Re: [pyrnet] Working Show Dogs, was pet store puppies

[clhenke@juno.com]

I do think it is all too easy to bash beauty and even dogs at the
opposite end.  There is a trend to say that beautiful dogs have lost
their function, or it has been bred out of them.  I don't think it is
quite that easy.  Granted, the Cocker may go out in the field and have a
terrible time with it's coat.  That doesn't mean that shaved down it
doesn't actually retain it's ability ( desire even ) to work.  I often
find that many dogs really love getting down and gritty and slip back
into it real easy.  It wouldn't take the beautiful Pyr. coat we see in
the ring to look rough out in the field, but that's cosmetic.
Your taking a dog that's been doing a job in excess of several thousand
years, I don't think your going to change the disposition for it's
required  work, all that easily.  I have found when you have owners that
do a wide range of events with their dogs, the dogs are happy to do
whatever, and slip into those jobs easily, as well as being the couch
potatoes in our homes.

By the same token, while we should all attempt to achieve soundness, most
dogs that are not perfect to our image of what they should be, still
function fine.  Once again, it becomes cosmetic, what we want to see. 
Few animals
( ourselves included ) are really perfect.  A toe that tips out, a rear
that's a touch too wide, really isn't going to stop a dog from doing it's
job.

I agree that there are fads in the show ring, most do not amount to much.
 There are a few that have become grossly extreme ( E.Bulldog heads, for
example ).  But the fad changes of the average dog isn't going to change
them much.  My Dane used to pace.  Incorrect for the ring, but that girl
took many a wayward steer down for us in typical hog hunt fashion, run
it, jump ,grab the ear and drop her weight on it twisting it's head till
it fell.  We would run up and get a rope on it.  Pacing may not be
appropriate for the breed standard, but it did not affect her ability to
work.  We didn't teach her to do this either, we were as surprised the
first time she did it as anyone could be.  But she did what was natural
to her breed.

If all dogs were allowed to go back to a moderate original state, none of
them would look much like our versions of our breeds anyway.  All of this
is just my feelings of course.  :-)  Cindy

Cindy Henke
clhenke@juno.com
Ennis, Texas

"All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained
in the dog."  ~ Franz Kafka

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