Criadero La Cocha - Criadero de Dogo Argentino de la Familia del Dr. Antonio Nores Martínez
Why do we insist on functionality?
(Continuation)
There is no dog breed whose excellent and original psychic qualities have not been totally destroyed when the breed becomes “fashionable” (the great threat to our dog breed). If these dogs were taken care of as ordinary animals anywhere in the world, protected from fashion, this deterioration could have been avoided. In this way in your country there are lots of Scottish Shepherds who still have the greatest typical qualities of this breed, while the “noble” collies, bred in Central Europe as fashion dogs at the beginning of the century, suffered a great deterioration process both in character and intelligence. If a “criadero” cannot give psychic support to a breed which has become fashionable, then the die is cast. Even the most honest breeders, who would not allow the crossbreeding of a pure dog breed, find it correct the fact of breeding physically splendid animals but with psychic defects. This book is for them: the delight of having a dog which represents almost perfection in its breed disappears slowly in long years of intimacy, but the problem of psychic lack such as excessive nervousness does not fade away.
Time does not immunize but makes those defects more noticeable. An intelligent faithful bastard with his nerves under control gives more satisfaction than a breed champion dog which cost a fortune. (for eg., an exhibition dog versus a hunting dog)
The most diverse dog breeds kept as pure breeds still have their character qualities. But the organization of the exhibitions hides a potential risk: the fact of the competition itself in a dog’s exhibition leads to an exasperation of the specific characters of a breed. If we take a look at some old images of English dog breeds and we compare them to the images of the current representatives of those breeds, we notice that the last ones are grotesque caricatures of those noble
samples.
In the Chow-chow, which became fashionable in the course of the last ten years, this is clearly demonstrated. In the1920’s the Chow-chow were really natural dogs, closer to their original forest type: snub-nosed dog, with oblique eyes, Mongol, and well straight sharpened ears, they all gave its muzzle a fascinating expression characteristic of sleigh dogs in Greenland, Samoa and also huskies, all wolfish breeds. Nowadays, the breeding of the Chow-chow aims at emphasizing the features that give them the aspect of a teddy bear: a wide and small nose as the wolfhound, short snub muzzle, non oblique eyes, and excessive hair which covers the ears. The wild hunting temperament has become an innocent teddy bear.... Except the ones I breed myself, naturally. But according to the breeder’s association laws, my Chow-chows must be looked at with contempt because today they still have 128 sheepdog blood
parts.
A different breed I like so much is the Scotch-Terrier, which is undergoing a painful physical decadence. Thirty-five years ago, when my second dog, a female Scotch-Terrier “Aly” was following my steps, animals belonging to that dog breed were models of courage and fidelity. None of the dogs I’ve ever had has defended me as “Aly” and none of them had to be taken out from desperate fights with stronger opponents. “Aly” was the only one who has followed a cat by climbing a tree!
The story went like this: “Aly” was chasing a cat and the cat climbed a plum tree to reach safety. Later, he had to climb a second branch, a meter and a half higher, as “Aly” had reached the crown of the tree and remained there. From there and in a few seconds, the cat had to look for an even higher branch because “Aly” had reached the second branch. The dog was fighting to keep balance as the branches were really thin. She held on to it and remained upside down and then she straightened up and started barking to the cat that was sitting a meter higher. At this point, the unbelievable happened: “Aly” tensed all the muscles of her strong body and attacked the cat, grabbed him with her teeth and stood there over the beast that was desperately trying to grasp the tree, until both fell down the tree 3 m. and reached the ground. I had to intervene to save the cat as “Aly” couldn’t release him. He had no harm but “Aly” limp for weeks due to a muscle rip. Contrary to cats, dogs don’t know how to fall into the four legs.
All the Scottish dogs were like these 35 years ago! Almost all of them, “Aly” was not an exception. But what about today? I got angry and sad when I see dogs in Vienna, where they are really loved, and notice how the representatives of this breed behave. It’s true that my dog “Aly”, with a scar in one ear, wouldn’t have had a chance of success in a dog contest against all those blossom beauties. But those dogs go with their bowed heads in front of other dogs and they would run away against my dog
“Aly”.
But we still have time. In Central Europe, the Scotch-Terrier is pictured as a dog that is not afraid of a San Bernardo and hurts and attacks the legs of someone who just says something threatening against its master. But Scotch-Terriers like these are weird; we won’t find them as winners in a dog’s contest.
And now I ask the breeders, who, I assume, know what is a dog: wouldn’t it be better to raise an intelligent faithful and rude dog even with a risk of being defeated by another dog coming from the hands of a luxury hairdresser’s?.
© 2006 Criadero La Cocha - Criadero de Dogo Argentino de la Familia del Dr. Antonio Nores Martínez