Kim_MacMillan
Posted : 10/24/2007 7:45:14 AM
Having raised Mini Schnauzers for several years now, AND having raised white (and yes, I live in Canada!), I'm very familiar with this debate. I am a person who believes that a breed's standard should come from its country of origin, not an arbitrary ideal made up from one clique (aka a closeminded group of individuals). The CKC and AKC both don't allow white Mini Schnauzers to be shown, when most of the other countries in the world recognize it as being as accepted as any other.
The anti-white breeders claim that the white Mini was a result of crossbreeding (hmm, weren't ALL purebred dogs a result of crossbreeding at one point or another in the past?), and white Mini's have certainly been around for quite a long time. The b/s Mini Schnauzer, which is a relatively popular color, was not always recognized. It gained recognition many years after the breed had been created. But now that it's been created, the people who have them would never acknowledge that at one point they would have been considered in the exact same position as the white is now.
I just find it funny for two countries (albeit large countries) to make up such comments as they are, so in effect they are calling the rest of the world that recognizes white Mini's "puppy mills" who have "mix bred" their dogs to make "rare colors". I'm sure they are making great fools of themselves for doing so, in the eyes of everybody else. I wouldn't think that populations in the millions are too fond of certain clubs making such erroneous statements.
We don't have any white Mini's at the moment (although we have several that carry and do produce white), our last male grew oversize so we didn't end up keeping him for our breeding programme. But we have raised many whites, and have even shipped two white bitches overseas, where one is now an International champion (and her daughters are doing very well also), and the other is I believe a champion in one or two countries, the last time that I heard.
The White Mini is as purebred as any other. They are fully registerable, are healthy, have the same conformation and personality, they are Mini through and through. Tis a shame some people are blind to that.
I see the contraversy all the time, because we've been immersed in it simply by breeding white Mini's. There ARE many breeders out there striving to make the white recognized in Canada and the US, but until the clubs get people who are a little less biased, they will never change the standards to allow it. You wouldn't believe the sheer lies that some people will spread (and by that I mean by "respected" breeders!) simply because you do something that is different than what they do.