Becoming: It all Begins and Ends With The Standard
BY JACQUELYN FOGEL continued
their dogs as well. She is beginning to train her eye to spot correct structure underneath beautiful grooming. She has also modified her grooming to reveal the good parts of her dogs, rather than hide multiple faults. I have learned over the years that well-built dogs are much eas- ier to groom than poorly constructed dogs, and this has become another tool in my evaluation arsenal. If I find myself struggling to get a good pattern on a dog, I care- fully examine what is causing that struggle, and usually eliminate those dogs from my breeding program. I will still show them, but the dogs with difficult problems to fix will not be used to carry forward genetics in my breed- ing program. Breeders who start their conversations with the breed standard will never go wrong. Standards cannot cover every possibility within the structure of a dog, but they must be the guiding document for every breeder. Each breed has its nuances and important details. Many breeds have characteristics unique to that breed – like a V-front in a bedlington; or a trait that is so important it must never be overlooked – like a prominent sternum in a bas- set hound. These are the traits that contribute to breed type. These are the traits we’d all like the judges to find, or not, and reward and penalize accordingly. Breeders are the ultimate keepers of breed standards. If they don’t understand them, don’t discuss them, don’t teach them, and don’t breed to them, our breeds will lose type and morph into something the original founders never intended. I have read some discussions on a Russian breeder’s Facebook page that blames poor judg- ing for the proliferation of poorly built and incorrectly coated dogs. Poor judging does exist, but it does not cause breeders to continue to breed marginal dogs. If judges were shown nothing but quality dogs, even a poor judge can look like a genius. Breeders who succumb to the fad of the day are a much bigger problem. Breeders must take responsibility for the dogs they breed. It is every breeder’s responsibility to mentor and educate peo- ple about the breed standard. If we are breeding to please a fickle marketplace, then we need to stop breed- ing. If we are breeding to please poor judges, then we need to stop breeding. If we don’t really understand the standard and think that win ribbons are the only measure of a successful breeding program, then we need to find someone to work with who can really teach the standard rather than merely promote wins. I am a serious Packer fan, but Vince Lombardi’s famous quote, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” just doesn’t cut it when it comes to dog breeding. In our world the standard is king. In our world, “The breed standard isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” n Jackie Fogel got her first purebred basset in 1969, but her real education in the world of AKC dogs and shows started in 1979 when she moved to Wisconsin and whelped her first home- bred champion. In 1995 Jackie got a bedlington terrier from David Ramsey of the famous Willow Wind line. She has bred and shown numerous #1 bedlingtons, and continues to actively breed both bassets and bedlingtons. In 2007 Jackie began judging, and is approved to judge 6 breeds. She owns and manages Cedar Creek Pet Resort, and is active in the Kettle Moraine Kennel Club, Keep Your Pets, Inc., (a non-profit she founded), and the local Rotary club. Jackie writes for ShowSight Magazine, the basset column in the Gazette, and a pet column in a local magazine.
tant, every breed’s tail is important. Judges prioritize dif- ferently for each breed they examine. While color and distribution of markings has no importance in a basset hound, a Boston Terrier must have correct color and dis- tribution of markings, or it is not a Boston. The same judge may think that a Scottish Terrier head is more important than reach or drive, and that side movement on a Brittany should be more important than head shape or eye color. Each standard will dictate what is important to the breed, and each judge will have their personal inter- pretation of priorities described within the standard. I do have a serious problem with judges who do not disqualify dogs with disqualifying faults, but all other reactions to deviations from standards are within the judge’s purview. Being angry with a judge that finds your dog’s faults is just silly. Every exhibitor I know says they understand that no dog is perfect, but I think many secretly believe their dog really is perfect, and it’s just the judge who doesn’t under- stand. This is novice exhibitor thinking. It must be avoid- ed at all cost. More likely than not, the breeder/exhibitor has not been properly mentored in their breed standard. More likely than not they are not understanding what the words in the standard actually mean because they have not had their hands on enough breeds, studied structure or movement enough, or just don’t care. More likely than not, the initial reaction of these exhibitors to someone finding fault in their dogs is to accuse the other person of not understanding their breed. These exhibitor/breeders all fall back on the number of wins their dogs have achieved, but they rarely go into detail about the quality of the competition at the shows in which they win, or the experiences of the judges doing the evaluation. Some judges who have not been well-mentored also have faulty beliefs, and sometimes they actually look for the wrong things in a breed. The careful observer can usually figure out what the judge is looking for, and then determine if that judge is worthy of more entries or not. I witnessed one judge with a large Bedlington entry very carefully find and reward every single dog with a ewe neck. Since I breed very few dogs with that particular fault my dogs were always at the end of his line. It is pointless for me to show my dogs to that judge again, so I won’t. I sincere- ly hope that judge gets some good breed mentoring so he doesn’t continue to reward a fault, but unless that hap- pens, I will not waste my money on his opinion. That is a decision I can make. The same thing should happen with the Silky Terrier exhibitors. Now that they know how important the tail is to that judge, they may choose to show to her, or not. But they have no authority to say that she should be accept- ing a clear and visible fault within the AKC standard. They may continue to argue within their breed club about the importance of a docked tail, but until the AKC stan- dard is rewritten, an undocked tail must be penalized to some extent. That brings me back full-circle to the young Chinese buyer who wants to learn the Bedlington terrier standard so she can breed better dogs. She communicates regularly with me, and we discuss diagrams and photographs of dogs. I allowed her to go over every dog of my breeding that was entered in the Florida shows, and we discussed faults and desired traits for each one. I encouraged her to ask all other breeders if she could physically examine
62 • S how S ight M agazine , A pril 2018
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