As an old breeder I have come across many truly false rumors about dogs. Some have absolutely no truth and it makes you wonder how they ever came about.

Don't always mistrust the breeder or dog being attacked.It can be an out and out malicious made up story or a case of whisper down the land going very wrong.

A bad rumor can ruin a dog or line as once out, even if untrue, a bad rumor cant be reversed.

Be careful with what you hear and repeat.

I agree with you too. I know several breeders who won't use really good dogs because they don't like the breeders, or the breeder of one dog behind them.

I have also heard them make statements about those breeders stud dogs that are unfounded.

Like that old game of telephone, things change and get distorted with every person they go through, even with the best of intentions. When you add in malice toward other breeders, it really confuses things.

I also agree, many a stud dog is given a bad rap because someone does not like the breeder and loves to repeat the smallest thing or something they have heard second, third, or forth hand. And they always seem to forget that the female is half the litter. I wish the breeders with seizures and heart would be more careful and tell more. But there are a million more little things that come up folks like to talk about.

The newbie has to earn their breeder's trust before the breeders will tell them some of the things they may have learned over the years.

Plus, think about the birthday party game we all have played as kids. With everyone in a line, a secret is whispered to the first child. That child whispers the secret to the next child and so on until the end of the line is reached. The last child tells everyone the secret. At the parties I attended, the secrets at the start of the line and the end of the line were never the same.

Small wonder people are wary.

Rumors usually get passed along by people who were never there. Envy, competition or just plain boredom makes tongues wag. The damage done is unkind and irreversible.

Stud dogs usually get blamed for every malady imaginable. Breeders of both dogs and bitches get criticized for not getting multiple clearances that often aren't even a problem in our breed or for questioning a new, flavor of the month clearance's validity.

It seems that we should all concentrate on our own dogs and build confidences in others so that we will share or learn information that is accurate and useful. Don't play Whisper Down The Lane, don't take pleasure in someone else's misfortune, and don't make up a problem that isn't there just to sit back and take pleasure in the disaster that may follow.

Some people in this sport are cruel in ways that I do not know how they sleep at night. I know of a breeder who once said she was going to purposely spread a rumor to "tarnish" another breeder and their lines. Of course the commonly used ones are TVD and epilepsy.

Ring side gossip is often just that, gossip with no evidence.