OK. What I was upset about is the fact that what have long been known as utility birds are suddenly being renamed "pet quality" - which is a misnomer since show birds and utility birds generally parted company before 1910. I would like to have some Dominiques that are closer to the standard, but I lack the expertise to breed for anything other than production.
You know - I love the Dom personality so much that whatever it is bred or classified as - utility or pet or show quality - is immaterial to me since I'm not a show circuit person and never have been. I love a certain number of breeds for different reasons. To my disappointment not all the breeds I love can be mixed in one backyard flock so I have to pick what is most important to me.
What characteristics are most important to me is that the breed first and foremost is healthy and not disabled like crossbeak, etc, plays "nice" with other breeds in the flock, that it has some decent egg productivity somewhere in the 4-5 eggs/week output, that it is a good forager, that it is lightweight especially on the feed, and that it is not an assertive breed that turns to aggression in its adult years. Now the Dom has the added benefit of being able to brood its own, has an outstanding, unafraid, curious personality, and is people and flock friendly. Size of eggs can be medium and maybe occasionally large but not as important to me as the temperament and usefulness of the bird in a backyard flock. If you have chickens and are housing and feeding them as a hobby the eggs do come into some importance but has to be balanced with a good temperament and self-reliant forager. I've had some lazy pig-eating breeds with low egg output and that is not a favourable characteristic in any breed category IMHO.
As for breeding show birds to "standard" there is no perfect bird. You can ask almost any rare bird breeder that "perfection" is elusive. Even the "perfect" birds have some minor flaw mentioned by the judges and is all subjective from judge to judge. I've talked with breeders who will not introduce new stock into their breeding programs because they are afraid of introducing some unbeknownest hidden trait from "new" bloodlines. Some have kept their breeding programs closed to their own flocks mixing and matching breeding pens until they get a satisfactory combination of type and color within their own lines. In this scenario you don't breed brother to sister as that is too much in-breeding but ok for father to daughter, etc. I'm talking about well-known decades breeders who have published breeding books and articles on the subject. Don't be discouraged as even these renowned breeders are on a continual path to reach perfection.
I talked with one breeder who is trying to perfect his Blue Breda and with no published info on the subject has resorted to researching an old out-of-print publication on the breeding of Blue Andalusians to get his breeding info about his Blue birds. I thought that was a very resourceful thing to do. I've talked with another breeder who improved his Buff Leghorn cockerels by infusing Phoenix, and Buff Minorcas into his line to improve type and color and the result was stunning. These are conversations I've had with breeders of chickens other than Doms. To me the challenge of Dom breeding is greater because obviously it would be difficult to cross-breed and still keep the integrity of the Dom clean. Such a sweet little chicken I would hate to see it compromised with infused breeding like they did to the BRs - today it's hit-and-miss whether you get a good BR or not with that mixed breed history in it. With the Dom as the BRs basic history you would think they would all have the same good temperament but since game bird or Malay and other breeds were infused you don't always get a calm BR - some are downright aggressive as we've found out.