Chickentrain's Dog Q&A

[black_cat]

Ok, so, once upon a time, dogs were either registered, or they weren't. If your dog was registered, you could show them at any AKC event and venue, and if you bred them to another registered dog, you registered the Whole Entire litter, and then the future owners could also show and breed their dogs.

Sounds like a pretty solid plan to me

But then, the AKC said, "We'll "register" dogs, and then we'll REALLY register dogs. We'll let breeders decide which individual 8 week old puppy gets REAL papers, and who gets a pretty document to toss in a drawer."

Sounds like a less solid plan

And breeders said "Yay! We have all the power over who gets to breed and which dogs get bred! YOU can't have one of MY dogs..." and promptly started handing out "papers" which don't let you show your dog or register puppies. Unless you were a friend. Or gave them a few hundred extra $$$. Or knew someone who knew someone.

Uh oh

They justified this by saying things like "Look, this puppy has a white toenail, it's against the standard! This puppy will probably get a half inch too big, so couldn't be shown anyway. See? It's working"

Does that stuff really matter that much when showing?

And in the meantime, all those dogs who might have had great, healthy hearts, or stellar temperament, or rocked working competitions, and who absolutely COULD have contributed positively to the breed white toenail or no (and soon, no one even bothered justifying it, they just hoarded papers to their little cliques) were culled from the breeding population.

Oh no!

What happens when you narrow a breeding population down to 15% to 3% of individuals? (The average amount of truly registered puppies per year per breed)

Not....good...things?

It's called a genetic bottleneck, and inevitably leads to vastly decreased health due to inbreeding.
Breeders everywhere = :Surprised Pikachu face:
But do they admit they're wrong and drop the program? Nope!! They start pointing fingers, casting shade and double down and register less dogs.

Nobody likes to admit they're wrong......this doesn't really seem like the AKC is doing a good job managing breed standards/breeders

Which means less people getting into dogs, less showing, making it harder to earn championships, meaning these people now have to breed dogs who don't have show-titles, after years of bad-mouthing people who breed dogs without show titles, sending more people to backyard breeders.

That makes sense

Breeders everywhere = :Surprised Pikachu face: again. Double down again because of all the "backyard breeders"

Some breeds have actually had ZERO fully registered dogs for a couple of years. That goes on and it becomes breed extinction.

Oh, no that's awful! I wonder if they'll change it back?

More clear?

100%.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Sounds like a pretty solid plan to me

Sounds like a less solid plan

Uh oh

Does that stuff really matter that much when showing?

Oh no!

Not....good...things?

Nobody likes to admit they're wrong......this doesn't really seem like the AKC is doing a good job managing breed standards/breeders

That makes sense

Oh, no that's awful! I wonder if they'll change it back?

100%.

Well, i know in rabbits and poultry that even weights or nail colors can severely lower placing or even dq the animal

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I've decided that my closet would be a great cat place, because it's easy to gate off, and it has a bunch of low shelves and stuff that my cat would like. I'll have to clean it, but I put some cozy blankets and pillows, a scratcher, food and water, etc.

I don't think a cat would be happy living in a closet.

 

[black_cat]

I don't think a cat would be happy living in a closet.

I don't mean force the cat to live in a closet always and forever, I mean put a puppy gate with a cat sized door across the entrance so that the cat has a spot to escape the puppy.

 

[black_cat]

NGL a blue merle corgi seems like a pretty nice dog for if I were to live in an apartment, like, after college or something

 

[RiverOtter]

Yes, that stuff matters when showing in conformation. However, there are animals where conformation showing makes lots of sense, and animals where it doesn't. In dogs, it should be a minor part of a bigger picture, not the be-all and end-all.

In pigs, you can make great advancements when breeding show champions. A pig that can rock the show ring is a pig that has grown to X size by X age and has nice, thick hams, broad shoulders and back which is nice, meaty chops, a long belly (bacon) with 12+ teats, which shows fertility. Good conformation tells you 95% of what you need to know about an animal. And the fact that you can bring it into a show ring and handle it tells you a lot of the rest, as a highstrung animal doesn't have good gain and a mean one is no good on a farm. You can judge hard for color, because 90% of it's offspring are headed to the kitchen regardless, so why not be picky about the little things too?

Dogs ... not so much, is it? Dogs of all different shapes, sizes, ear-sets, coats and colors can hunt. Or herd. Or guard. They live in our houses, sleep on our beds, we trust these predators with fangs with the lives of our precious children. Yes, we want a German Shepherd to look like a German Shepherd and not like a Doberman, but suddenly that 1/4 inch too high earset takes on a bit less importance. EVERY dog in a litter is going to be a part of someone's family, so all manner of things that don't show up in the show ring become wildly important, like good heart health. That show pig can have a heart with a defect, who cares? Even the breeding stock is going to be in the kitchen by the time it's 5 years old. But a dog? You're going to care, you're going to care a LOT. If your Bernese Mountain Dog has too much white to show, you can still live with that dog. They can draft and play and do SAR. But the dog with the bad heart, you literally can't, you can only mourn.

 

[black_cat]

Dogs ... not so much, is it? Dogs of all different shapes, sizes, ear-sets, coats and colors can hunt. Or herd. Or guard. They live in our houses, sleep on our beds, we trust these predators with fangs with the lives of our precious children. Yes, we want a German Shepherd to look like a German Shepherd and not like a Doberman, but suddenly that 1/4 inch too high earset takes on a bit less importance. EVERY dog in a litter is going to be a part of someone's family, so all manner of things that don't show up in the show ring become wildly important, like good heart health. That show pig can have a heart with a defect, who cares? Even the breeding stock is going to be in the kitchen by the time it's 5 years old. But a dog? You're going to care, you're going to care a LOT. If your Bernese Mountain Dog has too much white to show, you can still live with that dog. They can draft and play and do SAR. But the dog with the bad heart, you literally can't, you can only mourn.

Send this exact paragraph to the akc people, that is just,,,,,,very well thought out and resonates very well with me

 

[Nero70002]

Oh yeah, in the rarebreed game are you guys able to contact moderators or anyone? I don’t think I can if I don’t make another account and I can’t because I have 1 email and it says not to. I really want to play .

 

[JacinLarkwell]

NGL a blue merle corgi seems like a pretty nice dog for if I were to live in an apartment, like, after college or something

They're rather active dogs. I'm not sure they would do well just in an apartment

 

[black_cat]

They're rather active dogs. I'm not sure they would do well just in an apartment

Well crap

tbh I don't think that I'll do well in an apartment either, I'm not really a city person
but apartments are much more affordable than houses for someone that's trying to pay of college debt