home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!tamvm1.tamu.edu!CBARNES
- From: CBARNES@tamvm1.tamu.edu (Chris Barnes)
- Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
- Subject: Re: On the breeds' original purposes
- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 10:07:09 CST
- Organization: Texas A&M University
- Lines: 37
- Message-ID: <168C48E50.CBARNES@tamvm1.tamu.edu>
- References: <1h4omqINNhqt@CS.UTK.EDU>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: tamvm1.tamu.edu
-
- In article <1h4omqINNhqt@CS.UTK.EDU>
- primeaux@carlsberg.cs.utk.edu (David Primeaux) writes:
-
- >Toss up for discussion: Are the original purposes of the breed so sacrosanct
- >that they can not evolve to match today's purposes of the breed?
-
- MHO: *IF* the new purpose is in effect serving the same purpose as
- before, then yes. Otherwise, no.
-
- example: IMHO, the purpose in the labrador retriever is to retrieve
- things (usually from cold water). If you want to breed them to dive
- under the water to catch fish (or crabs, or ....) that's fine.
- Breeding them to guard a liquor store is not.
-
-
- NOTE: what the objectives are when a person breeds, and what an
- individual dog does are 2 entirely seperate questions. In that case,
- if you happen to have a very protective lab (to extend my example above),
- then (imho), it would be perfectly acceptable to USE him/her to guard the
- store. But unless it proves that it can accomplish the purpose of the
- breed, then it should not be bred (no matter how good a guard dog it is).
-
-
- >Since I own dalmatians, I offer a (rhetorical) followup question: If my
- >dalmatian is a wonderful example of the breed in every respect except that
- >she will not (or can't) run for long distances alongside a carriage (her breed's
- >original job), would breeding her harm the breed? Note that the question is
- >entirely rhetorical, since she is spayed.
-
- yes. (that's assuming you have correctly defined the purpose of
- dalmations for us. I don't know anything about dalmations.)
-
- -----------------------------------------------------
- Chris Barnes | President - Bryan/College Station
- cbarnes@tamvm1.tamu.edu | Retriever Club.
- (409) 846-3273 (home) | "Dedicated to the betterment of
- (409) 845-4437 (work) | the retrieving breeds"
-