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Show breeders produce pet dogs. Only a very, very few of what we have born here will end up being shown; I would say it's average to have one or two in a litter end up show quality, even with both parents with Best in Show wins. The AKC ring is extremely difficult and we may go three or four litters before we end up with something that's really stunning. The field breeders will tell you the same thing; most of their dogs end up in excellent pet or play-around-in-the-field homes, and only a few end up excelling on the national level. So even if you don't want to show, if you want a dog who looks and acts the way he should, you go to a breeder who makes sure that happens.
The reason good breeders hit this so hard is because when people buy a dog breed they are doing so because there is something special and unique about that breed. In Goldens typically they want the temperament and the work ethic. A good Golden temperament is not like any other breed's. People who come to me for corgis want the herdiness, the happy personality, the fun, and the size.
The problem is that those unique features - temperament, size, coat, working ability, whatever it is that attracts you to that breed above all others - are REALLY HARD to breed properly. Every dog reverts to the generic. If you don't pay very close attention to selecting for it - which means rejecting those who don't have it - very soon you end up with a dog who may look sort of like a Golden, or at least be the right color, but you don't have that melting temperament, the work ethic, the gorgeous plush head and expression.
The only way to expect consistency is to prove your dogs, and all dogs tend toward the generic or average. That's why breeding for "pet-quality" dogs doesn't work, when it comes down to it. If you think about the perfect Golden - temperament, health, conformation, all of it - as being a 10, if you breed two 9s (which is about where the top show dogs are), you're going to end up with puppies that range from 9 - if you're very lucky - down to about a 6. You put the 6/7 puppies in pet homes, you keep the 8s and 9s.
If, on the other hand, you breed two 6s - call them decent pet dogs - you're going to get dogs that range from 3 to 6, maybe MIRACULOUSLY a 7. And with every generation it continues to slide further and further from the ideal Golden.
If you want to do it right, you take your claim that your dogs are healthy and you prove it - go get their echocardiograms and their elbow checks and their hip x-rays and thyroid tests and CERFs. You can't claim that they're healthy if you haven't done that. If you claim that your dogs have great temperaments, you need to prove it - go compare them to other dogs to show that they are easily trained and trustworthy in public. If you claim that they're good examples of the breed, prove it - by comparing them to other dogs of the same breed. The problem with this, of course, is that now you're a show breeder, and it turns out they weren't so crazy after all
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If you want a dog who is a particular breed because you have needs that only that breed can fill, then you really MUST go to a show breeder or field breeder; anything else and you're buying the name without the reality. If you just want a happy, good dog, you should rescue - you're actually much more likely to get a good dog by going to a rescue, where you can evaluate the individual dogs and find one that you mesh with, than by buying a poor-quality purebred just because it has the label.
Dogs are unique in that we can't cull them and start over. If you have a chicken project and it goes pear-shaped, or you bought poor-quality birds and they didn't turn out to be worth it, they go in the freezer. No harm, no foul. That applies to cows, to sheep, and so on. With dogs, we don't have that freedom. Every deliberately produced generation should be only the very best, because we owe it to the dogs and the people who are stuck with them for the next fifteen years.
Joanna Kimball
blacksheepcardigans.com
