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What has the dog show wrought?

May 12, 2014 by retrieverman

A pekingese with a profile like this:

Source for image.

   Source for image.

Anyone who can say that dog shows are solely about selecting for improvements within breeding stock clearly needs to have their heads examined.

And even if we accept that some breeds do have functional standards, it is the same piece of paper that says the sleek German short-haired pointer is of breeding quality that also says the same about the deformed pekingese.

Why would anyone who breeds functional dogs want anything to do with an organization that rewards pekingeses, bulldogs, and pugs?

This is why I think multibreed registries really don’t have much of a place in the future of dogs.

And if breeders of functional breeds had half a brain, they would walk out of these registries that celebrate deformity en masse.

What good is to say that you breed dogs to functional standard when in the ring next to you there are all these dogs struggling to breathe and cool themselves?

These dogs defame dog breeding as a respectable activity. They are not worth defending in the least.

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in dog breeding, dog health | Tagged dog breeding, dog registries, pekingese | 18 Comments

18 Responses

  1. on May 12, 2014 at 8:57 am UrbanCollieChick

    Good points all. Unfortunately the people in these shows seem more concerned with “their” breed and not much with dogdom. I know there are exceptions. Most of the exceptions I have met have left the show world at some point out of disgust and being tired of the B.S.

    I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who know SO little about breeds other than their own; and lack some historical facts on their own breed. This goes for a lot of judges too.

    So, the show set is rife with people who act as though they can take full credit for the streamlining of the GSP, as if they created it themselves. That way they can say “Well, I DON’T condone the peke. That’s why it’s not my breed.”

    And I’m inherently unattracted to freak dogs as well. But that doesn’t mean I won’t say what’s wrong with the whole process of making them.

    “Oh, well, we can’t help that.” the other show folks will say.

    Rubbish.

    This might be a repeat story, but did I tell you about the time I went to the Jacob Javitz Meet The Breeds event, and at the GSP table, I asked a man if his dog ever hunted? And the response I got was “Well, no, but then these dogs don’t have to. They’re really aristocrats.”

    SEVEN HELLS!!! What snobbery!! Just the sort of misguided thinking that leads dogs to deformity in the future. I wonder when the last time was that his poor dogs had a nice roll in the mud, in some nice forest?


  2. on May 12, 2014 at 10:09 am M.R.S.

    Contrary to what is so often heard or read, dog shows are not about selecting “breeding stock”. Indeed, in the foreword to the AKC Rules for dog shows, it states that shows are for the purpose of assessing what “has been produced”– that is, the existing product in itself, not what it might produce as a breeding animal. Just had to make that point. And no championship certificate says that a dog is qualified for breeding, even though some people may think so.

    Anyway. the process that leads to rewarding of dogs that are such deviants from “normal” was covered very well by Temple Grandin in an interview published in Discover magazine, May 2005. Author, Verlyn Klinkenborg. I don’t know if the article (Titled “What Do Animals Think?”) is available on-line, but it is well worth reading. Near the end of the article, Dr. Grandin speaks of “the radicalization of inexperience”, leading to “bad becoming normal”, as in the acceptance of various abnormalities in animals– hence not being able to recognize that dogs such as the Peke pictured above do, indeed, have problems.


    • on May 12, 2014 at 3:06 pm Jess Perfectly Snarky Ruffner

      http://discovermagazine.com/2005/may/what-do-animals-think


      • on May 12, 2014 at 3:22 pm M.R.S.

        Thanks, Jess!


    • on May 13, 2014 at 3:25 pm Jen Robinson

      But shows are about selecting breeding stock; that’s a big part of the problem. Say you have a healthy pedigree dog with good temperament and acceptable, though maybe not type-of-the-year conformation. You have reason to expect eight or more pups. Bottom line, it’s much easier to place the pups if you can advertise them as “Champion Sire”. Unfortunately, the public is not that enlightened. The popular sire syndrome is largely created by the show scene.


      • on May 13, 2014 at 7:42 pm Jess Perfectly Snarky Ruffner

        The dog fancy has a dogma problem. If you (general you) are considering breeding your dog, you are immediately inundated with commands to ‘put a title on it’ to prove it’s ‘worth breeding.’ If I had a dime for every time I saw ‘shows prove the dog is good’ from a ‘responsible breeder’, I would be a rich woman. But if you are part of the in group, you will actually admit that there are many reasons why a worthy dog may not have a championship, and many champion unworthy to be bred. (You can, of course, send your dog out on the podunk circuit with a handler in some breeds for an ‘easy’, though not cheap, championship.)


  3. on May 13, 2014 at 5:51 am chervilmeadow

    To look at them huffing and puffing you might not think pekes would live very long, but to make one comparison, pekes live an average of 13.3 years whereas for golden retrievers the average is only 12..0 years. Despite their long and troublesome backs miniature dachshunds will outlive them both on average at over 15 years.So is to be a shorter mainly merrier life or a longer one but spent in some degree of agony is the dilemma some might say.


    • on May 13, 2014 at 12:50 pm retrieverman

      Well a peke is a smaller dog. So it’s expected to live longer. You cannot compare lifespans between large and small dog.

      But when a small dog’s lifespan is really short, then you know you have problems

      Scottish terriers live only about 10 years on average.

      A golden retriever has a better quality of life than a pekingese though. It can still breathe and cool itself efficiently, and yes, it can run around without becoming exhausted easily.

      But 12 years is about average for a dog of that size.


      • on May 15, 2014 at 1:20 am Jana

        When it comes to small dogs, Cavaliers are probably the worst of the lot – isn’t 8 or 10 years considered normal for them? It’s too bad, because they’re one of the few toy dogs with relatively average conformation and nice temperaments.


        • on May 17, 2014 at 4:24 pm julie

          Unfortunately since cavaliers are bred to look pretty in the ring and still be bright and sparkly at the end of a very long day showing ( as there where a lot of entries for them) they do not have the temperaments they should have , They are often hyperactive & barky ( not a problem in a kennel dog , annoying in a pet) & they seriously lack any brain power , unless it involves finding food.
          Their coats are starting to resemble american cockers. They soak up dirt like a sponge. plus the ear infections due to exceptionally small ear canals. Very poor teeth. & most will have Hart issue by 5 years & Poor digestion


  4. on May 13, 2014 at 7:11 pm Donna

    Which registry do you recommend if people are going to avoid the AKC?


    • on May 13, 2014 at 8:35 pm retrieverman

      I would register with the UKC because it has the potential to do something, even though it’s not done it yet.


      • on May 13, 2014 at 9:01 pm M.R.S.

        UKC has already revised a number of its breed standards. How this may affect what dogs may win, is not yet certain, but at least it’s a start. No doubt this subject will be discussed at the Judges’ Seminar in June in Kalamazoo, where Wayne and others will be speaking.

        AKC is somewhat handicapped in that it is the Parent Clubs that write the breed standards and hold the copyrights. Any changes must be approved by the Parent Clubs’ membership. UKC, on the other hand, owns all the breed standards, and can revise them at will.


      • on May 14, 2014 at 1:16 pm Nora

        Back in the day (well back) I used to do UKC Agility. I had two Shelties from rescue who had been registered with Limited Privilege (similar to AKC’s ILP, now PAL, program.)

        When I got my next Sheltie, from a breeder in Canada, I registered him with AKC as a foreign dog (so I could keep him intact) and looked in to registering him with UKC in the same way. AT THE TIME (and I do not know if this is still true) when you signed the application you were swearing that the dog had no “disqualifying faults.” A disqualifying fault depends on the breed standard, and could mean all sorts of things–but being over 16 inches is a disqualifying fault in a Sheltie.

        And my dog ended up over 16 inches. So I didn’t register him.

        Like I said, this may well have changed by now (the dog in question is about to turn 13) but at the time it definitely dissuaded me from pursuing UKC registration.


        • on May 14, 2014 at 2:02 pm chervilmeadow

          The sheltie has been developed to look like a miniature rough collie, which may explain any perceived fussiness on the height issue maybe? When one sees them out on walks the annoying question often asked is “is it a collie or a sheltie?”


          • on May 16, 2014 at 11:52 am Nora

            There are at least a couple of documented collie crosses to fix type, and probably a lot of undocumented ones as well. So that’s why the the height issue. I’m just noting that at the time, I would have been lying if I said my dog had no disqualifying faults, even though it’s kind of an arbitrary fault as opposed to something debilitating.

            Actually, Shelties could help Collies with the CEA issues, since it’s just not that common in Shelties (at least not to the extent that it is in Collies) and it would be easy to find MANY tall, normal-eyed Shelties to cross in and work from.


          • on May 17, 2014 at 10:58 pm Jana

            Ha, I get the reverse question all the time. My dogs aren’t small either – one is 21″ and 50#, the other is 26″ and 78#! The biggest sheltie I’ve ever seen was about 45# and almost as tall as my smaller dog.


  5. on July 30, 2014 at 12:04 pm clear words about dog shows | irishwolfhound.at

    […] what has the dog show wrought?, […]



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