What does Strategic Partership means in the Breeding? Written by Juha Kares
Published in Best in Show Summer 2015
Strategic Partnership is a term that is not used much in pedigree dogs. Unfortunately dog breeding is often far behind the overall development of society in general. I must say that I feel there is often a lack of imagination in dog breeding. In the dog world we should learn new methods from similar activities to survive and develop. Finnish breeders have been much more creative than many other countries. One of the secrets in successful Finnish & Swedish dog breeding is strategic Partnership. I have been one of the pioneers in this field with some other breeders beginning in the 1960¥s in Scandinavia. We have used this method with excellent results. What is strategic Partnership in breeding?
Strategic Partnership in the business world means creating a customer relationship that goes much deeper than the traditional act of buying and selling. Often in the world of pedigree dogs the beginning of a relationship is also selling and buying a puppy. That is not really very clever. The breeder should keep his eyes open. The breeder should evaluate the new families with greatest of care. I feel a breeder should be like a human scanner, who should evaluate where there is potential. Most of my strategic Partners have been just ordinary puppy buyers at the beginning.
It is breeder¥s role to activate these people. It is the breeder¥s role to find the potential. I feel that every breeder meets new potentially active people every now and then. It is too few breeders who can ìset the potential on fireî. It is often the children of the families that are the easiest to motivate. As a breeder I do follow new families and individuals that have puppies from me with the greatest of care. The first thing is to let these people to have nice puppy. Then you activate them slowly and surely. You must tell them how nice the puppy is. Then you motivate them to come to a dog show or some other activities. That is the beginning of strategic Partnership. It is the breeder who must realize he is a coach. It is a breeder who should realize this hobby is not individual, but team work.
Some of these people really fall in love their dogs and chosen breed. Most of them are not interested of breeding. These are the people that breeders should get in to their team. These are people that you start to train and take in. You share your secrets and strategies. These people become often very loyal. In my breeding these people are the foundation of my breeding. We own dogs together, we plan together, we laugh together, we campaign dogs together and we learn together. This is the key in strategic partnership. You as a breeder need them and these people need you. The average breeder owner relationship changes over the years into strategic Partnership. It is a win win situation.
With this method you can have so much more dogs in your breeding. With this method ordinary people can obtain high quality pedigree dogs that would not be possible without trust and shared strategies. With this method both breeder and families gain so much more information and most of all, resources. With strategic Partnership your life is also much more fun. A breeder must be open and transparant. This attract similar people to work with you. My keywords are positive attitude, perfectionism, enjoying life and respecting/loving the dogs. People with similar values can become my strategic partners and together we can do so much more.
I feel the main role in strategic partnerships in dog breeding is finding the right people to work with you in breeding. However it also more than that, it is very serious and intensive International co-operation between the best breeders around the world. I have realized it is almost impossible to turn relationships between breeders inside the same country with the same breed to strategic partnership. It does not simply work very easily. However you can find strategic partners from other breeds inside the same country. You must be able to find strategic Partners from your own breed Internationally. I feel this is a must in modern breeding. This means top breeders share their knowledge and best dogs Internationally.
The most important term in strategic Partnership is loyalty. You must share what you have and that makes you interesting. A lazy or stupid breeder is not very interesting for a long time. This means the breeder must develop and learn new things all the time. So he has something to offer all the time. This knowledge and top quality dogs are the reason people are interested in you. People need you and you need these people. You trust and they trust. This turns to strategic partnership, which is also a social thing. Remember always use as little money as possible. With most people I co-operate with the strategic partnership method we do not use money at all. It is money that usually causes trouble. You also need to spend quality time together. This is strategic partnership and I do feel this is the future of modern dog breeding. Together you can achieve so much more like so many breeders especially in Finland and Sweden who have experimented with this method.
T his is strategic partnership in the real world at its best. My neighbor Sanna is a young talented Finnish woman who turned out to be my right hand with Lhasas. Then there is a young talented man Tapio from Helsinki who wanted a show Lhasa. Michael from Denmark who is a world class American Cocker Spaniel breeder became part of the group because he and his wife Lotte have the same values. Morten was a new Lhasa person in Norway many years ago. I shared my best ones with he and his wife, and he turned to be one of the best Lhasa breeders now in Scandinavia, and we still co-operate. We are all strategic partners. Loving our dogs, learning together and sharing the knowledge and dogs together. Here my friends & strategic partners are winning BEST in SHOW breeder¥s Group in major Danish International dog show. This is what strategic partnership is all about.
