FULL TILT

You'd guess that choosing the faster whippets to use as breeding stock would result in healthier dogs. But it has been found, that the fastest whippets are the ones who carry one copy of a mutant muscle gene. I will write a post on it later, after I find some good photos.

Chest Bumpers

One thing that show breeders pride themselves on is conformation - breeding good bone angles.
But do they all really improve on nature?

HORSE GAITS

Horses run on their hooves (toenails), but dogs run on the balls of their feet. So you can only learn so much about dogs from studying horses. But gait is very important in horses. People use to ride horses -they were our cars.

Early dog show judges judged dogs a lot like they did horses. But we did (and still should) breed dogs for their talents. Horses are bred for their gaits.

It is ignorant to judge dogs for their gaits, when what we want are the right talents and instincts. A dog is not a horse, and we don't ride dogs.