Showing dogs?

Showing in conformation tests to see if your breeding stock is "up to snuff". Conformation shows see if your dog is close to (i.e. 'conforms to') the breed standard of what the dog should be.

If you get enough points and major wins to earn your dog the title 'Champion', you know he/she is breeding quality. If you never win, you know your dog isn't of quality to reproduce.

Well the simple answer is that you should not breed unless you are breeding to better the breed. The only way to make sure you are bettering the breed is to show the dog and prove that the dog is the best of breed, conformation and several other things.

There are so may dogs that are breed to make money are to just have puppies that the pounds are over flowing! It is partly the fault of breeders too that make you sign a contract that says you will not breed but they never blacken the box on the papers to make sure the person will not breed.

Breed is someting that cost alot of money for all the test that need to be done before the breeding and all the things pupies need after they are born and in new home, Most of the time Even Good breeders do not even break even.

Hope this helps

Sometimes nothing at all. If you need a working dog that hunts or herds than breeding only for physical traits doesn't make sense. It would be best to get a breeder who breeds for show quality and the traits that are most important in the breed.

For instance, it's good to have a show quality Labrador, but it's better to have a "field" Lab if you're going to use them for hunting. Field Labs are more lean, tall and have a lighter body. It would be best to have a breeder whose dogs have consistently has national field champions in their line or at least master hunter trained. It shows the sires have enough smarts to accomplish these levels and their puppies have a better chance of having those qualities too.

I've talked to Lab breeders who show and I've talked to Lab breeders whose dogs have incredible hunting qualifications. They will scoff at each other. Personally, I think being a great pet is the best quality of all.

If your dog can't prove itself in the show ring - meaning, if its an ideal "specimen" of the breed - you shouldn't be breeding it. Breeding is supposed to be to better the breed and to eliminate health problems associated with the breed. When dogs are shown, judges are picking the ones that best represent what the dog's written description is. There's a written standard that all dogs in a breed are judged against. You can view them on the AKC's website. There are lots of health tests that should be done before breeding too. You wouldn't want to breed dogs who are prone to hip dysplasia or other inherited problems because you'd just be setting their puppies up for a lifetime of difficulty. Its just generally viewed as the responsible thing to do, to have proof that your dog is an excellent example of its breed and not just a pet store product (which are generally the poorest quality of a breed you can find.)

Because having a purebred is no indication of quality.

I actually take things one step farther... I insist the dog be capable of doing the work it was intended to do... Which, in the case of my Samoyeds, means they've been run on a team AND have a herding title before breeding. In the case of the Bernese, they have the capability to cart and have a good solid working dog temperament in line with their original purpose as a farm dog. If I were to go into a "toy" breed I would insist that they were superb companion animals with no tendency towards biting... unless that were part of their breed heritage.

There are thousands of poorly bred dogs being euthanized daily. Why add to that number?

I show my dogs...I also sometimes breed my dogs, I also do private rescue for my breed, and others. IME, you MUST care enough to study your chosen breed, learn about you chosen breeds parent club, learn the AKC standard, learn what health problems plague your chosen breed, learn what health tests you need to perform on your dogs to do your best to avoid these health problems. Then even with all this knowledge, you still dont know enough to breed, from there you have to pick your individual dog and show them, learn the art of presenting and showing a dog. Many people are what is called "kennel blind" meaning they can only see that the dogs are their precious babies and cannot identify in an unbiased manner any faults the dog may display which go against the breeds standard.

Truly breeding dogs with the dogs best interest at heart, is not about simply making more dogs, it is not about money, its not about creating more pets to contribute to the already monumental population of unwanted pets. Just becuz a young teenager CAN reproduce, dosent necessarily mean she SHOULD reproduce. It is the same with dogs.... To me, and to the breeders I associate with, breeding dogs is about breeding BETTER dogs. You have to know your standard, you have to have unbiased opinions on the structural quality of your dog (thats where showing and the judges opinions comes in). It would, to me, be more appropriate to say that if you are not breeding to improve, you have no right breeding at all. That is just MY opinion. In order to breed to improve, you have to know your standard, you have to show and you have to be prepared to do weeks and months (years even) worth of research FIRST to ensure the dogs you want to breed at least can satisfy more than just having a "cute factor" and "all the neccessary equipment" requirements.

Only the best dogs should be bred. Many bad breeders breed mediocre dogs to bad dogs... creating mediocre puppies. They still are great pets (usually) but medical bills are higher, they may not look like their breed and they don't always have the instinct to act like their breed (for example, herding).

Good breeders seek to prove that they're not breeding mediocre dogs. Part of this is by proving, against competition, that their dog looks and acts and is structurally sound like the purebred he's supposed to be.

We've all seen or heard of the person that breeds a really BAD dog (the kind that bites or has really poor structure or bad health or just doesn't look like a purebred at all) and says "My schnookie wookie is just Mr. Perfect and I want more babies just like him."

Of course he's not Mr. Perfect and everyone can see that--except his owner. Showing gives you the opportunity to have people who aren't your dog's owner or breeder evaluate your dog's value to contribute to the genepool. (Of course, there are more aspects that can't be evaluated in a conformation ring--such as health--but conformation is one aspect.)

Because showing selects for the best of the dogs out there. With millions of dogs being euthanized yearly, why breed crap????????

The GOAL of a good breeding program is to breed better than what you started with!!! That means you select the best to breed.

If you have a dog that is FULL of faults why breed it?? Just because it has all it's "parts"??? Not every dog should be bred. There are things that are NOT good that are passed on down through the lines. If we can prevent bad traits from getting into the gene pool, we are doing a good thing.

And I am sure we have all seen dogs that are a breed, but look NOTHING like the breed they are. Who wnats to pay money for a dog that looks nothing like it should??????

A breeder should either show their dogs in conformation OR put working titles on them in whatever field the breed was intended for (i.e. hunting field trials for bassets hounds). This is in order to have an OUTSIDE evaluation of our dog's quality and worthiness for breeding.

We all love our dogs, and left to our own devices it's natural for us to believe that OUR dogs ARE good enough for breeding. Showing and trialing, along with other independent health and temperament evaluations, are a reality check.

In reality it is so YOU can recognize a quality dog, secondary to that is proving that your dog is good quality.

If you have never shown dogs of your particular breed, how would you know if you are looking at proper conformation. Remember that it is perfectly normal for a person to think their dog is the best ever regardless of how bad it really is.

probably because once you get into the show world, you learn a lot about the breed and the dog and how a true dog of that breed is supposed to look and stand, weight, just little things that you wouldn't think of. its not just about breeding dogs, if you want it to have the true AKC name it has to fit so many standards.