The Kennel club have decided, with mixed reactions from breed clubs, to draw attention to breeds of UK origin that have registration figures under 300 as being endangered.

I own a well established breed that is not British, but has been in the UK since the 1870's.

The peak in registrations in about 1969/1970 was just short of 300 a year.

Registrations have fallen steadily to around 150 when I came into the breed about 16 years ago, and have fallen steadily since being under 100 in the last two years.

Ever since our breed rescue was established in the 1970's because a few had gotten into commercial hands the breed club have been very wary of any promoting of the breed.  We have a steady disproportionate rescue problem caused primarily by BYB bred litters, mostly sold through a Northern Pet store, so their position can be understood, but the decreasing breeding by good breeders is not reducing the rescue numbers (could be argued the reverse in fact).

On the other hand we have breeders struggling to breed with the small gene pool  caused by the small number of enthusiasts in the breed, and expensive imports have to be made regularly and the consequent variance in type that results takes time to be ironed out, and then back to needing more new blood.

There are many breeds In a  similar position, not just newly introduced breeds but those of long standing.

Many of these numerically small breeds produce quality dogs if you take their disproportionate success in the group rings..

Now I know that some breeds will always have a limited following being very much for the specialist, but some breeds like my own are not as hard to own as some newer and over popularised breeds with similar looks (I can think of three breeds mine are mistaken for), and sadly these have now got huge rescue problems.

So how do you think breeds can be promoted without being prey to exploitation?. 

This is quite a difficult question to answer. In my breed which is on the Kennel club list of vulnerable native breeds we have a small gene pool which is added to by various imports which results in mixed success. As Brainless says the consequent variance type takes time to be ironed out. However an additional problem seems to be that we can have large litters eg more than 8 on the other hand my youngster was a singleton. Obviously different breeds have different problems but mine has always been seen by Joe Public as that 'funny looking dog like the Queens but with a tail'.
The good thing about my breed is that rescue is non existent as far as I know. The downside is that people get fed up waiting for puppies and choose another breed. But then I would argue that they have not really wanted a Cardi in the first place.!
As an example I have a 3 year old bitch who is very closely bred and though she is in season now I shall not be mating her as at the moment there is not a suitable dog around. This is a great shame as both her breeder and I want a puppy from her and I have at present 6 people also wanting a puppy from her!.
As to promoting the breed I have done the KCGC Bronze and Silver with her and she always attracts the attention of the general public who want to know about the breed, but they dont then buy one!

so your post is much better than mine lol so shall we stick with yours?

anyway! yes, i think that if discover dogs was done on a much larger scale, traveling around the country and being more public rather than only being in a dog orientated environment it might increase publicity in a responsible, educational way. it could also spread the word on puppy farming.

i genuinely think that if there are a bunch of lovely, well trained dogs on display in a busy public place people will get interested-how many of us are stopped in the street and asked about our dogs? i know i'm forever being asked about mine on walks.

i also really don't think it should be limited to native breeds- in your case barbara your breeds been in the uk nearly as long as mine (a uk breed!), why should they be sidelined just because of their origin?

To  be honest I'm glad my breed has such small numbers of dogs registered.  We haven't had a dog through rescue for about 5 years now.  They're a rarely seen breed for one good reason - they do NOT make the best family pets!  They're hard work to train, they're vocal, they're sensitive and they do NOT react in the same way as most other breeds would to everyday things.   We have anywhere from 0 to 40 registrations in the UK per year.  With the world breeding market now opening up more and more I, personally, see no reason to panic. 

I couldn't bear to think of what would happen to the breed if they became 'popular'.

Debs

Many websites have the answer to that one already.

Not only do they have a photo of a breed of dog, but a long detailed account of characteristics, suitablity for children, other dogs, wild stock worrying, stress if left alone, shedding and coat details, ailments etc.

When people just look at a photo of a breed becoming endangered they may well be tempted to get one, (doing a good deed *rolleyes* ) But if the dogs full characteristics and suitablilites are also with that photo, it will make people think more as to whether this is the breed for them. If also along with the breed appropriate parental health checks needed, aprox price etc, we are on the way to reaching out to the right potential ownerships.

I would like to see a photo spread in magazines, newspapers with breeds in this way, say once a week a different breed could be shown, to promote and disuade potental owners, with the honest pluses and pitfalls to the breed.