Parting ways with Absolute Dogs

I felt it was time for me to make an official statement regarding the recent scandal that has blown up around Lauren Langman and her breeding with the Devongem line of agility dogs. A facebook post was shared that made some strong accusations regarding her treatment of puppies as well as other welfare based issues seemingly from former disgruntled employees.

As a member of their tribe of Pro Dog Trainers who has done multiple certifications with them, invested thousands of pounds in online and in person training provided by them under the brand Absolute Dogs and the training centre Devon Dogs as well as supporting the other brands associated with them personally and promoting it all to clients I initially didn’t believe it. I came down on the side of moderation and benefit of the doubt assuming it was a keyboard warrior who was jealous of her in some way. But after it continued to blow up and the messages kept coming I took a look.

The allegations are severe and full of emotion and vitriol. People, primarily in the agility world are clearly polarised by her as a person and aren’t afraid to say it. I can’t and won’t speak to the accusations that have no proof behind them. The initial photo shown of the puppies in less than perfect conditions, not the worst ever seen by any means could be from anywhere and without context so can’t be relied upon. However, when I did look through the comments some hard fact based evidence was also being put forward. Namely the number of dogs she has bred under her Devongem kennel name. 731 registered, some not bred by her just using the prefix in some way but still this is big numbers. I can see why the accusation of being a puppy farmer has been levelled at her. The other facts that I gleaned from the Kennel Club website using only my limited knowledge of breeding is that some of the dogs being bred from had borderline health scores, primarily for hips. I don’t really know what the accepted norms are within breeding circles but for me I would like to see only the dogs with the absolute best scores bred from. The world is not short of dogs, to breed for anything other than exceptional genetics is not needed in my eyes. The other thing I found that didn’t sit well with me is the breeding of an 8.5 year old bitch with their own grandson. Again, not sure if this is something that the breeding world accepts, but I don’t. So with just this information I decided that I was going to part ways with Absolute Dogs professionally. I informed my clients who are part of their membership of what was going on immediately so they could make their own minds up.

Since then both Lauren and Absolute Dogs have made statements via facebook regarding the scandal. To summarise, please see both of their facebook accounts for the full statements, Lauren has admitted that she had made mistakes with the numbers of dogs that she has bred and will be ceasing her breeding activities immediately. She stated the post had made her think about her actions and she has realised that she hasn't held up the standards that people have expected of her or that she continues to want to put out in the world. I have to say this has sat a little poorly with me, I simply don’t believe that this is a mistake she’s been making for years and has only just come to the realisation of what she’s been doing is unacceptable.

Absolute Dogs and Lauren Langman put forward the highest standards of welfare, training and care of dogs in their teaching. To my mind she has not been privately upholding the standards that she has publicly portrayed, the standards to which I have invested both my time, money and belief in. I do feel to a certain extent betrayed. Firstly by her actions with her breeding program, which are not what the word ‘puppy farm’ might initially bring to mind but nevertheless are not to the very highest standards that I would have expected her to uphold based on her public persona. Secondly by her attempts to simply apologise and state she made a mistake, she didn't realise how many dogs she had bred, this just doesn't wash for me.

The statement put out by Absolute Dogs seeks to separate them as a company from Lauren Langman as an individual. This again feels like a bit of an insult to my intelligence. They may be different legally, ones a person and ones a registered company but they are one and the same morally and ethically. So with the hard facts and the poor initial statements offered as explanation I have decided to remove my associations with Absolute Dogs, Lauren Langman, Devon Dogs, and AOK9. Since my first post I have been more than impressed with how Tug-E-Nuff toys have handled themselves and do continue to support them as a brand despite previous connections to Lauren. I don’t know how much these companies and the people associated with them do or do not know about her breeding but again I find it hard to believe that they are so naive as to be completely unaware.

I have also recently had personal contact with people who have bought dogs directly from Lauren. Both experiences have been less than ideal, not illegal or with really horrific welfare but again poor standards that I would not have expected based on her public persona. I just feel that something somewhere does not add up. I hope more real evidence is put forward, by either side. I’d love it that I can adjust this statement in the future and shout all is forgiven. I had an expensive training holiday booked for Christmas at Devon Dogs and they have fully refunded this, remaining professional and caring toward me throughout. So for that I am thankful.

It’s been a stressful few days. The brand of Absolute Dogs is everywhere in my life. My job, my tea mug, my training kit and on the lanyards I have my dog whistles attached to, T-Shirts and notebooks. I feel for Lauren on a human level, I feel even more for the people close to her that weren’t aware and I hope the people who were are taking a hard look at their own selves and taking some personal growth. There are hundreds if not thousands of people directly affected by this, in their personal life and their businesses that are going to suffer directly. I hope the facts come out at some point, although ultimately I feel that this will soon be forgotten and all I can do is hold true to my own ethics based on the facts that are in front of me. There is so much more I could say about how I feel so I‘ll just finish by saying I’ve eaten far too much chocolate in the last 3 days and I will do my best to take this as an opportunity to gather more knowledge from new sources and continue to question and become the best I can be for both my and your dogs.

If you have any further questions please feel to contact me direct at woof@valleydogs.uk.

Peace

Cat x