The Facebooking of the Fancy

How many conversations have you been part of in the past year where the quality of dogs in your breed was lamented? Those conversations could be actual face-to-face talks, phone calls or virtual conversations conducted on social media channels like Facebook. Talk to anyone who’s been involved in conformation competition for more than 10 years and you’ll probably hear the same thing: the understanding of correct type, soundness and movement just isn’t as prevalent as it was in years past.

Scroll around in social media a bit. You’ll probably see this: someone posts a picture of their dog in the show ring or stacked up in the yard and that person’s Facebook friends ooooh and aaaaaah over how gorgeous the dog is or how perfect the movement is. And, in spite of all the positive reinforcement the dog’s owner is getting, you look at the picture and can clearly see the dog doesn’t conform to the standard for its breed, and/or isn’t moving correctly. Check out the comments and it soon becomes clear that no one in the conversation truly understands what a good representative of the breed should look and move like. Yet they’re all learning from each other that, by consensus at least, the dog in the picture must be a great example of the breed.

That’s a problem. When ‘incorrect’ is touted as ‘correct’, those who are learning about what the breed is supposed to be are taught incorrectly. Then they show incorrect dogs and breed incorrect dogs. And their friends who also don’t know what they don’t know tell them how wonderful their dogs and puppies are. And the erosion of correct type, structure and soundness continues.

Posted by AnthonyA on Oct 9 2022. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.