Sanjay Khan – Kiro Dobermans

[Elaine]

Part One of An Interview with Sanjay Khan – Kiro Dobermans
by Dr. Arthur Greenwood

Arthur and I have known Mr. Sanjay Khan for several years now. Sanjay resides in India. Below is Arthur's internet interview with Mr. Khan. Though we have never met face-to- face, Sanjay is definitely a member of our extended canine family. Arthur and I first proposed doing this interview with Sanjay as a way to introduce him to all of you. We are honored that he took time to participate. Originally we intended to edit his responses to a condensed narrative, but in reading Sanjay’s responses, we are so charmed by his enthusiasm and passion for the Doberman breed that we decided to print his answers almost verbatim. After reading the interview below, I think you will get a strong sense of why he is special to us. Breeders around the world can easily connect to Sanjay’s love for the Doberman breed. He is much like breeders here in the USA , with the same dreams and goals. What separates us is our geographic distance; what unites us all is our passion and commitment to the Doberman Breed.

Arthur: What is your education and background? Are you married, do you have children?
Sanjay: Like all other children, I too had a school life with lots of fun and joy. Studying was a secondary matter, those days were more focused on fun and mischief, all day long with my friends. Our academic scores may have suffered a bit, but through it all, one thing was certain, "We were healthy guys" I attended one of the most famous institutions of all times ---DON BOSCO, named after saint JOHN BOSCO.
After completing my elementary schooling I went on to college and later a masters. At one point in time I considered a career in medicine, and had an xcellent opportunity to pursue becoming a medical doctor, but the institution I was to attend was governed by the army headquarters of the country. They had a bond, which required years of military service after graduation. My parents were not entirely comfortable with that commitment, and ultimately I decided to go a different direction with my education. I ended up in a different world; one of science, but not of medicine; I did my masters in botany, from the famous Calcutta University. After that I entered into my family business and married. Presently I have a daughter, who is busy with her schooling.

Arthur: I understand how your parents felt. I went through medical school in a program linked with the United States Air Force and though I am an OBGYN, I am also currently on active duty, with years of payback in the future. Though I am proud to serve my country, I am not sure I would want my children to make the choice I made. When did you fall in love with the breed? Where did you see your first Doberman?
Sanjay: I fell in love with this noble breed in the late 90's. I acquired my first Doberman in the year 1996, and then after I never looked back. My first love was named after FAIRBAIRN'S NON PARIEL, a bitch that had Ch. Electra’s The Wind Walker, Ch. Beaulane The Nite rider and some famous dogs from Zeitlene's of those time.
Going back in those days , we in India used to have Dobermans with pendent [natural] years. Although there were some dogs that were cropped, sorry to say it was a pity to see those ugly cosmetic surgeries done by some so called good croppers of those era.
I always dreamt of having a dog with beautifully done ears, and my Doberman bitch was no exception; her ears were cropped, but not up to my satisfaction. Anyway, I was passionate about the breed and strived to learn as much as possible. My quest to know more about the breed helped me a lot. I read every book I could get many hands, on searched the internet for hours to learn everything possible about this breed . The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. After all these years my passion for this breed is still growing. I feel that I have only explored about 20%-30 % of what there is on learn, with so much still left to be explored.
My noble intention is to know the breed, to to right by the breed, to enjoy the breed, to show top quality examples of the breed and to dedicate myself to the breed till the last days of my life.

Arthur: Who was your first dog?
Sanjay: FAIRBAIRN'S NON PARIEL. [Betsy]

Arthur: Who was your first show dog? How did that dog do in the show ring?
Sanjay: Betsy was my first show dog, I showed her myself. We did not do a lot of winning. The majority of the times I would come away from the show ring discouraged. So far as I recall, Betsy lost more than she won. But one thing is for sure, the more I lost in the ring, the more determined I became to acquired and show a top quality specimen. Not winning never made me want to give up. Quite the opposite actually. When I didn’t win I always tried to understand why. What went wrong? Each time I discovered something new, and by virtue of exploring what worked and what did not, I gathered a lot of knowledge about the breed, which I might not have gathered if success had come more easily. Not winning challenged my commitment to the breed and forced me to look objectively at my dogs and the dogs of others. I studied the breed to see what was good and what was not. The attributes gained over the years, to inquire about the "whys" have proven more beneficial than initial success, which I may never have properly understood.

In India I know of many good exhibitors who have a ton of winnings behind their name, often because they buy a lot of dogs. They exhibit the fruits of the breeding programs of others. As a result, they have very little knowledge of the breed. They have simply mastered the art of buying dogs. Winning a dozen BIS and a half a dozen 2BIS , is not everything in life. My goal is to create superb quality that reflects my eye for what a good Doberman should be. You have to be a creator in yourself --that is what I feel.
In my opinion, merely acquiring expensive dogs bred by top breeders and winning in the ground is no real achievement. For me, creating something great out of the bloodlines that I have collected after years of study and effort is much more meaningful. Today, wherever you look, anywhere in the world, the top Doberman personalities, who have earned a good name and fortune, have done it by breeding great dogs, not by simply buying and showing great dogs bred by other breeders.


Arthur: What was your greatest success?
Sanjay: Winning a BIS in the oldest club of the country !!!!! Although I have to admit, I won it with a dog that I imported from Argentina. I expect to be even happier when I win my second BIS with a homebred dog of mine. Hopefully I will achieve that goal soon.

Arthur: What was your greatest heartache?
Sanjay: The day my first love, my inspiration, my motivation, my Betsy left me. To this day I miss her dearly.

Arthur: What are your long term plans in the breed and /or in life.
Sanjay: To dedicate myself for the welfare of the breed; to breed good quality, healthy specimens and true ambassadors of the breed in this part of the globe.

[Elaine]

I decided to cotinue on with our interview, these questions were posed to Mr. Kahn back in August of 2009, long before Zuca came to India. I should note here that we intend to continue with this interview in the weeks ahead, with a few remaining questions and an update on Zuca - who is now in India.

Question: Tell us about the challenges you face as a breeder /exhibitor in India.
Answer: I started my career as an exhibitor first and then I developed the interest of breeding some nice specimens. I was more into showing my dogs in the early days, and since I was a regular looser in the show grounds (as I mentioned earlier), my determination to win was unparallel. I did all I could do to win in the rings. initially I believed that the decisions made by various judges in the grounds were absolutely right, but as time passed on and the more I studied the breed, I found that majority of the judges take active part in making wrong judgments.

It is not that it is always their fault, as in India we have more all breed shows than breed specialties and as a result the honorable judges who judge on that particular day are incapable to give their best judgments for all the breeds they come across.

The majority of the time the judges are given to judge certain breeds that they have either never owned, or exhibited or bred!!! As a result, they start fumbling and the concept of assumption comes into play.

What I feel is that the parent club of each country should organize certain educational courses, so as to make the all breed judges aware of the breed standards and various attributes of the breeds. basically it is really impossible for a fellow judge to justify so many breeds of so many different standards , that is why I feel that there should be specialty shows for all breeds in order to justify the breed standards.

I believe that the standards of various breeds that has been set years ago have changed a lot in due course of breeding concepts and plans by various top class breeders around the globe. As a result the judges who went through the standards years before do not find many characteristics which they look for in that particular breed , rather they try to judge the dog on the basis of the standard they have gone through years ago. The price of this unawareness are being paid by many good exhibitors. It is one of the main reasons why in India we are loosing a great deal of enthusiastic exhibitors, they are quitting showing dogs.

In this context I would like to mention the names of some honorable judges like Mr. C.V.Sudersan , Mr. P.S.Chatterjee, Mr. Philip John and few more who have kept themselves totally updated with each breed standards and have always given their best judgments on the grounds.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all these judges for their tireless effort to give out their best output and also my fellow exhibitors who have made the Indian show grounds successful all these years.

Q: It seems that showing in India and showing in the USA are not so different. What is your governing body like?
A: The governing body here is THE KENNEL CLUB OF INDIA.

Q: Does your kennel club make any credible effort to address the undue influence some exhibitors have over judging?
A:Although it is a very contradictory question , yet I feel the governing body should be a bit more strict in this matter --- as you know there are politics all over -- and Indian show rings are no exceptions.

Q: For example, here we have a breeder known for threatening to pull his wife’s entries if the judge does not put her up. We have judges trading assignments for wins. We have judges trading professional services for wins. Most of us turn a blind eye to all the games.
How is it in India?
A: The end goal is the same -- but the method of influencing judges might be somewhat different in this part of the world. Gifting valuables and invitations for lunch and dinner are quite common here.

Q: One concern American breeders have is this, how you in India get your tails docked and your ears cropped. Here in the USA there are a few vets who specialize in doing Dobermans, but in my experience they play such childish games, and are such neurotic gossips, it’s hard to trust any of them to behave as medical professionals. The fear is that if they act like neurotic children in every other respect, how can they possibly be credible professionals when it comes to doing surgery. Being married to a medical doctor, I am aware of the Professional Standard required of medical professionals, and some of these ear cropping vets fall so far short of any professional standard it is laughable. What sort of baloney do you have to deal with in India.
A:Cropping of ears is a cosmetic surgery and if done with an expertise hand will give a different look to that particular dog , but otherwise it can change the whole beauty of that dog into a dump. there are several good croppers now days in India who have mastered the art of cropping but what I personally feel is that --it has yet to be developed a bit more. I strongly believe that the people who are doing this great job with mere dedication will definitely come up more successfully down the years.


Q: Let’s write about Zuca…she has a following already on DSNN, http://www.dogshownewsnetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1003&highlight=Zuca She is lovely and Tina’s photos of her are very nice. Tell us how you came to own her, ????????
A: It's all a matter of couple of months back when I first saw her being shown in the argentine circuit. At that time I did not know that she was Zuca, all I guessed was that she might be a bitch from Akido san as Miguel was showing her. At that moment Zuca was 6 months of age and looking at her for the first time I was confident that she would be a real good show quality bitch in future. got in touch with Andrea and later on I came to know her as Zuca de Akido san. it was very difficult to convince Andrea to part with one of her favorite bitches sired by Alex, but somewhere she had generated some faith and confidence on me and gradually the deal got finalized .

Q:Who do you co-own her with?
A:I co-own her with my friend Dr. Biplab Hazra, who by profession is a doctor, a gynae surgeon.

Q: And how did you come to know them? When she is coming to India ?
A: Well it was a great support from Andrea and Carlos to help us to get Zuca, as it was one of their best Alex progenies that they were planning to campaign all over. In spite of that they lend their hand of support and help , as a result we were successful in having her . in fact Andrea has already campaigned her in Argentina, Uruguay and she has become an Arg, Uru champion . she was also shown in the nationals in USA, and as you all know she was placed third in the AOAC open class. In fact Andrea is trying to complete her Brazilian title also. Let's hope for the best. Standing today she is among the top ten Dobermans in Argentine Doberman ranking and I have a dream of campaigning her in USA, so that she is rated among the top 20 Dobermans in USA too, but I am also aware that it is a very very difficult task to do. Honestly I have no words to thank Andrea Laruccia and Carlos Souto, for the support they have given me all these days. I have no words to express my thanks and gratitude towards them. I shall be ever grateful to them. Probably she will come to India by the end of 2009.

Q: What are your plans for her in the show ring and in a breeding program.
A: After I get her I will complete her Indian title, and so far her breeding programs are concerned, I have ideas of sending her to the USA to get her crossed with a rated male that will compensate her in genotype and as well as in phenotype. Let's keep our finger crossed.

For next time: Question: Can you tell us your impressions of the breed, both here in the USA and around the world?