A breed standard describes a breed. It says how tall what shape etc a dog should look like for the breed. An educated person in a particular breed does not need a judge to to tell them so. I am a big believer in critical thinking, thinking for ones self etc..
Labs are a great example. The working ones look like the paintings of old. The conformation ones look a lot like a shaved down newf they are so ponderously heavy. What is the purpose of having a lab so heavy and docile it won't work being held up as the pinnacle of the breed?
Take fox terriers. The JRT and FT were once the same breed. The FT went into the conformation ring, and the JRT stayed the working mans dog. Hmm now the conformation of a FT prohibits it from ever hunting fox. How did that help the breed?
How about the changes to the skull structure of bull terriers?
This is a skull from 1930
One from 1950
and one from 1980
pics credited to the Albert Heim Foundation for Canine Research, Basil, Switzerland
A breed of dog who had a certain look, and particular structure for working ability was changed. Why? for the conformation ring. Did it benefit the dog in any way? No only to make sure it is unfit for what it was bred to do.
Now collies. I met a stunning collie at a trial. It had its otch and was as a happy and athletic a dog you could meet. The owner had started herding lessons where the dog was showing great promise. I asked the owner (knowing the dog came from good lines from previous conversation) if she was going to breed the dog. The reply, no we spayed her. Her head isn't quite right to win in the ring. ??? What does the slight variation in head shape have to do with the dogs working ability, health or temperment.
Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retrievers were previously allowed to have white on the back of the neck. For some reason the breed standard was changed. Why? I have no idea. I doubt the ducks cared. So now people are throwing out the genetic information in these dogs. And this really gets me as markings are not 'set' in the DNA the way most people think.
"Tests by scientists at the University of California at Davis have confirmed that CC is an exact genetic duplicate of Rainbow. But CC's markings are quite different because markings are not fully determined by genetic coding but are the result of random molecular changes that occur during fetal development."
This has proved the same in all cloned animals so far. Markings are not a given. So great genes are being thrown away for nothing!
If you read the previous article I posted it is incredibly intersting. When breeding only for a specific behavoural trait, the morphology of the foxed changed. My argument is the breeds we have look they way they did (before the relatively new invention of the conformation show) because of what work they did.
Closed stud books and rigours breeding to a very rigid standard
will ruin breeds. As sure as the earth orbits the sun...
Lets say there is a breed of dog with a pop of 100 000 (nice round number) how many will really fit the breed standard? And be free of health issues? And by of sound temperment? Lets be generous and say 10% So you take 10% of the gene pool, and throw the other 90% away. So then you breed that 10%. Even assuming that 10% were no way related (not realistic but easy to go with) If you continue to throw away 90% of your genes, rigorously culling for looks (which to me is a bit shallow anyway..just try telling your neighbour she shouldn't have kids cause her ears are a bit to low!) health and temperment. After how many years will all the dogs be related? (I will figure that out and post...having math block at the moment) This is why there are many genetic diseases popping up in breeds where there is lots of screening. Many people understand mendalian genetics. We all do it in high school. But most traits aren't clear cut either/or, we and dogs aren't pea plants. As soon as you get into polygenic traits things get tricky. Then there are traits that coded for along with others, like lethal alleles. For example there is no such thing as a true albino horse (with pink eyes) Because the genes that cause albinism also kills the foal.
Anywho essay over for the moment