For all of you that show your dogs. Here's something to shake your pants off

I came across this discussion while in a guinea pig message board. It makes me so mad but even worse it makes me afraid for the future of animal showing. It's crazy what people believe. It went on and on like this for pages and pages.

''Quote Member 1: I'm 100% against showing all animals. They should have happy loving lives not by thrown in front of a hundred people to see whether or not they are "worthy" enough to wear a stupid ribon. I've been to dog shows for 4H and do you know what they do with dogs that don't win. Some are killed. Others are thrown out. I'm not sure what they do with guinea pigs but I wouldn't even think about it. But that is just my opinion.

Quote Member 2: Also, breeding happens to these dogs, selling the animals, getting "rid" of the bad pups that dont meet standards. It all happend to dogs, and cats, and horses that are "show material", just like g-pigs. It is all bad news. I think the only "ok" showing is 4-H, sport activities, and such.''

Come on guys read it.

[luvmydogs]

clueless idiots!!!

[bubbatd]

I agree...if it wasn't for dog shows the standards would go way down...thus, more BYBs

If you feel the need to educate these people like I do here's the link to that discussion

http://cavycages.com/forum/showthrea...4&page=1&pp=20

[joce]

Not to mention some twelve year old is not going to put his 4H dog to sleep Its not about the dogs in 4H its about the kids,so do they get pts too?

[RD]

Hmph. People shouldn't go running their mouth about something they know nothing about.

[Athebeau]

IMO I don't think dog shows do any good for dogs at all. They are breeding for conformation that has nothing to do with working ability. Purebred dogs were created for a reason at one time...then of course you always had people creating lap dogs as well. But, in the dog world purebred breeding is fairly new in the day when people actually started breeding dogs they didn't care who the father was, or what the father was...the working behavior conformation was passed on from the mother then the rest of the behaviors were learned from a good mother. The dog show standards are far fetched and unrealistic and are not for any purpose any longer except promoting inbreeding and poor structure and creating genetic poor health. When you get one genetic disease out of a line a new one pops up. Kennel clubs are even worse as they closed the stud books on a small population of dogs and no new blood is allowed into a closed stud book. This is very bad news for purebreds they may have been created from only 50 founder dogs...inbreeding is not healthy. Most show dogs are placed due to who is handling the dog and a well known handler can get points on anything...that is not good breeding. Many people when in a show may not have many dogs to compete against...or the dog may have a well known kennel behind them that the judge recognizes. The dogs are based on looks only, there is no way you can tell proper conformation of a breed without seeing the behavioral shape and behavioral conformation of the dog. Show breeders are breeding for "whats in at this moment"..look at show Shepherds, so angulated they can barely run. Newf's which have poor structure, can no longer swim and are getting bigger and bigger coats.
Dog shows are just a big beauty pagent for dogs...they do nothing to improve a breed, and most of our purebreds are not natural breeds with big gene pools...there are "some" natural breeds out there that still maintain good genetic health and are not bred like our show dogs.
Before there were dog shows and before there was purebred breeding our dogs which evolved on their own and evolved to suit their natural environment were healthy and did not suffer the ill health that our purebred dogs do. In a way some show breeders are doing more harm to dogs than any backyard breeders. For instance Bulldogs they reak of ill health...I know of 10 people who have Bulldogs and have spent thousands of dollars on fixing genetic problems...even a vet will call a Bulldog a walking vet bill.
this is my opinion.

[Mordy]

i disagre, athebeau - form follows function, so in order to function properly, the dog needs correct conformation.

granted, strictly breeding for looks only (especially exaggerated looks) is wrong, but if you don't adhere to conformation standards, you would not be able to preserve a breed.

one example of a breed affected very negatively by breeding for conformation only is the dachshund. in my opinion, the dachshund according to AKC standard and the dachshund according to DTK standard (german parent breed club) aren't even the same breed anymore.

here's an excellent article on the topic, not about dachshunds, but it expresses the general idea better than i could word it:
http://www.drahthaar.com/articles/different.html

[joce]

My corgis breeder shows herding and conformation. Eitheir way they put a lot into the breed. They don't just find two nice cute mutts and throw them together.