Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:00 pm Post subject: Ideal Heights in Breed Standard
Hello all
Our Cooper is 7 months now, and right from when he was an 8 week old pup, EVERYBODY has commented on how big he is, or how big he will be. At our ringcraft classes, there is a lab bitch who is 3 weeks older than Cooper and she is much smaller than Cooper. Her owner asked us if we had measured him yet, which we havent. Her bitch is 19 inches to the withers apparently, so when we got home, we measured Coop. He is 24 inches!
Now the kennel club breed standard says ideal height for dogs 22 - 22.5 inches.
Cooper is from a really good breeder, and has some good lines in his pedigree and his mum and dad are both very successful in the ring, as well as his sisters in the UK and in S Africa.
Is the height in the breed standard something that he must conform to, or else he will only be able to enter into companion shows?
He is going through a bit of a leggy stage in his growing, and we may be able to take half an inch off the measurements as he was having a bit of a poofy hair day.
But its got me a bit disheartened now, after everyone says how big he is, that we may never do very well in the ring because of his size.
Its only an 'ideal' height, and therefore not a disqualifying feature like in many other breeds. At the end of the day it is more about his conformation and movement, and if they were absolutely fabulous then it's unlikely many judges would penalise him for his height
In FCI shows there is a chance he would be measured and if outside the ideal it could go against him. I've been in the ring where there was measuring going on and a lovely bitch, tantalisingly close to getting her ChIB, was disqualified for being 1cm below! Of course once it went on record there's no way she could ever make it as a ChIB. In my mind thats rubbish as that could be down to coat. (He was a horrible judge!)
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
