Judging Study

So I was going through my iphone today deleting some of my notes etc. And I came across a rough idea for a study involving judges and breed standards. I sometimes write things down on my phone when I am somewhere unable to write my thoughts down. Good thing too, as I had forgotten about this so I'm going to write it now so I don't lose it.

How subjective is the judging at dog shows? If veterinary medicine is anything to go by, subjective analysis of animals has a huge amount of error and lack of reliability. I should know, I am currently doing a gait analysis and observation study and I can already see plenty of reasons for someone to say the study is biased etc. Which is why we are using computer programmes etc. to reduce error.

But anyway, back to the dog shows. The judge is meant to select a dog out of the line up that most closely resembles the breed standard. But this can be very subjective. Especially with some of the language used in the breed standards. For example "Muzzle should have a moderate stop." There are two words in bold that are extremely subjective and can be taken in many ways depending on the person. Moderate to one judge could mean it is very visible whereas to another judge he/she may take this to mean you can just about see it as it is not definite. The 'should' can also be taken literally by the judge meaning they will require to see it whereas others may take to completely ignore this point. Very subjective and will result in an extreme lack in consistancy. This can always be seen in the dog shows. For example the Kooikerhondje that won Best of Breed at Crufts 2011? Didn't even get placed in Crufts 2012... Hmm...

But its very easy for me to go tut tut.. mm.. aaa.. etc. I am a scientist and thus I would like to study this properly rather than just make comments. A study I propose would involve taking a breed standard description, followed by 10 photos of the breed it is describing. I would then show this picture to 10 judges and ask them to place the top 5. I would then do the same with 10 vet students (so they have an aspect of anatomy) who are not judges and who do not own the breed (again to reduce bias). I hypothesise that the results would be completely random and you would not be able to tell the difference between the judges choices and the publics choices. Yes I know I'm going to get arguments saying "Oh, but the judge needs to run his hands over the animal first etc. etc. Its not just looks etc. etc." Thats fine. But as said in my last post, a dog was placed that the judge couldn't run his hands over at Crufts?

Perhaps the study will highlight the bias in judging. And the common saying of "Its not what you know, but who you know." I am still surprised to this day that judges are trained by members of the breed club who conveniently do the best in the show ring.

Perhaps more descriptors should be required by the judges. Such as body condition scoring, can you get a comb all the way through the coat, or a training day once a year where each descriptor is explained clearly and consisely without involvement of the breeders. For example, explain precisely what is meant by a square head.

I would be very interested to do this study. But I should probabaly wait until my dissertation is done first eh? :)

Crufts 2012

So me and my beautiful boy went to Crufts on Friday 9th for Gundog day. He was competing in the dog showing, and was in the Open Dog Class for the Kooikerhondje. Sadly we didn't walk away with a rosette but he was very well behaved and I am very proud of him. I spoilt him with a nice new leather collar and myself with a new coat :) Here is a picture of my gorgeous boy;

In terms of the main interest of this blog it was a very interesting day, with lots of truth being revealed and realisation of the true extent of my breed clubs behaviour;

First of all the showing itself raised my eyebrow more than once. I was shocked to see the judge place a dog above two others who he could not put his hands over. Not even a little bit. The dog was nice enough but if you cannot run your hands over the dogs body how do you know his conformation is correct, if he is the right weight, even if he has two descended testicles which is always spoken about in the breed standards for every breed. If a judge cannot feel the dogs body, how on earth does he have the right to decide if that dog is healthy? Or at least healthier than the other dogs? Yes its very unlucky if your dog does shy away from a judge but I do believe it should have an impact on the placing.

Secondly I was appalled to see more than once the judge place a very obese dogs. Now you don't have to be a vet student or even a medical student to understand that obesity is a health condition and has a negative impact of the lifestyle of the person or animal. In otherwords, an obese dog is not a healthy dog. Why then was the dog arrowed with the red arrow (see picture below) placed above the other dog in the photo? Some may argue, "but the other dog may have been a lot skinnier which may have brought upon more concern." Thats very true, but I have run my hands over the other bitch and she feels fine to me. The second photo shows a different dog from the same breeder who was placed 3rd out of five dogs, looking as fat, if not fatter than the bitch in the first photo. The little dog you see on the left of the second picture? Came last.

I was extremely shocked and you could even here from the audience the shock in the judges decision. But as you hear many a time at dog shows "Well.. It is down to the judge on the day." I see, so sometimes its ok to have a very obese dog, but other days it isn't? I'm pretty sure obesity should never be rewarded, not matter what the situation. How are we going to improve dog welfare if things like this are being allowed to slide?

I also took the opportunity at Crufts to question something, or a lack of something on the Kennel Club website. On the website, you can look up and get information on a particular breed and there has been a large emphasis on educating the public on the problems associated which each breed and tests that are avaliable. Now the Kooikerhondje is known to suffer Patella Luxation and Von Willebrands Disease. Both which can be tested, and are being tested in Europe. But when you click on health information on the Kooikerhondje you get this..

I questioned the Kooiker Club at Crufts and asked them why they haven't spoken to the Kennel Club about this and suggested arranging a Von Willebrands screening scheme or even informing the public about the condition? The response is a very blunt one about "I am a good breeder and none of my dogs have the disease so why should I advertise that the breed is susceptible?" Oh I don't know, so that people are aware that there is a risk? To show people that breeding initiatives and testing do work? Yes we should be very proud that no Kooiker in the UK has it, but that does not mean that the risk isn't there. Currently dogs in the UK are tested but need the send the samples to Europe to discover test results. Why wouldn't you want something set up in the UK? Asking a different member of the Kooiker club apparently they are trying to do something about it but the Kennel Club is slow in responding. Why am I getting two different answers, from different people belonging to the same club and apparently discuss everything and make decisions together?

The same conversation also highlighted that the breed club is not as close as they may at first appear. I will quote one man "I should say I am the best breeder in the country. There are only 3 breeders in the UK and I am the only one who does it right. I'm not going to say names but two of the breeders are in this room. Hahahaha" Nice to see everyone working together for the breed..

This was then followed by "One breed for money and the other breeds because she has the dogs." .... And what do you breed for? This being the same person who sold his 2 year old "beloved dog" after she had an undershot jaw and thus wouldn't be a good breeding bitch.

There was some good conversations too however. We bumped into one lady who saw Elliot and came to us to say she had always wanted one, but after looking at the gene pool in the UK she decided against it. So it is not just me and my family who are worried about the genetics. It has gone so far as to worry the general public wanting to buy the breed! Something needs to be done. The lovely lady finished by saying how she loved the way Elliot looked and not the smaller foxier look that the show dogs seem to be turning, and that she would love to get into contact with us when we start breeding. Getting the contacts already you see? :) And she does agility etc. Perfect for our first or second litter.

I will finish up with an example of our gene pool in the UK. At Crufts 2012 there were 38 dogs entered. 11 come from one breeders bloodline. 7 from the second breeders bloodline. and 5 from the third breeders bloodline. Leaving only 15 dogs not directly related to eachover.

Furthermore, one of the dogs has sired 6 dogs in the showring, all from seperate litters. And one bitch produced a litter in 06, 08, 09 and 10. 3 of those litters were using the same bitch and the same sire, from UK bloodline 1 and 2 mentioned above.

Oh and I also forgot to mention! The dog who sired the six litters that are in the showring? Has also produced two dogs in the show ring that have now developed Epilepsy. And even knowing this, they are still breeding from him.