On structure and it's effect on the working dog.

This was originally posted on the showdog list. 

By Susi Szeremy, reprinted by permission.

Subject: When a rose is a rose in name only

 

>>> A number of our show people do both (work their dogs and show them in conformation) and it seems more and more are starting to, this can only be good for the breed>>>

 

In what is a stunning display of hypocrisy, I agree with this sentiment though I'm the same person who gave up sheepherding some years ago. The pay stunk. After a full day in the field, I stunk, too. And my dogs kept wanting to horn in thinking they could do a better job with the baa-baas than than I did. Harumph. Let's see THEM drive the sheep to market in the style in which I did it: Three Cotswold sheep in an SUV with cup holders.

 

I am in awe of Nancy's description of the show dogs she saw work in the field. I can't help but feel, however, that the ability to show a dog in conformation AND the discipline for which it was bred is breed dependent.

 

Coated breeds depend as much upon their hairiness to be competitive in a show ring as their soundness. Weed seeds, hay bits, dead grass, field mice - these are all things I've pulled out of a corded coat after a stint of herding. This isn't so bad in a young Puli that can still be brushed, but in a corded dog, it's a nightmare. The Puli style of herding is also incredibly agile - and those turn-on-a-dime spins often result in lost cords. Regretably, choices have to be made for folks who want to special a dog, and as a result, we often miss out on seeing instinct in our older dogs within its proper forum.

 

More's the pity since I think an awful lot of information can be gained by watching a dog work. In a confusing observation I made at one year's national specialty, I noted that the very class dogs who had been in the ribbons over the weekend - the ones who won presumably because they displayed the soundness and structure the judges felt they needed to do a day's work - simply didn't have what it took to do their job when put in a pen with sheep. Though most showed adequate instinct, many 'pooped out' after only a short time. I was left to wonder if the dogs were out of shape, or if we had been rewarding the wrong aspects of conformation.

 

I had the opportunity to go over one such dog who'd been a big winner in the conformation ring. This was a young dog I had liked from ringside, but a hands-on examination revealed something very different from what I thought I had seen. My hands felt that its lovely reach wasn't because of a good layback of shoulder, but rather, a short upper arm. The apparent squareness which I had assumed was gotten from a short back was, instead, gotten from a short rib cage and too much space in the coupling. Little wonder the dog lacked stamina. If I hadn't wondered why the dog failed to keep up with the sheep, I might never have been inspired enough to go over the dog - and I'd still be thinking to this day that the dog was a stylish specimen of soundness.

 

I learned a couple of valuable lessons from that experience: 1) what one sees in the showring isn't always what it seems, and 2) the proof is in the field.

 

Susi

Makos Pulik