Westminster choice

I'm not prejudiced about a Corgi not winning the Westminster dog show, but why do these judges consistantly favor Peke's and Poodles? As for the Best In Show group, I favored the Setter or Doberman. They looked good, performed well, and had the proper stance when idle. With the Peke, you can't tell if he is standing, sitting, or peeing on the floor. I know I do not know all the qualities the judges are looking for, but I was disappointed in their choice for best in show and feel cheated after spending two nights watching the results.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 16, 2012 at 12:05pm

Thank you! The standard is very interesting. See, when I look at the show dogs recently, what I see with my untrained eye is that they look like the "show stance" when they are standing naturally, and even more extreme in the "show stance.' I'm not sure what happened. They always had more angulation than many other dogs, but when you look at working line German Shepherds (which I've seen frequently; our police department has several) you just don't get that extreme angle in the hind leg.

Agreed about health. I read something interesting about Goldens: the high prevalance of cancer is so common across all lines (show, backyard, hunting) that they think it may trace back to the founding dogs.

My understanding on Boxers, though, is that German Boxers tend to live 10-12 years, compared to 7-9 for US-bred boxers. So something going on there.

What they did to Cavalier King Charles spaniels is morally criminal. And bulldogs... I won't even get into that rant!

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on February 16, 2012 at 12:25pm

Unfortunately, I agree with Megan. As in politics, we get what we deserve, and there's a lot of politics in dog show circles As long as the majority of dog show breeders are more interested in breeding for the show ring than breeding to their own ideal of the breed, including health, intelligence, and other stuff we live with, we will continue to see extremes and the AKC will change a Breed Standard if the Parent Club (made up of the "In" people) requests a change. Megan hit it right on the nose!

This is ludicrous. The Breed Standard should conform to that in effect in the Country of Origin of each particular breed. There should be no changes unless coming fron the Country of Origin. However let's also salute the many dedicated breeders out there that truly love the breed and want to do right by the dogs. If you want to buy a dog, these are the ones to support and some of them are also winning....

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 16, 2012 at 1:00pm

The flip side is that I was heartened by the number of dogs who apparently work while showing. One of the Swiss Mountain Dogs can haul 3000 pounds in draft contests. One of the guarding dogs (Kuvas, maybe?) guards his farm's chickens. There are quite a few breeds with dual champions--- titles after their name in their historic sport as well as before their name.

But the specialists breeds-- the ones that long ago started breeding just for show with few other considerations--- tend to win their groups at the biggest shows, or so it seems.