This is what you’ll see tonight.
I’m not a fan, and I never root for them.
I’m a fan of something more like this:
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I’m thinking that we need to arbitrarily create varieties in the golden retriever, just as they have done in the bull terrier and the American cockers!
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Why is it that the only breed summary at the show that mentions a split in the show and working types is the English springer spaniel?
If the dog comes from Britain and if it is common enough, it will have split into at least those two types!
That’s Westfall’s Law of dog breed divergence.
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The Welsh springer is undocked!
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The American version of the Epagneul Breton won the group.
This Scottie canna take nae more.
Watching other things.
I may be totally insane, and call me out if I’m wrong, but I’ve watched three times, and it sure looks like the staffordshire bull terrier bit his handler’s hand and wouldn’t let go!!
Anyone else with TiVo/dvr that can call bs on me?
I just switched to see which dog made BIS.
There’s no way in hell I can stand to watch the whole thing.
I believe one those short-lived Scottish terrriers won BIS.
Golden retrievers have a longer life expectancy than those dogs.
The dog is a merger between two working strains of terrier– the Aberdeen and the Highland terrier.
The Aberdeen is in the foreground and Highland is right behind it.
Was it the Staffordshire bull or the American staffordshire terrier (which goes by a different name everywhere else but the AKC)?
The AmStaff. It also took exception to being fondled by the judge. There is a very brief snippet of the dog giving the judge the whale eye and the judge just kind of quietly moves away.
I saw a lot of dogs last night with issues.
Lots of issue!
The breed that won BIS is a total wreck!
I watched the group last night, and again on Tivo (OK, I speed-watched it) this evening. The dog that grabbed and held onto something was the Stafforshire Bull Terrier, not the AmStaf.
He was grabbing for the big ball of bait (chicken, liver, cheese?) that the handler had in his hand. And once he had his teeth on the bait, he wasn’t letting go. It really didn’t matter where the handler’s fingers were, the bait was the dog’s mouth, and he was pretty sure that if he held on long enough, the bait would be his.
I’ve met a few landsharks before. They don’t necessarily have evil intent, but I’ve had a few scraped cuticles from that sort of dog. And it certainly looked violent. In fact, it probably looked more violent than it actually was.
I didn’t see it at all. I stopped after the Sporting Group.
It is far more boring without Joe Garigiola.
I think Fred Willard should be brought in!
This was my first time watching in a couple of years. I’m shocked at how fat the lab was! It’s disgusting.
It’s not ‘fat’, it’s called ‘good bone’ in the ring. =P
A couple three days ago I saw a fat Greyhound on a show on TV. Ick.
What?
Fat greyhound?
Is that even possible?
It was a bitch and she looked pretty squishy and very, very smooth. No muscle definition. And Greyhounds get fat very easily; when I was volunteering in Greyhound rescue I would see these poor fat dogs that looked like fat Labs on stilts. None of my own Greys was ever very much over their racing weight, but a lot of pet people like to see their dogs smoothed out, very little to no ribs. I tend to keep my dogs thinner even than some sighthound people I know.
Both the golden and the Lab were too short in the leg.
The golden won BOB last year, and she was fine. But as she’s begun to age, the coarseness has started to set in.
Pat, or rather “substance”… Just plain fat in my opinion.
I shouldn’t have watched, just made me so sad – again – to see all those overweight dogs parading round the ring… :(
What ever happened to the lenght of leg or muzzle? Where did it disappear? :(
But doesn’t divergence just further reduce genetic diversity? Until last night, I had completely forgotten that American Cockers are split into different breeds based entirely on coat color. That’s just… ridiculous.
Those are varieties. They can still interbreed.
I just thought it was a good idea because it increases the odds of a breed winning.
Yeah, and AKC won’t do varieties now. Some of the Belgian Shepherd people would like to recombine the 4 flavors yet still have 3 (someday 4, when Lakenois are fully recognized) dogs in the Group, as Varieties. AKC says if they want to be one breed, they can have one dog in the group. So far none of the parent clubs are clamoring to allow one of the other clubs to take over as overall parent club with all the money and decision-making power.
Those Brussels and Belgian griffons are in the same boat.
I saw a petit brabancon win last year. Now, it was a dog called a Brussells griffon.
As to creating “varieties” in the Golden retriever breed…this was suggested a few years ago. However, the danger is that doing so will only increase divergence from the historical ideal. (This was very clearly shown when the cocker spaniel breed was split into “English” and “American”). There ARE a few Golden breeders/exhibitors who do their best to adhere to the historical ideal, and produce dogs which are capable as workers, as well as of correct conformation.
Unfortunately, as others have noted, “presentation” and showmanship too often take precedence in the conformation ring, and most Golden folks don’t have the deep pockets it takes to make show records. The same could be said about field trials– it is a game for which a very small number of people have the resources to be successful, and a game which has gone far beyond most practical purpose.
I believe the last paragraph is what drives extreme divergence in the breed.
Dual purpose is very hard to do– and very costly.
Flat-coats, not so much.
This is one of the reasons I’m really torn about AKC recognition for my breed (the variety thing). Kleins and mittels aren’t interbred in England and Australia, and the kleins have more health problems according to the health surveys, and having such a big size range appears to confuse judges and you end up with judges (as in Eskies) who will ONLY put up one size variety and ignore the other two. But our gene pool is small (it’s TINY here in the US, smallish in the UK and Australia, but not in horrible shape compared to many breeds in Europe proper) and from a diversity POV, I can see that it might be valuable to be able to outcross in the future. I guess what I’m worried about is the lines getting so muddled up from the start that we don’t HAVE any outcrosses.