Westminster is the American Crufts.
Personally I am not against dog showing. People who love their dogs having a good day out and meeting other people and other dogs in the breed they love. But I am against breeding dogs to win shows.
Although I am sure there will be some great ethical breeders there are also those who are more interested in the hobby of showing than their individual pet dogs.
A bad example of this is the Sheltie winning best of breed at Westminster
Go check out this blog for more information - and hang around there and have a look at some of the other articles on there.
Basically this dogs sire is deaf and blind
Yup you read that right - he was deliberatly bred from a deaf blind dog.
What is worse is his father is not deaf and blind by accident, a freak of nature, the breeders knew there was a very good chance that some puppies from the mating would turn out to be deaf and blind.
That is because of the pretty merle coat. Without going too much into genetics here a dog gets the information for whether his coat will be solid or merle patterened from its parents. One from each. If both parents give the gene for a solid coat then the dog will have a solid coat. If One parent gives the gene for a solid coat and the other for a merle coat then the dog will have a merle coat.
So a solid coloured dog can only have two copies of the solid coloured gene. So they can only pass on a solid coloured gene
A merle coated dog will have one solid coloured gene and one merle gene. So they can pass on either a solid coloured gene or a merle gene
The problem arises when two merle dogs are bred together. From that breeding you can get solid coated dogs if each parent passes on a solid gene.
Merle dogs if one parent passes on a merle gene and the other a solid coat gene
But there is also a 25% chance that BOTH parents will pass on the merle gene
Then you have a double merle. This is often associated with eye abnormalitites and hearing problems - many of the puppies being born blind, deaf or both.
Breeders know the risks but still breed two merles together because it gives a higher chance of merle puppies
Many cull the double merles at birth
But it seems some go on to breed from their poor deaf blind dogs. Not only a few times, this double merle dog is one of the top sires in the breed!
Is the rosette worth the price?
I am pretty sure these dogs are actually collies, not shelties. All the same, I think it is a prime example of all that is wrong with AKC conformation that a dog can win best of breed in the biggest, most prestigious dog show in the AKC year while having a sire who is blind and deaf.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually two separate winners at Westminster. This year it was the offspring of an intentionally bred, blind and deaf Rough Collie, and two years ago it was a Sheltie offspring of a double merle.
ReplyDeleteSo both Shelties and Collies are rewarding this behavior. Maybe Australian Shepherds will be next.
K-Koira - yes sorry I didnt make it clear - the first one is a sheltie the 2nd the rough collie
ReplyDeleteBorderWars thankyou :) anyone who wants to know more should pop over to his blog (link is in the post) it is very interesting
I am surprised that Aussies havent done this yet as I have read some sickening blogs about how to identify and cull the double merles in the merle to merle mating
- not a big step to think of them keeping one :(