“SHOW DOGS & STUD DOGS” by Richard G. (Rick) Beauchamp

A showdog isn’t automatically a breeding dog !

Is a showdog in general a option for a working breed ?

WWII — *The Dobermann is appreciate still by many not about it’s qualities in the showring but about it’s functionality and as companion in everyday LIFE*

Both above lines are my own words and through many shared blogpost I have given some of my thoughts about it. Still I’m open minded to read and share articles in relation to breeding and breeding matters.

This blogpost it’s about of what for me is interesting in relation to breeding purebreds breeds. It’s worth the read and recognizable also within the Dobermann (working dog) and it’s breeding community. That is also the reason why I like to copy and share it in a new own blogpost. It’s not my article and so I share of course the source and reference with it.

First I think it’s fair to share something about the author.

Richard G. (Rick) Beauchamp passed away in 2014. He is been described as a dog man through and through. He was a Publisher of Kennel Review before he began a judge. He has been succesfully involved in pratically every facet of purebred dogs: breeding, exhibiting,handling, publishing, writing and judging ( also the Dobermann ). To learn more about this man I refer to this shared article and my source Meet The Judge. At the end of this post I share more links.

Click to access showstud.pdf

This article originally appeared in the BLOODLINES Dog Event News.

I personally have read it in the Bully King as well in the Topknot News. The Newsletter of the Afghan Hound Club of America, Inc. Summer 2018. The last link is for sure also nice to give it some time to open and read.

Click to access tkn-2018-q2.pdf

SHOW DOGS & STUD DOGS
“A dog can be a truly great show dog and a poor sire. A dog can hate the show ring and never win a point and be an outstanding sire. It is just as simple as that.”
The biggest mistake breeders, novice or veteran, can make is to confuse their show dogs with their breeding dogs. They can be the same. We hope they will be the same. Often they are not.

There are those who say show wins are the indicator of a dog’s value to the breed. In other words, if many judges agree a particular dog is the current ideal in its breed, the dog should be bred to. I agree — but only to a degree.

Graaf-Quirinus-van-Ne-rlands-Stam1987_2_f7935 — Graaf Quirinus v. Neêrlands Stam very successful in both show and breeding activities. How valuable this stud was and maybe still is is up to the ones who bred him. Source photo Dobermann Pedigrees Netherlands.

You can get every judge in the country to agree that the dog of the hour is the dog of the hour, but that same dog can be a complete disappointment in the breeding department.

If a dog’s quality is not realized in the whelping box, all we have is a box full of ribbons and nothing more.

This is not to say a winning dog cannot also be an outstanding producer. Records prove otherwise. But I cannot stress strongly enough that it is the producing ability that must be looked to and not the show record!
Even the outstanding sire can be misused. Most breeds have had those truly wonderful show dogs who develop records that become the envy of one and all. Unfortunately, they become the envy of too many who feel if a dog is good enough to win every award in sight, it must be good enough to breed every female in sight.

In a way, the popular stud dog that produces well only with certain female lines can be very destructive to a breed. A few excellent youngsters emerge from the right combination and the parade begins. Every female that can see lightning and hear thunder is bred to the dog, but the percentage of quality produced is minuscule. The breed takes a big step backward.
Truly great sires are really few and far between. There’s an old saying I heard somewhere along the way that goes something like, “You can breed that one to a fence post and you’ll still get good pups.”

This no doubt all sounds perfectly logical, but I could write whole books on the excuses young breeders make for not breeding to the correct dog for their bitch: snow storms, rain storms, typhoons and earthquakes; the correct dog’s third cousin lives down the street; it’s just her first season and I’m “proving” her; etc., etc., etc.

There is only one breeding worth making – the right one. When it comes time to breed your quality bitch, stop and think, what if this turns out to be the only litter she will ever have!”