It occurs to me that on the whole, a mouth fault is viewed by the majority, as the ultimate fault. I wondered what your thoughts were. Why is a mouth fault regarded as worse than any other fault? After all we accept that every dog has faults. Incorrect toplines, straight shoulders, poor tail sets, poor movement you name it, the possibilties are endless, but a mouth fault!!!!!!

Opinions anybody?
Dawn R.

I don't consider it an ultimate fault but certainly a major one as it can ruin a breeds features. However, a dog should be considered a whole but I certainly wouldn't breed from a dog with a mouth fault as there are plenty out there that don't have one!

Jesse

No, it's not the ultimate fault, though it can be very severe and cause a dog pain and difficulty in eating,  but it seems to be one of the most difficult to correct, unfortunately. It seems to be very dominant.

No, not the ultimate fault, but a very serious fault, as all structural faults are - and also very difficult to erradicate once in a line!

a bad mouth can be correct in a breed ing progamme,you just got to came shaw that the dog with the bad mouth not to be breed inbreeding or line breed,the best to do a out cross.

then watch that litter grow and watch the sign and keep records of the puppies and the dam,both pearnets got to have the same gene to produce the a puppie with a bad mouth.

but you will not  know if the dam is a carrier of the gene beacuse you cannot dna that problem at the moment.

i was told bye a  top gentices not to through the dog out with the bath water,if thats just 1 fault to many good ones then put the dog into a breeding progamme but to watch the results and tell the truth.

some judges are hot of this in the show ring some will over rider the problem if the dog has better quailty,

like you say it one fault.

There are alot of judges who belive that a mouth fault is not the worst fault a dog can have, but at the same time it it is much worst the wrong colour, not quite right angulation etc.

Rox

Hi there Dawn

In a breed especially one like Irish, the head makes up a very important part of the breed standard. If an Irish Setters mouth has the wrong bite it will affect how the muzzle looks in profile which I suspect will be the same in the case of most other breeds. Most of the faults you picked up on are easier to line breed out than a bad mouth, so I suppose this is the reason a bad mouth is frowned upon by many judges, also in my experience after reading many judging citique's bad mouths are commented on a very regular basis, as is movement.

Alli