Gundogs: Where are the dual champions? | The Shooting Gazette
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The sad thing about the showring, just as the Vizsla winning Crufts is that everyone rushes out and wants to use that dog over their bitches...irrespective of bloodlines etc etc etc...it is the human factor at play here because it is deemed 'important' to some that they can boast a litter from 'the' Crufts winner..if you take the human factor out of the showring, what is there, seriously, to those who just want a honest hunting dog.
As the majority of us are hunters, we 'want', no 'need' a dog that, well, surprizingly enough (ahem!!), has good prey drive, has a tractable temperament and a conformation that will maintain the dog in his work for, with luck and care, for over a decade.
The big thing in all dog breeding MUST be assurance of conformation. The dog must be sound and some may say that this quality can be assessed in the showring...well, no assurance on that one. Fads in the showring come and go. Bloodlines in so called working lines can manifest themselves in some shocking conformation...take the queen anne leg angulations of some springer working lines...long backs, cow hocks and so on. Labradors in both the showring and the field with boofy coarse heads, long bodies on short legs... Saying that, I believe the dog while being sound in conformation must be correct to his standard. And you do not need a showring to assess that.
And the cry from some working line people that it is not what the dog looks like that counts, it is how he is going to perform on Opening Morning.
The twain between the showring and field could meet, but invariably it is popped in the too hard basket for most of us to even allow another minute in comtemplation. And you could say, fairly enough, but there is often, and sadly in my view, an overwhelming glitch to the showring and that is, in a word pretension. I have exhibited in group winners at both Ribbon Parades and Championship shows. Never, ever in my mind, will it equal a flushed pheasant, brought down and retrieved by a soft mouthed, prey driven gundog after walking the riverbank with the dog showing his generations of careful administration of bloodlines for the field. Or having your young dog be the 'last dog standing' in an exciting wild game trial. Why. Because, as we know, the essence of the gundog is a partnership, an ancient one between human and dog. And that, as far as I am concerned, is how it should be.