"Selective breeding for physical appearance" ruins dogs,

[Black Watch Debatable]

Interesting report -- Terrierman has more [and more] over at his blog.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Timely of course, though I believe this was posted here already? But still, someone has to get the annual Westminster discussion going.

 

I had a revelation this year while I was discussing conformation on another forum. It's not that you can look at this dog and say, "That dog couldn't possibly do an 800 yard outrun!"

 

 

It's that this dog was bred with a total disregard for whether he might be able to achieve that level of work. And no one will ever know whether he can achieve that. AND, no one involved with the dogs shown last night even cared whether their dogs were capable of the traditional work of the dogs.

 

Conformation is backwards. Up until our generation (with the exception of NZ/Oz), if someone wanted pups that would do a particular job, they would start with youngsters from parents who did that job, train those youngsters to do that job, then match them with other dogs that could do that job in ways that they hoped would possibly even improve the abilities of the next generation of pups, to do that job.

 

Conformation has a judge that may not even DO that job (is unlikely to, in fact), looking at a dog, and guessing whether that dog may have what it takes to do a job, based on guidelines that are created by other people who also are unlikely to train Border Collies to the traditional standard of work.

[jdarling]

Westminster 2009 Show Video

 

Knowing what these dogs are truly capable of, watching this turns my stomach.

 

Jodi