Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433799
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 9 5 could not believe any dog was capable of the kind of work she had just done in a hard wind on the coast, work that was no reflection of her owner's training ability. I remember my little rescue Pembroke corgi, Annie, sailing in with suicidal courage to try and save me when I was rolling on the ground in a fistfight with a pit-bull. I remember so many loving and beloved heads in my lap as I watched the evening news. No one wants to lose those characteristics, but more than just characteristics will be lost if we continue to reproduce an ever- increasing list of maladies and problems that could be solved by following Freiherr von Zedlitz und Neukirch's advice. "Take the good where you find it; breed as you like, but be honest about it; let the results be your guide." In other words, if you need to go outside your own creation to keep your creation viable, do so. required to breed naturally and survive or die on their own without any human intervention? In the case of most of the hunting breeds, after decades of sorrow and heartbreak, there would be far fewer representatives, but the breeds themselves would still exist at least in recognizable form. However, if your favorite breed is one of the more extreme breeds (i.e. a breed with only one specific color allowed, or great size, or an abnormally developed head, large or small relative to the overall size of the dog), you'd probably be out of luck. Consider the English bulldog: most breedings have to be done by artificial insemination, and practically all (more than 90 percent) of deliveries must be done by Cesarean. If your favorite breed is this season's current pet accessory favorite, the French bulldog, you very well might not have a recognizable breed at all within a few decades. Not only are most Frenchies incapable of reproducing without recourse to AI, but it is recommended by veterinarians that virtually all births be done by C-section. In other words, both breeds have essentially lost their viability; is that good or desirable by any standard? Man's intervention and manipulation have produced dogs that are capable of extraordinary feats that would almost certainly not be possible if left to nature's own devices. I think of some the unbelievable retrieves my great old Chesapeake Bay retriever, Max, made over the course of his life, where professional trainers advised me to call him off because no dog could ever find a bird in there or that far away or under those conditions. I remember the legendary pudelpointer trainer and breeder Bodo Winterhelt stroking my Gordon setter's head and saying he