Where the Buck Stops

154 – August, 2010

by Chris Robinson

Excessive coat can hinder breeds that have to swim in order to do their historical work.

President Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk in the Oval Office which said, “The buck stops here.” This derived from the slang expression “pass the buck” meaning that you shunt the responsibility off to someone else. In Truman’s world, once the problem reached his desk, there was no one left to whom he could “pass the buck.” Well, the same thing has occurred in the dog world only in this case the buck stops with people who show their dogs and with the conformation judges.

The older I get, the more provocation it takes to get me to climb up on my soapbox but some chance remarks made by the editor of a hunting magazine the other day provided the necessary impetus. He said that what with all the various purposes for which Labrador

Even companion dogs had a job at one time that required them to be both physically and mentally sound.

Retrievers were currently being selectively bred—guide dogs, service dogs, detection dogs, therapy dogs, agility dogs, obedience dogs, field trial dogs and show dogs—it was becoming more and more difficult to find one that actually looked like a Labrador should look and was also a decent dog with which to spend a day in the field. The dogs from strictly show stock, he said, increasingly demonstrate little interest in birds or hunting. Furthermore, they have such short legs, it effects their stamina and their ability to swim. On the other hand, field trial dogs, for the most part, are so “hot wired” they’re virtually intolerable in a waterfowl hunting situation and they don’t look like Labs, they look like Whippets. They’re tiny, leggy dogs built to run fast. He also said a lot of them don’t mark birds very well. As for a lot of the other “specialists” he said a considerable number neither look or perform in the field like a Labrador.

Looking around, this sorry “disease” seems to have affected a number of breeds and not just sporting breeds. As certain aspects of conformation became “fashionable” in the show ring, little thought has been given to how those show ring fads adversely affect the dog’s ability to perform its traditional work. When this is combined with the almost total disregard that strictly field people have for conformation the unfortunate result is such stark differences between “show” and “field” types that the two types look like completely different breeds.

Several parent clubs have taken note of these disturbing trends and provide strong encouragement to their members to both breed to the standard and make sure the dog can do what the breed was developed to do. In most cases, the standards were developed by people who actually did the traditional work with a particular breed and these standards for almost all breeds haven’t changed appreciably in more than a hundred years. But parent clubs can only do so much. They have no power to penalize people who breed dogs according to what is fashionable in the show ring or the field. Unfortunately, neither do the field or performance judges even if they had an inclination to do so. There is no spot on the scoresheets for field or performance activities where you can disqualify a dog because its conformation is such that it can’t stand up to a day’s work.

Arctic breeds need enough leg under them so they can jump out of deep snow when conditions require it.

Which means that the buck stops with conformation judges who ultimately hold the key to putting a stop to fashion fads that create different types within a breed by withholding placements from those dogs that may be “fashionable” but not functional. It means bringing a screeching halt to dogs earning championships that are not structurally and temperamentally sound enough for the work the breed was intended to do. Even breeds developed to be companion dogs once had a job that required them to be both physically and mentally sound. The “stopping of the buck” also means that the responsibility for preserving the working ability for a breed in dogs that meet the conformation standard rests with the people who show their dogs.

You want a dog that can show on Saturday and run in a field or herding or lure coursing or agility trial on Sunday; you have to have a dog that is balanced and moderate.

The number one priority, whether judging or breeding, is to always keep in mind what work a particular breed was intended to do. A dog’s conformation has to be judged, or evaluated if you are breeding, on whether it helps or hinders this work. Which means that conformation judges have both a duty and an obligation, quaint as those words may seem in these times, to know what the breed they are judging is supposed to do and what sort of conformation it takes for the dog to accomplish these tasks. For example, the short legs that have become show ring fads for some of the Arctic breeds hinder the dog’s ability to work in deep snow. They simply cannot jump high enough to get out of the snow because their legs are too short. This can, quite literally, be a fatal weakness.

There are a number of other fashion fads that are creating either structurally unsound dogs or breeds where a fashion whim is hindering the dogs’ ability to do their real job. Number one on the list is poor angulation and that is closely followed by excessive hair coat which would have to be designated 1A. If, for example, you want a dog that can show on Saturday and run in a field or herding or lure coursing or agility trial on Sunday, you have to have a dog that is balanced and moderate. Straight shoulders attached to an over-angulated rear end are simply not going to cut it in the field. Perhaps an extreme such as this can trot around the show ring but it is painful and tiring for a dog to land on that straight front while running as well as weakening to run on over-angulated rears. When over-angulated rear ends are coupled with long hocks, as is often the case, this structure definitely will not stand up to the stresses of field work. When a dog has the extreme angulation and leg bone lengths seen with many breeds in the show ring today, the dog has to take all that leg somewhere before it can set its foot down. In sports such as obedience and agility where the dog has to jump, dogs cannot have exaggerations of the hindquarters and accomplish the jumps without causing damage to themselves. It is no secret that the greatest number of orthopedic procedures in dogs are rear leg anterior cruciate ligament repairs and most of these are a direct result of exaggerated rear end conformation.

I had a recent conversation with a canine police officer who finally wound up going to Czechoslovakia to get a dog that was sound enough, both structurally and temperamentally, for the work he needed the dog to do. He said he had conducted a lengthy search for an American-bred German Shepherd but, despite his great desire to “buy American” and also to avoid the expense of having to import a dog, he had been unable to find one that was sound enough to meet his needs. He said, “I know there are some German Shepherd Dogs that don’t walk on their hocks in this country but I ran out of time before I could find one.”

For GSDs like the police officer needed to be a rarity in this country instead of commonplace should be enough to not only make German Shepherd Dog fanciers hang their heads in shame but also make them determined to do something about the situation.

On long-coated breeds, excessive hair is often used to disguise serious conformation flaws. There is an old saying that the more hair a dog has, the less quality there is under it. For sporting or working breeds, where the dog’s job requires it to swim, excessive hair coat can be downright dangerous. At minimum, it means the dog has to work much harder to accomplish the task than it would if its coat was the appropriate length. From a comfort standpoint for the dog, one other thing to keep in mind is that the longer the coat, the more burrs it collects.

It is possible to breed structurally sound dogs that will be able to do their traditional work for their entire lives that are also wonderful show dogs.

While we are on the subject of swimming, there are some breeds whose job requires them to swim where fashion has created a fault that makes this part of their job downright difficult. For example, some Golden Retriever people have been breeding for an upright head which leads to a ewe neck. While this may create the desired high head carriage for the show ring, when the dog is actually making a water retrieve, it drives the rear end down and at best makes a very demanding and laborious task out of swimming, something that should be accomplished with great ease by a structurally sound retriever.

Number two on the list is exaggerated gaits. As pretty as an over-reaching trot may look on the level, it is not appropriate for a dog that has to jump, turn sharply, run or in the case of a herding dog, be agile enough to duck under a cow’s hooves. Many conformation judges seem to be in love with dogs that have tremendous reach and drive. It looks flashy and eye-catching. There’s just one problem with this fad: It requires a dog that is basically unsound to do it. The ability to show tremendous reach and drive at the trot is due to excessively stretchy connective tissue in the dog’s joints. When judges put up a dog that has tremendous reach and drive, they are rewarding hyper-flexibility. When a dog is running, the connective tissue is stretched and needs to be able to recover in order to move potential and kinetic energy throughout the dog’s body during each stride. Excessively stretchy connective tissue cannot do this effectively. It is like a weak spring. Dogs with the stretchiest connective tissue, in other words, dogs with the most reach and drive, are slowed down when they run. When their tendons (springs) are stretched, they don’t snap back into shape efficiently.

Boiling this “soapbox” session down to its essence, the simple fact is we have not done our job very well and breeders, owners and judges are all included in that condemnation. Now there are some folks in the dog world who just don’t know what constitutes a structurally sound dog and they can’t be blamed for what they don’t know. But they can be blamed for not wanting to learn.

It is possible to breed structurally sound dogs that will be able to do their traditional work for their entire lives that are also good show dogs. With the advent of titles that can be earned at hunt tests, lure coursing, herding, earthdog, schutzhund, the various working certificate programs that many parent clubs have as well as the performance activities such as agility, obedience, rally and tracking, there are hundreds of dog owners and breeders who have demonstrated that dogs can earn a conformation championship and field or performance titles. These are the dogs, the ones that have demonstrated the kind of physical and mental soundness necessary to do the breed’s traditional work as well as conform to the standard, that need to be the sires and dams of the future, provided they also can pass the necessary health screening.

However, if concern for the future ability of the breed to meet both the conformation and performance standards are not reason enough to breed sound dogs, here’s another. Buyers are getting more sophisticated. If we as purebred dog fanciers do not start doing a better job of producing structurally sound dogs, there is not going to be a market for them. Already we are seeing many buyers lured into purchasing what are essentially mongrels—Labradoodles, Goldenoodles, Bascotties, Puggles, Cavanese, Cock-A-Poos, Papichons, etc —which breeders of these mutts tout as possessing superior soundness to purebred dogs because these dogs are supposed to have “hybrid vigor.” While purebred dogs breeders know this is a myth, the best way to defeat this false advertising is to breed and reward dogs that have proven they can meet both the conformation and performance standards for the breed. The buck stops here, folks.

The number one priority, whether judging or breeding, is to always keep in mind what work a particular breed was intended to do.

 

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