Our "Meet the Breed" booth at a large AKC show in SE Michigan, January 2006.
Far beyond the lack of a real club that is active, supportive of each other and palatable to the foundation fanciers (myself included), I feel it was the presence of the Pequeno at every single 'Meet the Breed' activity that we did with the Medios that severely crippled the ability of the Medio to be special on its own merit.
Without an exception, the Pequenos always got nearly all of the attention from inquiring onlookers. People were consistently more engaged to the 'small' breed of dog, leaving the Medio practically unnoticed (unless we took some on a walk far away from the 'Meet the Breed' area).
As the years went on, I became quite indifferent about the idea of doing any kind of 'Meet the Breed' where the Medios would be set up next to the Pequenos. I could be doing something more constructive with my time...like cleaning out cat boxes at home.
In my experience, it was always unfair to the Medio to have to be unjustly 'compared' to the Pequeno in such a situation, right next to them. In America, a place where the breed is unknown. No matter that they have them all together in Portugal. Everyone there knows what they are!
It caused far too many to view them as the 'same thing (as the Pequeno), only bigger,' which didn't help their case, either. They are not the same thing. The only thing they have in common is a coat color and a last name.
It is a shame that we spent so many years doing 'Meet the Breed' with the Medios that turned out to be so sadly unproductive because of the presence of the Pequenos in the same area.
The Pequenos stole the spotlight so effortlessly from the Medios, who really needed to be showcased on their own, separated at least a few breeds away.
When I began my journey in earnest toward getting the Medio in the dog fancy in America in the mid-1990's, I never envisioned that we would ever be 'compared' to the small breed of Podengo.
A small, cute, terrier-like breed (that is far more easily owned and managed)
vs.
A big, energetic, barky, diggy, potentially aggressive breed (that absolutely requires a hard-wired dog behavioralist type owner).................
The Medios never had a chance.
Let's hope future fanciers learn from what we experienced in the past in this area so they don't have to repeat it (I find myself thinking that about a lot of aspects of our journey in the Wirehaired Medios!).
