Type, Schmype... My Dog Still Won

Okay, so here we go again with another tirade about breed type. When I do seminars I often use the following story to describe Dane breed type... Go up to the man on the street. This is a person that has never been to a dog show but has a love of dogs and may have watched a dog show on TV. Ask him the following question... What comes to mind when you hear the words Great Dane? Right! The first thing that comes to mind is great size.
Now, before you get too crazy, I realize that large does not necessarily mean good. But large does mean correct. I also know that our breed no longer hunts wild boar but THEY SHOULD APPEAR AS THOUGH THEY COULD PERFORM THIS MOST DEMANDING OF PHYSICAL FEATS! I have heard the statement made that as long as they attain the minimum size requirements of 28" and 30" then there are no Danes that are too small. Bull! A 30" adult dog that weighs 110 pounds could no more do the work for which he was bred than you or I. To placate those that may not have giant specimens... I do not believe that a male needs to be 37" or a bitch 34+" to have good breed type. There is a necessary balance between size, substance and elegance that gives our breed its most wonderful appearance. I have seen plenty of 34" males or 32" bitches that exhibit good breed type. Some of the top winning dogs in history have not been exceptionally tall. However, they have had large bone, deep chests, and an overall impression of strength and beauty. In today's ring (even at the National) we seem to have a well established look of beauty. The aspects of great size and substance are often sadly lacking. In recent weeks I have done some judging as well as ringside mentoring of future judges. I have seen far too many specimens that lacked breed type to the point that it was embarrassing.
Here's the real Catch 22... If judges are presented dogs that are lacking in breed type they are going to put one of them up for points and/or breed. Given the same general competition in that same area these dogs will finish. Now we have a very happy owner/breeder who, because of their success, will propogate that which has made them successful. After a number of generations of similar good fortune they are firmly established as a quality breeder even though they may never have had one specimen that exhibited good breed type. How does one go up to a person that may have finished 10, 20 or more champions and tell them that what they are doing is not in the best interests of the breed? A tough proposition. The same is true for judges. I have put up far too many dogs of lesser breed type because they were structurally better than the exhibits that had better breed type. Big and good is not nearly as easy to achieve as not-so-big and good. But we must continue to strive for quality AND type and not quality OR type.
During the years that I was exhibiting I lived in Florida. Every year I went on the January circuit. As most of you know this circuit attracts dogs from all corners of the country. We had huge entries. In fact, the Open Fawn class usually had enough exhibits to make a major. I am not the old codger that will say..."In my day the dogs...". I make no bones about some of the improvements we see today versus where we were in the 60's and 70's. This is most evident in the AOC's. On the January circuit not all of the dogs were great by any means but THEY WERE ALL GREAT DANES. Lack of breed type was fairly rare. I don't want size over quality any more than I want quality over size. To be the Apollo of dogs the Great Dane must exhibit both of these characteristics.
To achieve these goals takes more than a little work. Even with the best of information and decision-making we all know that the genes just sometimes don't mix the way we had anticipated. I implore you to keep fighting the good fight for the improvement of our breed and re-establishment of both quality and size in the ring.

BILL