[PyrNet-L] Mary Crane's timeless message (or "More on size")

[Kshoffman@aol.com]

The following excerpt is taken from The Complete Great Pyrenees, 
Strang/Giffin, Howell publishing 1977, page 61, quoted directly as written by 
Mary Crane in Chapter 3, Basquaerie Kennels, The Great Pyrenees Comes to 
America.

A timeless message, don't you think?

Kelley Hoffman
kshoffman@aol.com
---------------------------------------------

	"Basquaerie is proud of the successes of the breed in America and 
believes that a bright future lies ahead IF breeders will put aside personal 
and petty jealousies and remain true to the authentic type, breeding for and 
rewarding in the show ring ONLY those dogs and bitches which carry correct 
Pyrenean type and expression. Think of the head of a polar bear with the ears 
falling down; not a Brown Bear--for you want a substantial muzzle, not a 
short one. And refer to your club insignia for the correct head!
	I want to take this opportunity right here and now to stress that it 
is NOT the nature of Great pyrenees to be overly large, tall, or in any sense 
"immense". This choice of translation word to describe the breed in the 
original standard was ill-chosen. The breed is a large breed, true, but 
neither excessively tall, slab-sided, short-muzzled, droopy jowled, too 
narrow or too domed in the head, nor marked with a positive stop or a 
round-eye!  They are of a large-medium size when compared with the few 
exceedingly tall and large breeds. So, please push far asunder any 
misconceptions you may now have concering size.  Let's not breed for ponies!
	I bring this critique up because I have often been asked how the dogs 
of today compare in size with those early imports. My reply is that the 
average dog and bitch one sees are the same.
	The initial interest in a tall Great Pyrenees came into vogue, I 
believe, with Champion K'Eros de Guerveur of Basquaerie, who did make a 
striking picture in the ring, and made himself famous by becoming the first 
to win Best In Show.  But he was also a dog of correct Pyrenees type, not 
carrying the faults I mentioned above, and well deserving of his wins. 
However, size has become an obsession in the minds of some people ever 
since--but fortunately not in the minds of all! And not in the minds of those 
breeders whose interest centers on correctness of type and quality.
	Unfortunately, all too many people are prone to speak out, giving 
their own ideas and appraisals to fit their own dogs. But how many who do 
this have really seen the dogs in their native land doing their natural 
chores? I say again, please don't pioneer for a new cause unless you are sure 
of your facts, from actual experience and not just hearsay.
	Basquaerie has indeed had a long and colorful history, full of 
accomplishments, success and failures.  We have had our share of happiness 
and sorrow, of good times and bad. But life, after all, means taking the 
bitter with the sweet. So we wish you all, newcomers to the breed and old 
alike, all successes in the years ahead. But PLEASE, one request--do not try 
to change the world's most beautiful and wonderful breed. The Great Pyrenees' 
delight and charm lie in its being what it is today. Keep it that way. And be 
proud of it!"
	-- Mary W.A. Crane, Basquaerie Kennels