Book of the Month

My pick for book of the month for July is "Solving the Mysteries of Breed Type" by Richard Beauchamp. I LOVED this book! If you are at all interested in conformation, you should really read this book! The author is excellent at describing what he's talking about. He includes plenty of anecdotes from when he was learning and progressing through showing different breeds of dogs. What I really love is how honest he is in his assessments of how some breeds are straying from their breed standard to get those covetted BIS. Take for instance the golden retriever. This is a dog that is supposed to be very level headed, not a hyper dog, who has the endurance to work in the field, but also knows when to turn it off. This should be expressed in the ring as a very amenable dog who really isn't taken aback by much. However, in order to try and breed a dog that is showier and more likely to go BIS, they've been amped up a bit. You'll recognise this at the dog parks as the out of control golden, that while a mostly happy-go-lucky dog, has an energy level that is uncontainable. This is NOT how they are supposed to be according to the breed standard.

He gives many other picture and diagram examples of what specific phrases and terms mean when people are talking about breed type. There are diagrams of a single breed, but with different body types and you get to pick which one most closely fits with the breed standard.

I am really interested in all that is involved with showing dogs in conformation, and not just specifically my breed of choice. What I love about this book is that the author talks about many breeds and how to apply a specific idea to each individual breed. It's just great and a really fun read!