Quote: Norman Epstein

Thank you Susan, but it would be a mistake to believe that this is occurring just in GSD dog breed, but is in fact affecting every pure breed whose breeders lust for fame and fortune on the backs of there dogs via such bench shows. Norman Epstein

I tend to agree with this. It takes a strong breed club to ensure that working ability is not put on the back burner in relation to the conformation ring. And even if there is a strong breed club, you need breeders out there not only producing working dogs but ALSO showing them in the breed ring.

I am personally proud of my breed, the ACD, the club and breeders have worked hard to ensure that working instinct is not lost and for the most part has been successful. Herding dogs are commonly rewarded in the breed ring. My old male's sire is a dual champion (breed and herding) and has been an Award of Merit at 3 specialties (including two Nationals) and two of these wins came after he turn 10. He also works the home ranch as well.

FWIW, many people who are breed fanciers that do performance in various breeds abhor what has happened to the American showline GSD. I can't even watch the ring without cringing. Seeing what has happened in that breed and in the showline BC is a constant reminder of why my breed fights so hard to ensure that diachotomy does not take place in the ACD.

Can anyone tell me if the Malinois in this show appear to be good representatives of the breed structurally? I have only ever met one, at a confirmation show, and it was not. I was just wondering if there were any major differences between working and show in this breed.

Uno won best in show last night, congratulations! I didn't get to see it, just too tired, I get up very early so I lasted until the working breeds come along.(which I love!! darn!!)
Maybe with all we are saying about the AKC, we would remember that though they started off well, as I have read in previous posts, they have not ended well with dogs keeping the purpose for why they were bred, to do a job. I have taken in all the comments, and it serves me to remember how we all can start out well and fail miserably when we loose sight of the original goal, healthy dogs, bred for the purposes for which they were created. But isn't that like us in this world, we seem more interested in the outer appearance of things don't we. I'm taking this to heart and hope to remember that my dogs were put here (even my little terriors) with a purpose, and not just for my joy.
God bless you


* Mod note*

I'll combine this with another AKC show thread going on concurrently.

Congrats to Uno, and to Ruy for having a famous brother!

My wife and I were so excited to see him win, finally a Beagle takes the prize.

Too bad Lucy was snoozing away just like Ruy during the finals.

OK, i am a dummy, and really confused-

i did see the eukanuba dog show, and if i am not mistaken, Uno won the hound group there(or at least a beagle named Uno did).

Westminster is different, yes??
So he got both?

I am confused because you all are talking about a certain Akita,the 2 poodles, GSD, Uno, etc, and that was the line up for best in show at Eukanuba......

help?????

and yes-i was on the phone with a gsd(Czech)owner during the show and when that GSD came out-we both at the same time were like WTF!
Those hips and feet!!!

It just doesn't make sense-my pups were down in the pasterns, and that was a big deal, something not good, that needed to be corrected.
And to see dogs at a show, that others who aren't familiar with dogs to see them and go-"that is what a GSD should look like", well, that just makes me mad.
At first, i was like-wow, all those GSD's are malnourished" before i realized they were "supposed" to look that way.

very disappointing.

 Quote: Mallory Kwiatkowski

OK, i am a dummy, and really confused-

i did see the eukanuba dog show, and if i am not mistaken, Uno won the hound group there(or at least a beagle named Uno did).

Westminster is different, yes??
So he got both?

Oh, I combined the two threads. Sorry if they were two different shows.

oh!

i was really confused. So did he still get both, or what?

Mallory: The Eukanuba and Westminster are two different events. Uno won the Hound group at Eukanuba, but the toy poodle got BIS there.

Breeder sent me an email with a bunch of links to different Internet articles. I particularly liked this one.

Here you can watch a video of the final moments.