Connemara breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets. The United Kennel Club is a dog registry that emphasizes a dog’s health, trainability and performance rather than looks.

Connemara officials who are insisting that Connemaras have thick cannon bones and short legs below the knee should pay attention.

Cavanaugh is not an outsider to the more traditional dog show world. He worked for the AKC for six years and was also involved with Animal Planet.

Cavanaugh said he envisions future dog shows as events full of healthy, happy dogs that do more than just look good walking in a circle. Dogs at his shows have to demonstrate that they can physically function and perform tasks.

He’s not against people being able to identify an animal based on some general traits — one should be able to tell a pug is a pug, he says (I don’t agree, since we don’t categorize people by easily identifiable features). But he’s concerned about the direction of breed standards in light of the current culture of exaggerated conformation.

He told Becker that we live in a world where the more exaggerated that something is, the better people think it is. He said: “In dog shows, the evolution was quite slow and subtle – it grew in increments. For example, in the case of brachycephalic breeds with short muzzles, the muzzles had to get shorter. And shorter again.”

He said that most breeders are well-intentioned people, but they are too close to the situation to notice incremental changes that are ultimately destroying their dogs’ lives.

He thinks it’s strange to call a dog beautiful when it’s not functional and it can’t breathe.

As for cookie cutter breed standards, he says: “The problem arises when dogs are bred identically strictly for show purposes. In contrast, dogs bred for obedience, agility and other talents, as well as for looks, are more balanced and will make better companions and pets.”

Cavanaugh believes exaggerated conformation can be undone. He told Becker that he doesn’t think people realize that 80 percent of the dog breeds we see today were created in just the last century, something he calls a genetic experiment and not a good one.

He said it can be undone within two generations and said that’s good news “because we’ve really ruined a number of breeds.”

The takeaway message for the American Connemara Pony Society should be: It’s time to breed for function, not to force every horse to fit a mold. It’s time to care whether the horse can trot and canter and get over an obstacle (I’ve ridden many Connemaras that have passed inspection that cannot do any of those basic things). It’s time to put more emphasis on the horse’s brain and attitude than its outline. There are better priorities than making cookie cutter ponies.