World Dog Show 2011

[Jennin Lauma]

Originally Posted by hanninadina

Jenni, dog shows are a good possibility to meet same breed dog lovers. Especially when you are a newby in the breed. Later when you know the people, breeders and dogs, one can go and meet them on different locations.
And of course an important part. Otherwise I do not know why people would like to have a pure breed dog?

Yes, shows are one place to meet lots of dogs, breeders and other owners. And I have said that this is one of the good sides in shows. But I also said that if there were no shows at all or they would be different from what they are now, I'm sure that there would still be many ways to meet other people & their dogs. And most importantly, I think different kind of shows could serve the audience even better.

Originally Posted by hanninadina

But Dogshows are one part of recognized breeds!

Well, practically this is true. Dog shows are and have been for a long time a big part (if not the base) of Kennel Clubs and breeding recognized breeds. But my point is that the shows themselves are not important (but for entertainment maybe). What matters is the typical looks according to the breed standard. And for evaluating pure bred dog against the standard we do not need beauty competitions like most shows are at the moment.

I think it would serve the breeding of pure bred dogs better if we'de have different kind of 'breed type evaluation events' (shows). -Only breed specific, no allrounder judges, and no breeds competing against each other in group rings & BIS rings etc.
As an example of some most important changes:
I'd prefer to have several breed specialist judges who would evaluate/asses the dog together as a team, and they would write explicit assessments which would also be published for everyone to read. And only a certain maximum number of dogs per day for this judge group to evaluate, so that there would be more time to spend with assessing each dog.
And more movement required! 1-2 rounds in a small ring while the dog is pulling in its leash in panic or out of over excitement should not be the base of evaluating the dog's movements.
To dogs who have several excellent evaluations could be given a special title but there would be even higher title for dogs who also have more results than those from the breed type evaluations / (shows); such as good health and temperament test results.

I think there are lots of things wrong in todays dog breeding, and the dog showing system of the moment is just one of them.
As it comes to 'pure bred dogs' I actually think that there is also lots of things wrong in how the concept of "purity of breeds/races/species" is generally understood. But that's another subject.