ok, firstly **** I AM NOT WANTING TO START AN ARGUMENT ***********

I am a pretty new doggy person and am still reading and trying to pick up everythign i can - dont believe in doing things ny halves!

I get the impression that, not in general but still quite frequently, people take the KC standards, digest them and then re-translate them into their own ideas which instead of creating a dog standard that the majority adhere to they end up screwing around to "improve" the appearance of the dog for example, a friend of mine has just bought a rodesian ridgeback, beutiful animal but it took him forever to find a breeder that wasnt breeding them too tall - same with some dobeys and rotties, Staffies which now resemble Whippets and of course the English bull.

I know that there are many many responsible breeders out there who are more concerned with the health/temprement of the dog and try to keep it to a standard also. is just a shame that there arnt more of them and less money-grabbing people who think they know what they're doing.

dont know if any of that makes sense but what the hell lol

To be honest, I think that some breeders breed what the market wants at the time - ie very big rotties, smaller lighter staffies etc... most of which can be attributed to greed. For example, the recent craze in breeding crosses with funny, or "unique" names - shi-poo and whatever... its all down to making money IMO.

sickening really isnt it, these are living creatures for gods sake!

But people will do anything to make money :( and when buyers are prepared to pay top money for crossbreeds so they can fall about laughing with their friends because they own a "bull-shih..." puppy, its not suprising there is some callous toe-rag prepared to capitalise on it.

Dogs/cats/pets are money makers unfortunately :(

hmm breed standards lovly arnt they! Everyone reads them in a different way! different people understand it in differnet ways. Also some breeders want a perfect head, other want perfect colour, others want perfect temperment etc etc etc (the list goes on) so breeders breed for what they like and forget about the rest of the body (not everyone does)

For example breed standard of one of my mian breeds has the word "moderate" in it many times. What is moderet? "moderate coat" for example, is it that of a rough collie or is it like a boxer? Moderate is so wide everyone has their own ideas!

hmm.

think ill stick with my irish staffs - not kc recongnised and the only standard is big, friendly and healthy lol.

what more do you really need?!?

With reference to Staffies if you look at the original staffs they are very terrierish ( is there such a word in the english dictionary ??? :rolleyes: ) By this I mean lean and with terrier heads
but I have to say that in shows I find they breed them too heavy and not too lean as suggested.
It does seem to be the heavy chunky dogs that win more
Lel

I like bigger staffies within the height and weight standards - not over muscled but a decent size (again how do you quantify 'decent'?) I've seen them small enough to carry under your arm and that's not right - IMO. :)

Ohhhh you've opened a can of worms now andy lol.