What do you think when the breed standard gets ugly?

Question

Like with breed champions they are rewarding cockers with bug eyes, chihuahuas with alien heads... etc?

Answer 1

These are my pet peeves!!! and the breed clubs will not budge ever to try to define a more healthy standard.... Not AKC, they are just a registry... is the self-righteous views that some breeders and judges have that refuse to change the standards and force these dogs to be so unhealthy

Like pugs being bred with bigger eyes and less and less nose.... resulting in a dog that can barely breathe, that is so playful but tires so easily. So sad to see them breathing so hard and eventually damaging their tracheal components, collapsing their tracheas, needing surgery in their noses.....

Bulldogs were originally bred to hunt, actually fight bulls, to be athletic and run for long distances.... today's bulldog can't even run to his food dish without tiring out!!!! vertebral abnormalities near the tail are actually part of the breed standard!?

Or shar peis w so many wrinkles and a hair that feels like sandpaper, where virtually no shar pei exists that has no skin disease.... many of them actually sensitive to their OWN hair!?!!

German shepherds bred to have their hocks almost touch the ground, WORKING GSD from Germany don't look like that, why? bc a good looking dog that meets all the crazy AKC standards will fall apart at the first jump......

Or dalmatians that form urinary stones so easily, the gene for healthy urate conversion to prevent stone formation has been virtually eliminated from the breed. A group of breeders wanted to breed the gene back into the breed by doing a dalmatian-pointer backcross. The dogs are gorgeous, healthy, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the breed club will not accept those dogs because they don't look right! (I swear, they look the same to me: http://www.dalmatianheritage.com/ tell me if they don't look like dalmatians, at least UKC is smart enough to accept them)

I had a professor in undergrad that bred and trained border collies for herding. His dogs won many championships in herding. He couldn't compete in any AKC show even tho his dogs were purebred, when asked, he said that his dogs will never win because they don't meet any of the breed standards. So, basically what this means: the bimbo that competes in AKC stands a chance, while his hardworking, SMART healthy dogs dont????

This is my biggest pet peeve... I could talk all night about it.... you are probably bored by now, sorry :-) thanks for providing an outlet to vent

Answer 2

The Standard isn't necessarily the problem. It's the breeder who ignores it, and the judge who doesn't read it.

Cockers shouldn't have bug eyes -- eye injuries in the field would be tremendous. The Standard for the Cocker eye is as follows:

"Eyes--Eyeballs are round and full and look directly forward. The shape of the eye rims gives a slightly almond shaped appearance; the eye is not weak or goggled."

A dog with an almond-shaped eye cannot be bug-eyed. In addition, the brow/cheek around the eye should be sufficient to protect the eye in dense brush. The appearance of being bug-eyed is often compounded by a lack of proper structure around the eye.

Any deviation from the above, or the rewarding of deviation from the above, is the result of ignorance.

I'm not sure what you mean by an "alien head" in the Chihuahua.

Answer 3

The breed standard, itself, is not to blame, but only the exaggerated interpretation of it by the judges.
For instance, my dog's breed standard calls for long neck..well, the resulting fashion is swan necked..far from what the founders had in mind when they wrote the standard..It seems that if the 'standard' defines long tail, the judges, and thereby the breeder creates a cartoon caricature, of these hounds with extremely LONG tails.LONG necks, LONG legs,.not at all recognizable as the same breed as the original imports..
When the exaggerated form interferes with function, the judges need to be spanked!
Can you imagine one of today's 'bench' Cocker Spaniels actually flushing and retrieving birds? No, their eyes would get scratched, their fur would get caught, the head top knot would cover their eyes, and they would be a groomer's nightmare when they returned home from a day in the field..IF they even had the appropriate drive and instinct to range, flush and retrieve..I don't know what they have been mixed with that produces the ill-tempered, stubborn wimp, that can't stand for the owner to be more than 18 feet away!

Five years ago, there was a visiting dignitary at the Beverly Hills dog show. she was the guest of my friend..She wanted to see the dogs who's origin was her own country being exhibited there..When she was taken to that ring, she declared, "Where?... Oh, No! those are NOT Tazis! " (the name of the breed in her country)

Answer 4

Every dog has its faults, but I do agree with you. They are rewarding the groomer...like they say,a groomer can carve a CH. out of a pet.

But then again, some people are breeding the drive out of sporting dogs, temperment out of toy breeds, and that wonderful trot out of the Dalmation.
I'd take a dog that is good at its job, but not have PERFECT conformation and put it in my lines any day. That Cocker with the bug eyes might have EXELLENT movement, that Chihuahua with the Alien head might have nice balance.

Answer 5

Well the problem is that often a dog wins with a particular trait and breeders think, well if a little is good, more will be better. That's how we got GSD's with that hideous slinking gait. Sadly, many of these traits then make the dog impossible to use for the purpose the dog was bred (and allegedly still bred) for. Once winning is put ahead of good conformation and purpose, then we start to see the rediculous emerge. Hopefully breeders, and the judges who reward them, will moderate themselves before the breed goes over the deep end.

Answer 6

Yeah the breed standard as far as I know does not really change. There are probably bad judges but the breed standard should be pretty consistant. That is what keeps a pure breed dog from morphing into...somthing else.

Answer 7

Or British bulldogs deformed w. breathing problems nothing like the original? Vote w. your feet, veto, own and breed dogs that are getting better; also know and declare the difference between right and wrong over fashion.

Answer 8

I don't know anything about bug eyes or alien heads, but standards aren't really about beauty, its more about how the form of the dog suits the function it was originally bred for.

Answer 9

I don't like the fact that they disqualify Chihuahua's for being over 5 or 6 lbs. Mine is 11 lbs. And he is a purebred. He would make a perfect show dog. But, he just weighs too much. He isn't overweight or anything...Just a little bigger for his breed.