EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

my question is how important is conformation to a hog dog? I was reading a post at another board and a man said a dog can only perform to its full ability and conformation has everything to do with it,

is it really that important?

Thanks for any info

While conformation has it's place...drive, nose, work ethic, hunt, heart, etc. have more to do with it than conformation. Conformation is nothing but how a dog stacks up against it's breed standard (and the standard for a particular breed can change from time to time). Matter of fact, I'd put structural soundness ahead of conformation as well.

My 2 pennies...

minor flaws can be overcome by work ethic, but you don't want a strike dog built like an english bulldog, for example.

i'd say it's more important if you like long range, all night dogs than if you like to hunt short dogs for a couple hours at a time.

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What if the dog does not know it does't have good comformation. I am sure not going to tell it if it is working.

I could care less as long as it works. My pet pieve in life is "look pretty but don't work stuff".

I believe  that form will fallow function 

This is the double edged sword of conformation... "Matter of fact, I'd put structural soundness ahead of conformation as well."... if your breed's standard doesn't describe a structurally sound animal, then there is something wrong with your breed's standard and conformation is less important. If your breed standard does describe a structurally sound animal, then you should breed to the standard.

The average (but not every) horse person seems to have a better grasp on the importance of conformation/structure than the average dog person. Why? I think we are "lucky" in the dog world, in that the canine body (with its flexible spine and relatively light body) is much more forgiving of structural faults in the working dog than the body of an equine (with its relatively rigid spine and heavy body) in a working horse. A good place to start - http://books.google.com/books?id=krD1bAEqypcC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false  go to page 9, and read the section "Analysis vs. Criticism" This explains where show-minded people begin to part company with performance minded people.

With the exception perhaps of some show minded English bulldog, Pekingese, German Shepard, etc folks who intentionally breed cripples... most of us want well-built and sound animals, some are just a little more concerned about the cosmetic-only details of breed-type than others might be. Different strokes for different folks.

Conformation is subjective in and of itself......you have a standard.....then you have a judge putting his/her opinion onto that standard.....and three judges that are "experts" in that breed will have three different opinions as to why or why not that dog has good conformation or not......

I did livestock judging in high school and college, and we would have different reasons why we would score an animal to be up to the breed standard. And the head judge would tweak our interpretation a bit further.....but since he was the Head Judge.....what he says goes. But if you brought in another qualified judge....he would give you a different inerpretation......it didn't mean the livestock was inferior...it just meant to myself or the others judging it....it did/didn't meet the expectations of the breed.

So if the dog will hunt and is sound......then DUMP THE BOX!!!!!   ;D


P.S.- As was stated earlier...breed standards change all the time. So that adds to the subjectiveness of the conformation standard.....

I like a dog to be built good but that don't make a hogdog.  I'll take a dog that has the  WANT TO over a good built dog any day..

i think some people are confusing beauty with conformation. i think some people look at conformation as how beautiful the dog is. conformation is nothing more than hips are good, feet aren't deformed, etc. i think you can find dogs that are EXACTLY what the breed says they should look like, but they don't hunt worth a dang..and vice versa. i think that if you got dogs that are good hunts then nine times out of ten they are structurally sound.

one thing i will never do is breed a dog that is beautiful but hasn't proved itself. the cathoulas and the lacy's are prime examples of breeds that people took the glass eyed dogs and started breeding them into the ground, then took the pretty blue coat of the lacy and bred them into the ground. dogos are starting to get this way. people are taking a dogo female that has never seen the woods but because her dad and mom were catch dogs and some of the litter mates were catch dogs they bred her to another dogo. nothing could be worse for the breed than when they get popular.

Deuce...they've been breeding the Dogo like that for a long time...they're not just starting to. I couldn't agree more about the popularity thing.

Functional structure(conformation) is a necessity for me.  I won't own, let alone breed, anything less.  Deep chest, proportionate build, good legs, and adequate hams... with a perty head ;) ;D  

Although... I've seen plenty of get-R-dun dogs that shouldn't have been able to do what they did.... but they did it anyways... out of desire.

To each his own.

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