Best Promotion Of Purebred Dogs

[raz]

Lots of things turn people's heads, not just good conformation.

Sure for sure. There is a staffy x pug in my local dog park. He turns heads every time he's there - the ugliest bloody thing you've ever seen in your life. His owner loves him and thinks he's beautiful and he gets great care so that's all that matters, but I've driven by with non doggy friends who have all said the same thing - shit that is ugly. They also point out other dogs and say - that's really beautiful! They wouldnt have a clue why one dog strikes them as shit ugly and another strikes them as really stunning. That's when it's our job to have a chat about well bred animals.

[SpikesPuppy]

Lots of things turn people's heads, not just good conformation.

Sure for sure. There is a staffy x pug in my local dog park. He turns heads every time he's there - the ugliest bloody thing you've ever seen in your life. His owner loves him and thinks he's beautiful and he gets great care so that's all that matters, but I've driven by with non doggy friends who have all said the same thing - shit that is ugly. They also point out other dogs and say - that's really beautiful! They wouldnt have a clue why one dog strikes them as shit ugly and another strikes them as really stunning. That's when it's our job to have a chat about well bred animals.

A lot of people think Bulldogs are ugly, Chinese Cresteds, Greyhounds etc. Ive had people say to my face how ugly my Borders are and they are all well bred, move beautifully and are in show coat.

Beauty vs ugly is subjective IMO.

People used to tell me how amazing my Dobe x looked and wanted to know what breed she was, occasionally had ppl stop their cars to ask. Likewise our kelpie x whippet, some people weredrawn to her.

I agree we need to get our well bred dogs out there but I wouldn't go as far as to say people cannot be as impressed by a mongrel as a pure bred.

[ravenau1]

Lots of things turn people's heads, not just good conformation.

Sure for sure. There is a staffy x pug in my local dog park. He turns heads every time he's there - the ugliest bloody thing you've ever seen in your life. His owner loves him and thinks he's beautiful and he gets great care so that's all that matters, but I've driven by with non doggy friends who have all said the same thing - shit that is ugly. They also point out other dogs and say - that's really beautiful! They wouldnt have a clue why one dog strikes them as shit ugly and another strikes them as really stunning. That's when it's our job to have a chat about well bred animals.

A lot of people think Bulldogs are ugly, Chinese Cresteds, Greyhounds etc. Ive had people say to my face how ugly my Borders are and they are all well bred, move beautifully and are in show coat.

Beauty vs ugly is subjective IMO.

People used to tell me how amazing my Dobe x looked and wanted to know what breed she was, occasionally had ppl stop their cars to ask. Likewise our kelpie x whippet, some people weredrawn to her.

I agree we need to get our well bred dogs out there but I wouldn't go as far as to say people cannot be as impressed by a mongrel as a pure bred.

I don't necessarily see it as a cross breed vs purebreed issue. People who are into purebreeds want to promote them, that's understandable. Just because a well bred purebreed is a lovely thing to see, it doesn't mean that there aren't lovely looking cross breeds too, just my opinion. Some dogs, regardless of breed have a natural 'presence' that draws people to them.

I've often wondered how owners of unusual dogs ever get anywhere on their walks with all the people that must come up to them! I know I do it myself :rolleyes: It's nice when people don't mind and will have chat to you about the dog

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

Lots of things turn people's heads, not just good conformation.

Sure for sure. There is a staffy x pug in my local dog park. He turns heads every time he's there - the ugliest bloody thing you've ever seen in your life. His owner loves him and thinks he's beautiful and he gets great care so that's all that matters, but I've driven by with non doggy friends who have all said the same thing - shit that is ugly. They also point out other dogs and say - that's really beautiful! They wouldnt have a clue why one dog strikes them as shit ugly and another strikes them as really stunning. That's when it's our job to have a chat about well bred animals.

A lot of people think Bulldogs are ugly, Chinese Cresteds, Greyhounds etc. Ive had people say to my face how ugly my Borders are and they are all well bred, move beautifully and are in show coat.

Beauty vs ugly is subjective IMO.

People used to tell me how amazing my Dobe x looked and wanted to know what breed she was, occasionally had ppl stop their cars to ask. Likewise our kelpie x whippet, some people weredrawn to her.

I agree we need to get our well bred dogs out there but I wouldn't go as far as to say people cannot be as impressed by a mongrel as a pure bred.

are they blind :rolleyes: borders are beautiful!!!

on a serious note, i think that by luck and chance some cross breeds can look amazing and can move beautifully so its not just pure breds that can do this BUT in my experience it is a very rare thing for a cross bred to have amazing conformation.

i think there is more chance to have a pure bred that has good conformation than it is a cross bred.

for me, this has nothing to do with how much they are loved or how good a cross bred is as a pet, its about grace and beauty and conforming to type.

[pawsaroundoz]

One persons ugly is anothers drop dead lovely!

But I agree that the best promotion for well bred sound in body and mind pedigree dogs is having them out and about doing things and meeting lots of people - the usual line about visiting a dog show to meet ant talk with the breeders always makes me cringe, from my experiance of dog shows that could well put a lot of people off!

Think about it, think about some of the conversations that can be overheard, think about the groups of people sitting under their tents in what a visitor to a dog sho would perceive to be a 'clique' rightly or wrongly....what dog shows could really do with are some people on hand at a desk or the show office to escort visitors to the breeders of the breed/breeds of their choice and to actually introduce them so that it is not such a daunting situation.

If you are walking your fit healthy friendly and sound pedigree dog and some one approaches you take the time to talk or if you are in a genuine hurry maybe have a card handy to pass on (even if you are not a breeder yourself) so that you can talk to the person later.

[SpikesPuppy]

Lots of things turn people's heads, not just good conformation.

Sure for sure. There is a staffy x pug in my local dog park. He turns heads every time he's there - the ugliest bloody thing you've ever seen in your life. His owner loves him and thinks he's beautiful and he gets great care so that's all that matters, but I've driven by with non doggy friends who have all said the same thing - shit that is ugly. They also point out other dogs and say - that's really beautiful! They wouldnt have a clue why one dog strikes them as shit ugly and another strikes them as really stunning. That's when it's our job to have a chat about well bred animals.

A lot of people think Bulldogs are ugly, Chinese Cresteds, Greyhounds etc. Ive had people say to my face how ugly my Borders are and they are all well bred, move beautifully and are in show coat.

Beauty vs ugly is subjective IMO.

People used to tell me how amazing my Dobe x looked and wanted to know what breed she was, occasionally had ppl stop their cars to ask. Likewise our kelpie x whippet, some people weredrawn to her.

I agree we need to get our well bred dogs out there but I wouldn't go as far as to say people cannot be as impressed by a mongrel as a pure bred.

are they blind borders are beautiful!!!

on a serious note, i think that by luck and chance some cross breeds can look amazing and can move beautifully so its not just pure breds that can do this BUT in my experience it is a very rare thing for a cross bred to have amazing conformation.

i think there is more chance to have a pure bred that has good conformation than it is a cross bred.

for me, this has nothing to do with how much they are loved or how good a cross bred is as a pet, its about grace and beauty and conforming to type.

I agree with you, but I found the comment I quoted a little, I dunno, bothersome. I think it was the use of the word ugly perhaps. Just cos a dog is ugly to you, doesn't mean it's conformation cannot be perfect and visa versa.

I think both my dobe x and the kelpie x were butt ugly and they did have shite congormation but it didn't stop them taking peoples breath away, that's what I'm trying to say.

As for Borders, well, again it's subjective. I don't think I've ever looked at mine and gone 'crap you're a beautiful dog' :rolleyes: cute yes but beautiful? Not so much.

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

i would love to see pet owners taking their pedigree dogs to an organised "meet the pure bred" day so the public can see that they aren't just show dogs, they make terrific pets.

it would be great if this could happen in every state and territory on the same day as a PR exercise.

what fun it would be

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

oh i know what it's like SP, people have said to me about jaxx that she "has a face only a mother could love" and i think she is gorgeous.

i just laugh at them because they are a bit ignorant of the qualities of a boston and if they spend any time with her they soon change their minds because she is quite endearing.

eta i do think borders are beautiful especially when they are going about their job, my oh my they are gorgrous

Edited November 28, 2010 by Jaxx'sBuddy

[koalathebear]

At the end of the day, what turns most people's heads is what they personally find unusual/interesting/attractive/cute. You could take the most beautiful, stunningly conformed Pedigree Little Dog down the street and some people would run screaming for the hills because they just hate little dogs and couldn't give a damn how conformed they were. Similarly, you could take the most beautiful, stunningly conformed Pedigree Large Dog down the street and others would run away in blind terror.

As mentioned, in reality, how unusual the breed is or how unusual the dog looks will have more of an impact on the average person than just being a well-bred, conformed dog. A dog with different coloured-eyes, dramatic markings, a rare dog, a dog that is unusually small or large - all of these will draw attention regardless of conformance to standard. If you take a garden variety labrador or Kelpie down the road, chances are you won't get that much comment no matter how much a breeder/shower is likely to exclaim over it.

Some find pug faces cute, others find them ugly. Even within the breed you'll see different standards of beauty (GSD hindquarters for instance), GSD/White Shepherd. Working line/show line dog.

There are quite a few well-bred stunningly conformed dogs out there that I'm sure many of the general public would find positively hideous but even the dog that won the ugliest dog in the world competition had an owner that loved it. When a beautiful, stunningly conformed dog is taken down the road, I really think it's only going to be those in the somewhat exclusive 'in the know' club that will fully appreciate it for its conformance and be exclaiming over its hocks, teeth and eye sockets. The rest of the world will judge it by their own standards of beauty/appearance and whether it is a well-behaved or socialised dog. In this particular instance, it is probably fair to say that the standards by which most people judge a dog isn't that different from the standard we use to like/love the appearance of a human. It's an emotive response - we can love something that objectively speaking is imperfect. When we love or admire another human or a dog, we can discard or even make a virtue of a fault/flaw. I realise there's a distinction between cute/beautiful and 'well confirmed and put together', I'm just trying to decide if the theory posited in the original post is true.

I know this isn't the same if you're a breeder/show dogs/have had experience breeding/showing dogs but let's face it, even though I don't have the statistics to paw at my keyboard, I can guarantee that the percentage of the population who have formal breeding/showing experience is pretty small ... Take it further, to fully appreciate a beautiful, stunningly conformed dog you also have to have breeding/showing experience within that breed. For instance, I found out when asking my Kelpie questions about colour that heaps and heaps of people who are very experienced within their own chosen breed were apparently not describing Kelpie colours accurately. If I took a beautiful, stunningly conformed working line Kelpie and put it before a breeder who was not familiar with Kelpies, I'm not sure that he or she would fully appreciate the beauty of that Kelpie. Recently there was a thread about wonky SBT paws and while some people were saying that those paws were a Big No-No, a breeder of another breed said that such wonky paws were a Somewhat Smaller No-No because with his/her breed, such paws could improve with age.

OH and I aren't dog experts by any stretch of the imagination and we have no knowledge of conformance to standard but we do love dogs so when we see a dog, we're usually trying to guess the breed or combination. Then we remark on the behaviour like: "Wow, it's so calm and well-behaved" or "Look how it's pulling its owner along". For us as spectators, whether it's purebred or crossbred is usually irrelevant - we care more about how well-behaved it is.

I think that the underlying premise of the thread as contemplated by the poster does have a degree of validity in the sense that if more well-bred, conformed, well-behaved and socialised dogs are out there in public for people to see, then they these dogs have more visibility and exposure to the members of the general public who may have a predisposition to be interested in that type of dog. To take the analogy further that some of you have used that your pedigree dog is like a beautiful masterpiece of art - if you want more exposure to the artwork, it should be on display in an art gallery rather than locked away in a private collection. You are trying to tell people that "having a well-bred, beautifully conformed dog is not just for the snobby elite - you, too can have one."

That being said, I guess the reason I found the original post a bit weird was because I had always assumed that well-bred, conformed dogs were already 'out there' because not only were they being shown etc, like your garden variety dog they also had to be walked for exercise so I had bizarre and wild visions of owners of well-bred, stunningly conformed dogs only walking their dogs in secret laneways and alleys where they could not be seen by Others.

Also, I can't help thinking that for some breeds, exclusivity and rareness is part of the charm. I can imagine that for some people, if everyone started trotting around with one of their sorts of dogs, no matter how well-bred, beautiful and stunningly conformed it was, they'd be a bit miffed. Kind of like how one used to be in an elite clique that liked so and so singer before she went mainstream. :rolleyes: I think a lot of people may enjoy the relative exclusivity of their 'club' and may not want the great unwashed masses joining. It's a bit like how guide dogs are an amazing 'ad' for the labrador but most people don't realise that labradors aren't born that well-trained and you actually have to work at it ...

Edited November 28, 2010 by koalathebear

[raz]

Beauty vs ugly is subjective IMO.

It's not about beauty -v- ugly. It's about a dog that's well put together. Can we focus on that? A well bred dog. The dog in my example is obviously not well bred because anyone can see he was put together wrong. Seeing a dog put together right is something to be proud of.

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

Beauty vs ugly is subjective IMO.

It's not about beauty -v- ugly. It's about a dog that's well put together. Can we focus on that? A well bred dog. The dog in my example is obviously not well bred because anyone can see he was put together wrong. Seeing a dog put together right is something to be proud of.

:rolleyes: and i believe joe public sees that and looks closer.

[Are You Serious Jo]

What some purebreds have is presence, and all the animals I've seen with it have been well bred. The attitude plus confirmation give it presence and that is the animal that really captures your attention for the right reasons.

[koalathebear]

What some purebreds have is presence, and all the animals I've seen with it have been well bred. The attitude plus confirmation give it presence and that is the animal that really captures your attention for the right reasons.

Does nurture (training and upbringing) have anything to do with this 'presence'? Will a beautifully bred, stunningly conformed purebred dog that has been neglected in socialisation and training sense still have this presence? Surely presence must be the amalgam of a number of variables including the owner? This beautifully bred, stunningly conformed purebred dog under the care of High Lady Froolaloo will probably fare quite differently the hands of Mr. Chopper Boganhead or is this je ne sais quoi presence to which you refer arise purely out of the breeding?

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

What some purebreds have is presence, and all the animals I've seen with it have been well bred. The attitude plus confirmation give it presence and that is the animal that really captures your attention for the right reasons.

Does nurture (training and upbringing) have anything to do with this 'presence'? Will a beautifully bred, stunningly conformed purebred dog that has been neglected in socialisation and training sense still have this presence? Surely presence must be the amalgam of a number of variables including the owner? This beautifully bred, stunningly conformed purebred dog under the care of High Lady Froolaloo will probably fare quite differently the hands of Mr. Chopper Boganhead or is this je ne sais quoi presence to which you refer arise purely out of the breeding?

does it matter? i dont think so, imo what really matters is that well bred dogs are great for promoting pure bred dogs...nothing wrong with that and that's what this thread is about :rolleyes:

[koalathebear]

does it matter? i dont think so, imo what really matters is that well bred dogs are great for promoting pure bred dogs...nothing wrong with that and that's what this thread is about

It matters to me because it's interesting. :rolleyes: I'm not trying to derail the thread, I just like to understand things better.

[SpikesPuppy]

What some purebreds have is presence, and all the animals I've seen with it have been well bred. The attitude plus confirmation give it presence and that is the animal that really captures your attention for the right reasons.

Does nurture (training and upbringing) have anything to do with this 'presence'? Will a beautifully bred, stunningly conformed purebred dog that has been neglected in socialisation and training sense still have this presence? Surely presence must be the amalgam of a number of variables including the owner? This beautifully bred, stunningly conformed purebred dog under the care of High Lady Froolaloo will probably fare quite differently the hands of Mr. Chopper Boganhead or is this je ne sais quoi presence to which you refer arise purely out of the breeding?

does it matter? i dont think so, imo what really matters is that well bred dogs are great for promoting pure bred dogs...nothing wrong with that and that's what this thread is about :rolleyes:

I think it DOES matter- if the dog doesn't have self-confidence and hold it's head high, instead slinking around as though the sky is falling- it's pedigree and conformation are a non issue and it fails to catch your eye unless you are specifically looking for something in that dog.

[espinay2]

Commenting from the point of view of my own breed at least, that presence can be seen whether the dog is au'naturale out in a paddock somewhere or in the show ring. It is in the dog - you can see it in its outline, its movement and its attitude. Certianly good presentation and training can build on that, but good presentation and training doesn't create it - it has to be there to begin with.

[SpikesPuppy]

oh i know what it's like SP, people have said to me about jaxx that she "has a face only a mother could love" and i think she is gorgeous.

i just laugh at them because they are a bit ignorant of the qualities of a boston and if they spend any time with her they soon change their minds because she is quite endearing.

eta i do think borders are beautiful especially when they are going about their job, my oh my they are gorgrous

Are you talking about Terriers or Collies? I'm not aware of any Terriers in Aus who are fortunate enough to hunt with a hound pack. :rolleyes:

[SpikesPuppy]

Beauty vs ugly is subjective IMO.

It's not about beauty -v- ugly. It's about a dog that's well put together. Can we focus on that? A well bred dog. The dog in my example is obviously not well bred because anyone can see he was put together wrong. Seeing a dog put together right is something to be proud of.

You introduced the ugly vs beautiful issue with your analogy :rolleyes: I'm glad that it's ok for you to derail the topic but not okay for others to to the same.

[raz]

You introduced the ugly vs beautiful issue with your analogy :rolleyes: I'm glad that it's ok for you to derail the topic but not okay for others to to the same.

Huh? Report me if you think I hijacked the thread.