First, let me be very clear. I am NOT against showing conformation. I personally show conformation in multiple organizations.
Showing conformation is great….as long as you keep the value of it in PERSPECTIVE.
First and foremost, be HONEST about why you’re showing.
I show for a few reasons, and I’m going to be bluntly transparent about it.
1)It’s great practice and exposure for my young dogs to get used to being in the ring for their future
2)It’s fun to go do anything where I bond with my dogs
3)It looks good on their resume and lends value to my breeding program (this is the number ONE reason most breeders show conformation)
You know what I DID NOT list there? “To get a critique or 3rd party evaluation of my breeding dog”.
Why?
1)Conformation is based on OPINIONS. The value of an opinion hinges upon the knowledge of the judge. Why would I want a judge who has never herded livestock to evaluate my herding dog? Now, if I know this judge is a prominent person in training dogs for the herding of livestock, that person’s opinion is VERY valuable. A judge who has never seen a sheep? Their opinion of my dog’s structure is irrelevant to whether my dog is built to do what the breed was created for. The opinions of judges vary with fads, advertising, personal preferences within the breed standard, etc. They simply aren’t worth much in telling if your dog is built right to do his job. Ultimately, there are 2 purposes to a breed standard. The first is to make sure the dog is structurally built to do the job he was designed for and the second is to make sure the dog has sufficient "type" to look like the correct breed (ie an aussie looks like an aussie and a sheltie looks like a sheltie, etc). A person who has never OWNED, trained, or WORKED your breed doesn’t have enough knowledge to give an opinion on your dog's structure and depending on their experience, may not have a worthwhile opinion on type either. Someone who has your breed but has never done what the breed is designed to do (in this situation herding) also has limited knowledge but may also be able to give a good opinion on the breed type issue.
2)If you want to know if your dog has proper structure, the BEST way to do this is to place him into OBJECTIVELY scored competition which measures your dog’s ABILITY. There’s a great quote that says, “Pedigree indicates what the animal should be. Conformation indicates what the animal appears to be. But performance indicates what the animal actually is." You don’t need a conformation evaluation (which can only assess POTENTIAL) if you’ve already proven what the dog is ACTUALLY capable of. If you put him in a herding trial and he’s successful, he has the traits necessary to herd. You have the data you need to determine if he is an asset to your program. You don’t need a conformation judge to tell you that. It’s extraneous info. The only thing he can assess is “breed type” which is subjective and always secondary to functionality and temperament.
3)If you do want opinions and critiques, these can be acquired much more cheaply and with much more in-depth analysis via asking KNOWLEDGEABLE people within your breed to assess your dogs (either in person or on video; photographs lie, so don’t trust them.)
Furthermore, almost no one, and I genuinely believe this, uses conformation titles to assess if their dog is good enough to breed.
A breeder with ANY experience at all knows if their dog is “finishable” before they ever set foot in the ring.
Breeders show conformation because it is culturally expected and offers great bragging rights. You already know to look at your dog to see if it basically meets the breed standard. This isn’t complicated. The finer and more subjective aspects of the standard are open to interpretation, so there really isn’t any right answer. If you show a within-standard dog long enough, you can put a title on him.
Now if a breeder is showing for bragging rights, you know what? That. Is. Ok. There is nothing inherently wrong with that.
But be honest about it. Don’t judge others who choose not to and don’t pretend you have altruistic reasons behind your decision.
Most people are NOT looking for an honest critique of the dog. How do I know?
A)Because most organizations don’t even offer a critique, just a placement. A few organizations like ASDR and ICKC do offer critiques and ironically, these organizations are frowned upon as less serious. UKC judges are generally pretty good about offering verbal feedback and once again, their titles are not taken that seriously. AKC judges may or may not comment on your dog but are more likely not to say much. A placement alone tells you NOTHING about your dog aside from “it wasn’t so terrible as to be dismissed for lack of merit”. That’s it. You might have been the best of the worst with nothing spectacular in the ring that day. And if you’re in a breed with HUGE entries, your lack of a placement doesn’t say anything either. If there are 50 dogs entered and only 4 get placements, that doesn’t mean the other 46 dogs aren’t wonderful, breeding-worthy specimens. Last place in a high quality group can mean more than first place in a low quality group. These placements just don’t have much value. The LACK of a conformation title in no way means your dog isn’t high quality especially in a breed with huge entries.
B)This varies with exhibitor, but many exhibitors use grooming products, excessive sculpting of hair, etc to “make them appear to have more bone”, “even out their topline” or otherwise change what’s there naturally. They tape/glue ears, etc. Why? “You have to do that to win”. Wait, I didn’t think this was about winning? I thought we wanted HONEST evaluation of breeding stock?? Why are we altering anything if we are looking for honest evaluation? Bathe your dog, brush him, and trim up his feet and ears. You don’t need to do ANYTHING more than that in this breed.
C)If your dog isn’t winning, the first suggestion is to go hire a professional handler. If the dog is nice, why does it need a handler?
Let no one fool you; showing conformation for most people is about WINNING. And they will do what they have to do to win. If they don’t win, the question is “what can I do to win”, not “is it possible my dog isn’t worthy”.
They aren’t using these judges to make breeding decisions (and neither am I…my decisions are made in OBJECTIVELY judged competition and in day-to-day herding). They’re using these judges to JUSTIFY the decision they’ve already made by adding a title that looks good on the dog’s resume.
So the next time someone tells you their puppies are some outrageous price and claims “Well I had to spend $20,000 to finish his AKC championship”, ask them WHY! Was the dog so poor quality they had to hire handlers and attend dozens upon dozens of shows to get the necessary wins? Because an entry fee is around $30. I know NOVICE owner handlers who have finished their dogs in 3 shows (that’s $90). Spending 20k to finish your dog isn’t exactly a flex. Are they in a breed with HUGE entries? Then why bother showing there if you know it’s impossible to be noticed? Go get your evaluation at UKC or ICKC, etc. You don’t HAVE to spend 20k to know if your dog has good conformation.
If all you wanted was an evaluation of your aussie, you could go to an ASDR show and get a WRITTEN critique from a judge. You could have a breed mentor come over. You could post videos in a breed-specific facebook group. You don’t NEED an AKC conformation championship to “prove” you have a good dog. There are many, many other ways to do that!
So let’s stop lying about conformation. Let’s stop contributing to the “gamification” of the show ring. Stop pretending like it somehow holds more value than sport or performance titles. At the end of the day, it is, indeed, just a beauty contest. The dog with the prettiest trot and best head type may not be the best herder.
Conformation competition is a subjective evaluation of future potential. Performance/Sports competition is an objective evaluation of current ability. Conformation tells us the dog LOOKS like he can do a certain job. Sports tell us if he can actually make good on that promise. Never get backwards about which is more important.
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