, you know, if you don't have entries, you're not gonna have a show and it's not gonna be profitable, and you know, so many years of not being a profitable show, like you only have so much money to lose. But then at the same time, it seems like the clubs are getting smaller and smaller and smaller with people. So the more entries you have, the more hands on deck you need, and then you can't handle it at the same time. It seems like we're kind of in a tough spot.
SPEAKER_03It's well, all right, so you know, let's start out, let's kind of break it down a little bit. Because what we've been talking about are Albreed kennel clubs. Those are just regional to an area, those are all breed kennel clubs, and they're doing the events in their radius, and they are sanctioned and licensed and approved by the American Kennel Club to do their events and uh and do that. So those are all breed clubs. Then there's the there is the uh other set of clubs, which are called parent clubs. And the parent clubs are for each recognized AKC breed as a parent club, the mothership, if you will. And the parent club, those they are charged with putting on a specialty. They have to they put on a an annual specialty for their breed. They also are in charge through AKC to provide the educational materials for their breed. And they are encouraged to do the to have their their approved mentors, they have, and they're also gonna go ahead and be in charge of any changes to their standard. So that parent club is the gateway into that that breed. And so they're gonna be uh kind of setting, setting that uh there. And then they'll have they'll have what they call uh you know breed clubs, which were under the auspice of the parent club, not directly, but they're they're uh like regional breed clubs. Like so, and those clubs can get approved to have specialties. And a lot of times those are very small, you know, the regional breed club.
SPEAKER_01So would that be like you have a cluster in the south and it's like your only Japanese chin? So it's like you're not the parent club, you're not the the big national club, but you're just a club about one specific breed. So then that's what we're calling just a breed club, regional breed club.
SPEAKER_03Regional club, yep, regional breed club. And they'll they'll usually put on like specialties. Oftentimes those regional breed clubs will go in conjunction with a uh an all-breed show. So that they'll go ahead and say, hey, well, you know, you're gonna have your show. We'd like to go ahead and have our specialty that the day of your show, and they'll do it what they call concurrent. So they'll have uh the breed classes for the show be the dogs will be judged once, but you'll have a separate specialty event on the show grounds where they're gonna be able to, you know, have use the venue, the parking, the the ET uh EMS uh services, everything that the Albrecht show has there, and they're just gonna tack onto it. And then they usually will boost the entry for the uh for the entry for the Albre show. And so that you know can generate because like you'll see some of those clusters, they'll have a bunch of specialty clubs will join in and uh make more opportunities for majors. It usually the idea is to bring make it a more appealing event to get that uh that exhibitor dollar to have them come in. So so you know that those are your three basic, you know, your regional breed clubs, your parent clubs, and your all breed clubs. And then a few years back, not exactly sure I'm on the timeline, but I'm gonna say it's about 10 years, give or take. I can, you know, they started the Breeder of Merit program. You could probably Google that and tell us how long ago that was. But uh part of being a breeder of merit with AKC is you had to belong to a club. And and that could and it didn't really say whether it was an Albreod Club, a regional club, or a parent club, you know. So, but that was so that kind of inspired a few more people who might have gone, yeah, I could go work for free for the club, but I don't want to, you know. I mean, should you? Probably should. Probably should go work for the food bank. And probably should go work for, you know, you know, there's lots of things you should probably go clean the highway, you know. I mean, there's lots of stuff you can do, uh, you know, but uh that that kind of that kind of uh community service type of thing is sometimes a little bit wasted. And uh so that that that's kind of where we're sitting on the on the purview of the of clubs in a whole.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the Breeder of Merit program was introduced in October of 2010. So 16 going uh almost 16 years ago. 16 years ago. 16,000 people have applied for 16,000 people, I guess. I don't know, like it doesn't say if they've applied or been approved, but 16,000 participants are in the Breeder of Merit program, and you know, a couple of requirements. You have to have five years of particip participation in AKC events. So you've had to do something with AKC for five years. You have to be in good standing of an AKC club. So National Parent Club, specialty club, all right clubs, training clubs, or performance clubs, and then you have to be a breeder or a co-breeder of four individual dogs that have earned AKC confirmation, performance, or companion event titles. So those are the requirements.
SPEAKER_03So that those 16,000 people were members of clubs, whether they were or not before the they decide they wanted to get the the perks of the the bet breeder of merit, you know. But that that did push people in there because as as it as it's kind of gone down, you know, worked its way through, uh it there's not much in the way of incentives to join clubs anymore. Because it's kind of a it's kind of a little bit of time gone by and it's not you know, I mean, not as big a social gathering as you know, that type of thing. You know, and it's a it's a lot of work. So, you know, I I know that you know we've belonged to multiple clubs over the years. Kind of a I'm kind of not a great club member myself, you know, because I've always either been gone to shows or had my own dogs or working or whatever. So I'm I'm kind of one of those like show up with a trophy donation and go, good job, you know. So I mean, yeah, I I get it, you know, not being a great club person myself, you know, but there's there's a lot to it. And then I think a little bit sometimes clubs can get in their own way, and that's when they decide that they're going to make their club very exclusive. And that in, you know, where people have to, you know, like uh you know, do uh sponsorships and push a peanut up the hill with their nose and kind of like pledge week to join the club and uh and if someone doesn't like you, you might not get in the club. And so there can be a little bit of that. And I think that pettiness doesn't do anything, doesn't do membership any favors. And especially when you especially when you don't offer a whole ton, except a lot of work and responsibility and some obligation, you know, then you go ahead and make try to make that into an exclusive thing, uh people are going, yeah, you can keep that exclusivity. Uh not so interested in it. Don't need it, you know, doesn't really benefit me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So like talking yeah local kennel clubs, like what what are the perks of being a member? Like why would in in today's day and age, why does somebody want to be a member of a local local kennel club? I mean, I guess for me, you know, as like I joined the local chemo clubs out of I guess the love for the dogs and wanting to be a part of something. And you know, as like if they run matches or something like that, it's kind of cool to get to go do a a a fun match, you know, for if you're into showing. That's kinda cool. Like what other things are There that you've experienced with local kennel clubs that are kind of make it valuable.
SPEAKER_00Today? It's hard today, right?
SPEAKER_03Like it's really it's hard. It's hard. It's like you're trying to make someone join the Peace Corps. It's the toughest job you'll ever love. Yeah, yeah. I can I can go be a volunteer, I can work my butt off, not be appreciated, and uh hmm. And that's where it ends. So yeah, there's not a ton, and I think that's kind of something that that both clubs need to look at and kind of recognize that maybe there should be things that, you know, I mean, now one thing, like oftentimes in parent clubs and sometimes in Albre clubs, they will give out awards recognizing the club members' achievements, like, oh, you know, you know, you finished a championship, you got a a ranking, and you get plaques or or that type of thing. And that's very nice. And there would like a lot of times at parent clubs they'll have like at the end of the year that the national, they'll have they'll have the they'll have an awards dinner and that kind of thing. And then you can, you know, get some accolades and whatnot. And you know, so some clubs are will go ahead and they give out awards and they you know, if they're they're the award is given if they're club if the owner of the dog is a club member, otherwise it might just be acknowledged. It's like all this dog number one, but not owned by club members. But it really doesn't like to say, you know, a sense of community, a sense of belonging, friends, that kind of thing is nice. I kind of always think that clubs should always be working to offer their membership more. Like if you are if you're a member for so long, maybe you get a get a life membership. Maybe you uh, you know, maybe you get some sort of perk to, you know, where that you're gonna you're gonna get a uh acknowledgement, you know, type of thing. Because, you know, there's because there's precious little for the amount of work and obligation that kind of goes into it. Back in the old days, clubs would have uh newsletters, breed magazines, like you have some of those old chin-chit chats, you know, we used to advertise our dogs. We didn't have online. You know, you know, so we'd take and publish this out and it would go to the club members. The club members could advertise their wins or get acknowledgement at yeah at a cheaper rate or uh that type of thing with some sort of privilege with that. But now that's kind of like gone the way, you know, of of you know, no anything that's printed and sent out like that is usually as far is usually probably uh old news by the time it it it happens, you know.
SPEAKER_01So that there's not well a lot of the publications that are coming out still like AKC Gazette, you know, it's just like they all get emailed to you. Yeah, it's all digital at this point.
SPEAKER_03So yes.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And so like, you know, thinking parent clubs, you know, I can think a little deeper on the parent clubs and and you know, I can find a little bit more more benefits and perks of it because the parent clubs have a huge responsibility to the breed, right? I mean, setting the breed standard and judges' education, health, you know, all that stuff is like responsibility of the parent club. So there's there's a ton more uh responsibility to do there. And you know, when you think of uh well, why would I want to be a part of of the parent club? You know, it's like, well, you can help educate people on the breed, you can help judges' education, meet and greet, things like that. Again, still you you you gotta want to do it because it's it's not a pay position, it's it's volunteer work, but yeah. How have you seen just things with parent clubs changing, you know, from like what are some of the perks to like why do I want to be a part of the parent club? Why do I want to pay dues every year other than to volunteer?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, the so at like at the one point in time when there were magazines or breed publications, that was a perk. And then of course, at the time point in time where there was breeder referral, like somebody calling wanting your breed, the parent club could be a place that they would a point of contact and they could share information of members. And I think that's something that maybe parent clubs could still do today is if they maintained a website, maintained breeder referral, and then maybe at a at no cost to their members, they would share the information of their upcoming litters to kind of promote their members. That's the thing where it's kind of like, you know, you it can get a little pettiness going on into those clubs, and that's that's really bad. Because then it's like, then you know, you got volunteers who are working to for just a for for the cause, and then they're gonna get abused and kicked around a little bit, and it's like, yeah, you know, and people do enjoy a lynching, you know. I mean, if there was a hanging 15 minutes after best in show, everybody would stay to the end of the show, you know. It's like, oh good, you see that, you know. It filled out the Coliseum in Roman times, it would do it again today. But as far as like interest in saying and working for a club, there's, you know, it's something that I think clubs need to work on bringing people in. They need to worry about and like, you know, and say, you know, because sometimes it's like, tell me one thing. I see new people, and they'll say, Well, what what exactly, you know, why do I need to do that? And I'm like, uh, you know, you're like, you know, yeah, give me one good reason to tell them to do this, you know. And I'm thinking of all the times that we did nationals hospitality and uh hauled van loads of refreshments and and decorations and and gift bags for you know all of that stuff, you know, for all, you know, yeah. It's a lot of work. Yeah. And you know, you're probably not gonna get noticed for anything unless somebody has a complaint. But um because it can be a little bit a lot expected. And when you start to think about all the work that these people are doing, for free, it's a lot. It's a lot, a lot, you know. So so you know, I mean, I think that's something that that probably the fancy as a whole needs to kind of revisit and kind of think, what is the role? What could what do we have to offer people? What do we have to to bring them in? And uh, I mean, the animal rights people, they have a good cause. They oppose the dog breeders. That's a good cause. They're all they all agree to that one thing, and so that they can kind of all, you know, what we don't we don't tend to have like a common thread, so we're kind of busy being judgy on each other. You know, they bred too many leaders. Oh, they're gonna flood the market. Oh, this person's this, this person that, yeah. They're you know, they're just trying to build majors and beat the system, and you know, there's a you know, all of that stuff, so we're we're not especially nice to our own. And uh and then we wonder why we don't get more people to want to play with us. So it that's kind of a challenge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, and I'm kind of like so let's just let's just ask this.
SPEAKER_01So you've been part of parent clubs and breed clubs for years upon years, you know, as long as you're breeding, you've you've seen it pre-internet, you've seen it current times. So, like, what would some of your ideas be for some of these clubs to make it beneficial, to make people want to be a part of the club? You know, I know I know one thing is like it some can be really frickin' hard to join a club. Like, how do you even get in one of these frickin' clubs? You know, it's like it's almost like you have to give DNA samples just to be a part of the club.
SPEAKER_03That that's part of the idea of the old country club idea that if we make it exclusive and we all go to the show, we're all gonna wear the same color of jacket. That used to be a thing. They'd have a certain color of jacket they'd wear for that club, and they'd be super exclusive, and you couldn't join that club, you'd have to be invited, and that kind of thing. Okay, you know, so if you have something really big and you have people where you can cut people out of it, and you have people that want it because it's hard to get, that can be a marketing, a marketing tool, I guess. But I think today, today, the clubs need to sit back and re-evaluate what do they have to offer? And maybe not be so worried about, you know, but is the time like what are you what did we bring to you as a fancy or purebred dogs? Are we gonna help you breed your dogs? Are we gonna help you navigate the legalities of having a dog breeding program in today's society? How to figure out kennel licensing laws? And are we gonna be like working, you know, to protect breeders? Even the ones we don't like. That's that's part of it. It's kind of it's kind of like a got the whole church vibe. You gotta pray for all of them, not even the ones you don't like, you know, got everybody. They're all breeder, you know, and so those laws apply to the people that you don't like and that you do like and all of that. So maybe there could be a little bit of that, and helping people do better with their dogs, helping them find more reasonable veterinary care, maybe help people, you know, you know, sing their, you know, give out some more accolades. You know, sometimes like like you'll have a top 20 event where your dogs, maybe you'll qualify for the top 20 and you can they'll have like a special showing of the top 20. Well, if there's a top 20 and you want these people to come and support your event, they've spent a lot of money to be in the top 20. Invite them, celebrate them. Don't make them spend more money to come and be a part of it. You know, it can't, you can't just make money off of your little set of people. You know, so it's kind of like those medieval times where they just kept taxing the peasants and taxing the peasants, and they had nothing left to give. So maybe they need to kind of think a little bit bigger and offer these people some benefits, helping them navigate AKC, navigate what breeding is like now, navigate selling dogs that you know, how how to do that, how maybe the clubs could have offer some help and good mentoring and advice with that. You know, those kind of things could be very helpful. And you know, people in dogs, we are a bunch of soft-hearted patsies in a lot of ways. We'll all go out of our way to help. I mean, someone's got problems. We're gonna go over there and take, we're gonna take their dogs. They're gonna be in, they're gonna be, you know, going to the hospital. Someone's gonna go over and take their dogs, even if you hate them, you know, can't stand them. But you're gonna go take their dogs while they're in the hospital because you're not gonna let their animals not be cared for. You know, so there can be, there's a lot, lots of that that can can be kind of be in there and helping each other be able to keep your dogs. You know, and even to the point where, you know, having uh I think that uh the the clubs could look out for their people a little bit more. A few a few years back, probably probably eight, uh, eight years ago, ten years ago, one of the chin exhibitors had a fatal heart attack at home, and uh nobody nobody checked on her, nobody noticed that she had uh died in her shower for 21 days until uh until s another dog person finally called the local police to do a welfare check. And at that point all of her dogs had died, she was long dead, it was just dead dead, dead, dead. You know, but maybe a candle club could maybe in their sense of community they could look out for each other a little bit on that respect too. Helping people keep their dogs, helping people, you know, be able to stay in contact and stuff like that. It wouldn't be like you had and especially with online stuff like that, wouldn't have to wouldn't be a huge thing. It's not like you have to go over their house. So I think those is I think there are things that a club can do and can offer. But I think we have to leave those old ideas behind and start thinking outside of the box.
SPEAKER_01I think that's probably that's probably a lot of the like the biggest area of opportunity for local clubs, kennel clubs, parent clubs even, is like how can we get out of the 80s and get into like today? How can we how can we do today? You know, like you know, you shouldn't have to have you know a bunch of people write a a letter for you to say like this person's good enough to be in our club. We should be able to probably just sign up to be in the club, be on a probational period for a year if we don't look like a fool or do something stupid in a year and and we, you know, we're learning, we're growing, you know, in a year maybe we get offered a full-fledged membership in, you know, or something like that. They it it shouldn't have to it shouldn't be so hard because a lot of times people, especially newer people, they want to join the club for education. They want to like find other people that have the dogs, that same breed of dogs, connect with them. They want to learn about the breed, they want to learn about showing or you know, anything along those lines. Like a lot of them are just seeking information and want to be around like-minded people. Um, and it's almost impossible. Like I know, like when I first wanted to join the Chin Club, you know, it was like, oh, I need two people to sign off on me. Great. Who do I know? Like now I gotta find two people that are part of the chin club, try to build relationships long enough that they'll sign off on me. You know, like it's kind of you know, it's one it's a weird old school mindset.
SPEAKER_03It's antiquated, yeah. It's it's like the idea of asking somebody for a reference. Well, are you really gonna give a a ref or someone that's gonna know they were terrible, they were a horrible employee. We had money missing, they were late for work, you know. I mean, they smoked all my cigarettes. I mean, all who they're not gonna give that person. They're gonna give your mom's best friend. They're good boys, you know, they're just misunderstood. You know, I mean, it's you need to move into a a more a more today, you know, and and make it where I think the idea of having, you know, when people talk about politics, they'll say a big tent. Because it's better to have all of the people in the tent peeing out than having most of the people involved in your breed outside your tent peeing in. Because then the then the parent club is dealing with a breed that they have no control over. Well, if if a br if a parent club has a very large percentile of the people who are breeding and have their breed as members, then they have control. They have influence in the breed. But if if nobody's a member, then it's kind of like then it becomes they are just like, nah, nah, nah, and it's like, yeah, whatever. You know, you just tone tone them out because those people, those people are irrelevant to your dogs, to your life, to your involvement in dogs. You don't care what they think, what they say. And if it annoys them, good. You know, I mean, so you have the opportunity of being relevant. So if you if the club wants to be relevant, then they need to bring people in. And I always kind of felt like at one point in time, and I watched the Chin Club, and that's been just like a bobber going up and down, up and down, up and down. But uh at one point in time, the the group of people on the board and and all that, they all felt like if you sold a puppy to somebody on an open paper, or if you did a stud service for somebody on an open paper, you should automatically encourage them and do whatever you could do to enable that person to join the club. Because those were people who were breeding and had open paper dogs and were gonna be showing you. We wanted them to come in, come in. And during that time, that that chin club got up to like 500 people. You know, and uh, you know, that that's a lot of people because people just felt compelled to bring them in. Now if you're gonna go ahead and make it hard and you know, awkward and stupid and judgy, they're gonna go, nah, I'm good. I don't need I'm yeah, I'm fine. I don't need that. Because you you don't have a magazine, don't need you to help me sell my dogs online, because I have my own presence, my own website, whatever. I you know, what are you offering me? And that's that's kind of like uh it's kind of like a a little bit of a thing. I say, you've gotta you've gotta offer the people something if you want them to come and if you want them that to grow.
SPEAKER_01You know. If you if you show dogs or do anything like that, and it's like if you can win awards, you know, a lot of times that, you know, a lot of people like ribbons at dog shows. I know, but some people don't. A lot of people like to win awards, and and it feels good when you're like, yeah, I'm in the top 20, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it's like, but to get your award for the top 20, not only do you have to fly out to the national and spend money on all the plane tickets, and then you have to, you know, reserve a table at the banquet and pay for that, and then you have to pay for your ribbon, and then you have to pay for this. It's like, okay, I don't want to be in the top 20 anymore. You know, it's supposed to be like a fun achievement, something that you achieved. And if you have to pay for it, it kind of takes that luster away. So then it goes back to again of like, why do I want to be in the top 20 if it's gonna cost me a whole ton of money? Like, what's the accomplishment at that point? There's yeah, so that's one of the things. Yeah. Right. And then you think about it from the club level, and it's like, well, it costs a lot of money and we got to do this. And then, you know, so then my mind goes to, okay, so how can we utilize 2026 and the technologies we have and the committees and our clubs that we have that we can do fundraisers? You know, we don't have to walk door to door and sell candy bars or popcorn anymore because we have online and we have GoFundMe's and we have all sorts of fundraising aspects that we can utilize social media for and email lists and our websites. And it's like I'm sure we could find out, find ways to generate income and donations through that sources. So I think to some of those things that we just gotta jump into today's age and get a little bit out of yesteryear.
SPEAKER_03Well, absolutely, because like you know, I'll tell you what, if you got a letter, if you got a letter from the uh from a club and said, you're getting an award and you're gonna be such and such, and we're gonna be honoring you, you know, your entry, just check yes if you want to come. You're gonna try to come. That that $35 entry fee being you're gonna go spend a thousand dollars to come because you're they gave you a $35 entry fee. But you're gonna you're gonna pay for the hotel and you're gonna pay for your plane ticket, and you're gonna get a pet sitter and all of this, you know, go get your nails done because you're gonna you're you're in there. And so it's kind of funny. Sometimes you uh it's like a nickel holding up a dollar, you know. So give that. If you want people to come to a banquet, all right, you know, may maybe the maybe the banquet needs to be either at cost if your club is broke ass and you have no money, or or or if you do have money and you've been able to raise money doing every other thing, then maybe that should be a that should be a free to the members. You're a member. We welcome, you know, come. We want you to come. This is, you know, you know, we're we're celebrating your membership and your involvement in the breed, and we're gonna talk about the people that accomplish, and it could be inspiring and fun, and we could, you know, and we could talk, sing the praise of our our volunteers, you know, that kind of a thing. I think that there, you know, it has has to come. I don't think exclusivity is the big draw anymore that it used to be. I think that now people get a uh I think you get more people involved in something to get more people involved in paper straws to save sea turtles. You know, because they feel like they're doing something good. You know, they they feel, you know, you're gonna if you do this, this is we're gonna this is gonna benefit the breed that you love. This is gonna help other people with the dogs, this is gonna help, you know, and I think his people fundamentally, even the assholes, ha are good at some level. And you know, you could get a lot of that kind of draw in there on that kind of a thing. And uh and and not so much trying to be exclusive and look, look, you know, I've got a You know, I I mean, uh, we're you know, we get to wear the special jacket and we're we're better than everybody else and we're kind of kind of uh you know, you want to hang with us because we're the end crowd. I don't think that that's as big a sell as it anymore. And if you wonder if you think that that's true or not, look at people buying doodles. You know, they don't care if their dog has papers or pedigree or daddy won Westminster. They just paid five grand for a mixed breed. You know, I mean that kind of tells you, you know, that it's that's not the big draw for the people like it like it used to be, like, oh a fine pedigree animal and you know, a good good glass of wine. Uh I that's not the I don't think you pull in the public on that as much.
SPEAKER_01No, and I think, yeah, I I I don't think I think people that want pets don't care nearly as much about that as as 10 years ago. I was like, who are the parents? Can I get pictures of the parents? What's their pedigree look like? Now it's just like, oh, it's a cute little puppy, oh great, you know, like that's that's all they care about. But so I've only really had experience with with smaller breed clubs being a part of the Japanese Chin, a very small gene pool, small club. Do we face do all clubs kind of face the same issues, say like the Boxer Club or something like that, the Poodle Club of America, these huge clubs? Do they have the same type of issues that the smaller clubs have? Like where it's you know, or is there a whole set of different issues because we have a huge membership versus a small membership? Or is it all really just we're all stuck in old school times?
SPEAKER_03I think that's a lot of it is is pretty antiquated, and I think a lot of it is reflective of the ages of the people who are involved. And so I mean, I think if we go ahead and said said that, you know, of course, bigger clubs have more money. They have a they have bigger, deeper pockets, it's easier for them to hire help and stuff. Like when you have an all-breed club and you have three three people there for the whole show, and you know, the young one is 72, you know, and they're hauling in the mats or the the trophy stuff, you know, that that's that's a that's a challenge all in itself. But I think that uh the more popular breeds, the larger breeds, you know, can have bigger clubs. But some breeds have have kind of clung to the exclusivity of trying to keep people out of their club, and they don't want to let just anybody in their club, and they're trying to sell it at that angle. And I don't I don't think they're doing their their breed or their uh their you know, I don't think they're doing their breed any favors because they become irrelevant to the to the what's happening in their breed. But bigger clubs definitely have more money, they have more options. You know, money is money is what makes it all go around. And I can tell you like the people that that uh like that want my pet puppies, they want to know about uh microchipping so they can get their dog back, keep their dog safe, identify their dog. If they want to do therapy or service dog work, they want that, that, so that's part of the thing. They want to know about health, they want to know about you know DNA profiling to avoid, you know, maladies, they want to know that. I mean, sure, they're they're proud to have a dog that's pretty, but they're not the idea about, oh you know, when was the last time somebody said to you, well, that one's got champion father and mother, so that's gonna be $500 more. No, no, nobody really looks at that anymore. So, you know, showing dogs is more for your own personal ego, sense of accomplishment, things that you want to do on that. You know, there is still a market for that in some breeds more than others, but I don't think it's as um it's as I don't think it's as big a draw as far as to the public. Because I think I think we have been, we have made ourselves irrelevant to the public. And if you don't agree with me, look at the doodles. You know, yeah. Just look at it, you know. I mean, count them up, folks, read them and weep.
SPEAKER_01Those could be different like different aspects in the club of like I guess prestige, you know. So we're what I guess where I'm going with this is like in a small gene pool like Japanese Chin, being in the top 20, like it sounds like a really great accomplishment, but anybody in the club knows every single person in the top 20. You've seen the names, you've you know the dog, you know it all. Say you're in the poodle club, you know, and you make the top 20. First of all, you probably showed more than three times that year to get into the top 20. You showed a ton because it's it's a it's a very deep competition. So like getting in the top 20 could be very prestigious in a huge breed where your name might not be known by anybody else in the top 20, other than maybe if they're following along all year long and they're fighting for position with you. But so it's a it's a recognition piece in bigger clubs that actually could probably mean something a little bit more than you know, in the Chin Club, where it's like we could look at the top 50 and know every single person on the list, you know, and and just be like, you know, we know all these people because we're such a small, we're such a small group. We know everybody out there showing.
SPEAKER_03What we're s it's a small group, and and I mean, and and I then I get and you get you know, much the same as you know, we did a we did a podcast on vaccinations last week, and we got the anti-vaccinators. Yeah, yeah, they pulled on their little has come out like crazy, yeah. And so, so you go on there, and so you'll go ahead, you're gonna get the same feedback from people who say, Well, I don't want our breed to be popular, and I don't want a bunch of people to have them. It's like, well, no worries. If they all haven't already found them, they're probably not going to be storming your door down for it. You know, we have more actual worries about keeping them alive and going forward, preserving preserving your breed for another generation, you have more worries about that than over-popularization effects, you know, because yeah, no, don't worry about that. That's that's not you got 99 problems, that ain't one of them. And I think that when you get that that thing, that the idea about, well, we don't want a bunch of people joining. We don't want a bunch of people in our breeding. Well, uh, the more, the more the merrier, the bigger the tent, you know. I mean, it's like quality goes up, choices go up, competition makes everybody better, you know, all of that. You know, I mean, there that's that kind of that kind of uh there's there's no downside to it.
SPEAKER_01And I get more scared in a small breed like this and seeing like so-and-so's retiring, this person's retiring, this man. It's like, who the F is still breeding? You know, like what's gonna happen, you know, as like you only have three or four breeders. It's like what happens to your gene pool at that. So yeah, I kind of on the mindset of the more people we can get breeding, the better. And it's just gonna better the breed long term.
SPEAKER_03It's it's gonna it's gonna give uh give the breed options, and and that's just kind of like, you know, things that when you see things that come in and that might not, it might not even be a solution, but it's a temporary, it's a patch, right? So like dog show entries, which we're gonna talk about that maybe on the upcoming issue, we're going down, down, down. And then they we started grand championship, we started owner handled, all of those things, and that got that brought in, didn't bring in new people. That, you know, it didn't bring in new people, it probably didn't bring in new dogs, but it got people to a venue of participating more with what they already had. So it gave us kind of a boost. Maybe it was a maybe it was an artificial boost. Maybe we just got a little bit more from the people that were already there, but it did give a boost. And so, like in the in the smaller breeds, one thing that's happened is with social media, we have all of these pages. Everybody in a breed, like like Chin, we know what everybody has, not in our state or in our region or in our country. We know worldwide. We know everybody's dogs. And you know, and that so then all of a sudden it's like there's not really like more people, but we've just like expanded the field. And that hasn't really made more breeders in the states, it just made more dogs available to us. And so, like when things happen that make importing and that kind of stuff harder, then that affects our breeds, you know, because we're we're now like such a global thing. But we do need to bring more people in. We need to worry more about inclusion and preservation and and offering people actual benefits of joining clubs, supporting clubs, regional specialties, you know, and uh and making making these things available to people. Because regional specialties are awesome, because not everybody can get away to go to a national. So you can get to go to a specialty. You get to show your nice puppy in a sweepstakes, you get to go maybe win a specialty best break. It it there's no there's you know, that's generating interest in your breed on a on a regional level. So that that's a that's a great thing. But there has to be people in there to support it and make it happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So if you guys are, you know, if you're in a in a breed club or a national club or even a local kennel club, like sit back and just kind of think, like, what's our perk to people? Like, why do people want to join our club? You know, if we were to ask people to join and they say, well, what's in it for me? Like, that's the question that gets me, because then, you know, like people ask me, like, what's in it for me? It's like, hang on, let me think about that for a second.
SPEAKER_02Because I don't really know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so yeah, it's like if if that's your answer, then we gotta, as club, people try to figure out how do we, you know, what what can we help do in the club to to get people to have a perk for people to join? How do we get people to join?
SPEAKER_03What's the new deal for the new generation? You know, and how how can we make how can we make this a better sale for? You know, and I because I think that's really where where we're at and where we kind of need to look at for for long term.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. All right. Anything else to add to this or should we wrap this episode up? Let's let's stick a fork in it. All right, we'll stick a fork in it. Club members, help bring people into your clubs and and get on the board and help bring ideas to to generate revenue and uh you know, some some whiffums for people. What's in it for these people to join? So yeah, don't be jerks. Don't be jerks, bring in the younger generation, absolutely. All right, that'll wrap up this episode, episode 68 of the Tack Box Podcast. We appreciate everybody who listens. Uh go ahead and follow us on Facebook, follow Dale's page, follow my page, the Tack Box Group. You can ask questions in there that we will answer on future episodes of the podcast. And make sure that you uh like our podcast and subscribe to us on your favorite podcast network, including YouTube, and share it with your friends, you know, because while you're sitting out in your kennel grooming dogs, it's a great listen, I promise. You know, and and if not, you know what? You can turn it off. You know, there you go. You you can just mute us and turn us off. So all right. Until next week, we will talk to you guys soon. Have a great day. Bye bye now.
