You know, some time ago this would have made me angry. Now it just makes me wonder.
Here in Belgium the club is trying very hard to get together a simple way of getting a good breeding standard so as to ensure the breed does well and does not degenerate. This is not as simple as it sounds - there are a lot of things which need to be explained and there is clearly a transition which needs to be done to get to a point where breeding is of the highest quality.
One of the things which I have personally learned through watching the process of discussing all these breeding rules is that you need to be open to criticism and to be ready to answer the questions from people - why are things done like this and not like that? Why is this a good dog and not that one?
The questions are not always easy to answer, and sometimes you realise that a mistake has been made, by you or by someone else. When that happens it's best to accept it, correct it if possible, and then move on.
Here we ask a very simple question - why was a certain dog with qualities which seem strange get a certain bonitation code. There might be a perfectly good explanation for it - but an agressive response does not help to advance things. It could be that a mistake was made somewhere or that the bonitation committee decided for whatever reasons to give that code. The reason doesn't matter, but the agressive response that a simple question has received has made me very sad - because it doesn't help anything or anyone.
One has to remember where these things come from. There is the bonitation yes, which is an evaluation against the properties of the standard. Though there are probably different ways of actually doing a bonitation there is only one standard it is the FCI standard and it clearly states:
Quote:
SIZE AND WEIGHT :
Height at withers : Dogs at least 65 cm,
Bitches at least 60 cm.
Weight : Dogs at least 26 kg,
Bitches at least 20 kg.
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So the question of why a dog which fails to comply with the criteria which are clearly defined in the standard is judged to be excellent for breeding (that is what P1 means) is not an unfair one and deserves a simple answer. Could we please have one?
There is the question of how important is really the height for breeding. You need to understand that the height of an animal (or person) is, genetically speaking, a very complex trait. There are at least 20 genes which are known to influence height in humans (and everything indicates at least as many in dogs). The genetic complexity of the height, along with the ease of measuring the phenotype (that is the actual height of the dog) makes it an excellent marker to see if a dog is conforming to everything else it should conform to according to its ancestry. Therefore the question of height is important because it's an easy and obvious way of knowing if the breeding stock is drifting significantly from a genetic point of view from the intended breed characteristics which cannot be so easily measured.
I know it's a little distasteful, but I would need to go back to this point:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Margo
Mirka - let it be.... Or should we start topic about Czech bonitations... And number of Czech breeders which breed with dogs with serious disqalification faults... EVEN YOU....  |
This is a very strong personal attack against the integrity of a breeder Margo. In our case (for those of you who don't know it, Mirka is my wife) it should not be difficult to check - we've owned only two females and there has only been a single litter from our elder female. She's Cira Křivoklátský Atos (link to the wolfdog database:
http://www.wolfdog.org/dbase/d/543) and her bonitation code is A66,5 E3 K1 M5 Oi R1 P5 - not the prettiest of codes, but certainly not one with disqualifying faults. You have met the dog on several occasions Margo so if you could please explain which disqualifying faults you are referring to I would be very interested. If it was simply anger and frustration speaking (which happens) a simple retraction of the statement would also be most welcome.