How much would it improve the health of dog breeds if all the canine clubs….?
Posted on February 14th, 2010 by admin
How much would it improve the health of dog breeds if all the canine clubs changed their standards from cosmetic to the dogs ability to function as the breed was intended?
Yea I feel bad for some GSD’s. They’re such a beautiful and majestic looking breed but the slope in their back can be so low I’ve seen them trip over their own feet walking. So sad!
The breed standards don’t need to change, it’s the breeders interpretation or flagrant disregard of the breed standard, that has been accepted as the *norm* by judges, which needs to change.
Breeds that were created to do a job, should be bred to do that work, & only those proven to be mentally/physically sound & capable of being trained to do the type of work the breed was originally created to do, should be allowed to add their genes to the breed as whole.
February 14th, 2010 at 5:53 am
It would help more if they stopped the inbreeding which creates nutty, insane animals.
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February 14th, 2010 at 6:22 am
Quite a lot for certain breeds; but is it really true that all conformation changes have been for the worse across all dog breeding?
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February 14th, 2010 at 6:57 am
I was under the impression that the breed club was created to set the standard under the golden rule:
"Form follows function."
Which would mean that a dog not physically capable of doing its job (and nearly all dogs were created for specific purpose, mind you) would not be an ideal speciman, and thus wouldn’t be representative of the ’standard’ that breeders were looking for.
I will allow that *some* breeds are a bit more about beauty than function, but that depends on all of those individual judges out there who choose some dogs over others – it has NOTHING to do with the original standard that the breed club drew up.
But then again, I don’t believe a lot of progoganda, so there you have it.
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February 14th, 2010 at 7:28 am
Well there are some dogs that are bred for conformation to the extent that I’d say they’re ruined for their original intent.
Take the German Shepherd. A Shepherd should have a slope to the back, but conformation dogs are so sloped they couldn’t do anything near a good dog bred for working purposes would – because they wouldn’t slope the back to the most ridiculous level possible. It’s not good for either the dog or for the breed as a whole.
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February 14th, 2010 at 8:00 am
I am a firm believer in maintaining breed standards which should be to breed a happy and healthy dog.Breeders should not breed bulldogs or boxers with ever flatter faces, alsations with very low slung hips which may dislocate, King Charles Spaniels with very small heads so that their brains are compressed etc etc.
I am pleased to say that following the withdrawal from Crufts of the BBC in 2009 that the Kennel Club have come down hard on certain breeders and breed standards are being reviewed and changed where necessary.Long may it continue.
Dogs are not fashion items.
Masha
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February 14th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Most "cosmetic" problems with certain breeds are NOT The fault of the standard. Do you know how often standards get change by member vote? Not often and not without valid reasons. Dogs bred to the letter of the standard and not EXAGGERATIONS of those standards are healthy.
Two people can read the same standard and come up with very different looking dogs based on how THEY interpreted it.
Look at the AKC’s GSD standard. The dog they have pictured is what the breed SHOULD look like and what SHOULD be winning in the ring. And yet because of sadly popular trend AND they way many breeders have taken what they got fro the standard we have so many roached backed GSDs its disgusting.
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February 14th, 2010 at 9:33 am
it MIGHT help health a LITTLE but consider: the Boykin spaniel exists only in the field strain (they are not shown) and has one of the highest rates of hip dysplasia in the OFA database (almost 3x that of the German Shepard) the whippet mystatatin deficiency problem is ENTIRELY in the performance strain – there has not been known affected showbred dog…..
it will not create a health nirvana
plus what bout dogs who’s function is not testable in a closed show site? (not many boars for the great danes or elk for the elkhounds in manhatten ya know
what bout fighting dogs, bullbaiters ect who’s "function" no longer exists?
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