Very few issues divide dog lovers as much as the question of whether or not breeding is something that should be done.
On one hand you have the so called pure breed enthusiasts who would not even consider anything other than a pedigree dog. On the other hand you have people screaming and yelling to stop all breeding altogether.
Both positions are equally wrong.
There was a time when breeding dogs was not about looks but about talent. Man needed dogs that could perform a certain task better than any other animal on earth. The original philosophy of dog breeding was “form follows function”.
That in fact is 100 percent correct. Let’s say you wanted breed a dog with more power then you breed the most powerful males to the most powerful females. If you keep doing this then inevitably the dogs will start to look more and more muscular… “Form follows function”.
When doggie beauty pageants became all the rage the opposite philosophy reared it’s ugly head the first time… “Function follows form”.
This is, of course, completely ridiculous. People literally sat down and said: “What do we want this breed to look like?”
So then they decided to create these ridiculous standards which make no sense to anyone who truly understands dogs. The result was that sheep herding dogs who had been bred previously to be superior herders now could not herd anymore… Guard dogs could not guard anymore and so on…
The bulldog is a breed that used to have the ability to hold its own against a 2000 pound bull. I do not condone the atrocity of bull baiting. I am just trying to point out that doing battle with a 2,000 pound behemoth is a pretty severe test for a 60 pound animal. A challenge that can only be met by a dog that is 100 percent healthy, extremely powerful, athletic and brave beyond compare…
The bulldog of old was all of these things and more.
The AKC and the Kennel Club have taken this magnificent breed and reduced it to a fragile creature which is not able to breed without help, give birth naturally, run for more than a minute or even breathe without immense effort. This just breaks my heart. We took a superior warrior and completely healthy dog and turned it into a science experiment to see how many health issues can a dog have and still walk around this earth for a while.
There are those who believe that the wolf is the superior K9 and canis familiaris is nothing but a mistake man should have never made.
I will use certain breeds and their particular talents to illustrate what, without taking anything from the wolf at all, the dog is often much more than the equal to the wolf.
Canis familiaris has been specialized by man in order to make a particular breed superior to the wolf at a particular and SINGULAR task.
The greyhound is faster than the wolf…
The bloodhound has a better nose than the wolf…
The mastiff is more powerful than the wolf and so on…
The all around best survivor is the wolf but if he has to compete with “specialists” at any given task he is simply out of his league.
In closing…
If the right kind of breeding can produce dogs with talents that put all other animals to shame then I am all for it.
If beauty pageant breeding produces sad cripples just so people can marvel at their own “creations” regardless of what level of suffering this causes the dog, then it needs to stop.
Let us demand breeders to go back to the old breeding philosophy…
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Duration : 0:51:42
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