Unfortunately, one of the costs of breeding dogs strictly for appearance in bench trials is that durability considerations are not part of the equation. In my mind, one of the best parts of field trials is that the amount of time and money required to create a competitive dog makes longevity a major concern. If it takes 4-6 years to get a dog to be competitive, I will value a dog that can continue to run competitively until it's 10. Obviously, that also makes us more likely to accept (even embrace) deviations from the standard including patches of white where they shouldn't be, heads that are narrower, legs that are longer, and dogs that are leaner. However, those deviations are much less of an issue in my mind than appearance driven factors such as the heavy bodied appearance of show Labs that are actually unhealthy.
The "dark side" for performance breeders tends to be in producing dogs with damaging recessive conditions such as CNM, EIC, etc. that hit only a small percentage of pups in what may otherwise be an extraordinary litter. I get concerned by breeders that engage in close line breeding/in-breeding with little appreciation for the inherent risks and without the disciplined approach needed to ensure that pups with unacceptable traits do not find their way into puppy buyer homes.
I wonder if the affected/carrier dogs of autosomal recessive diseases were not bred, would we have more joint problems. Depending on who you ask, ie hip and/or elbow dysplasia has not over the decades become significantly less of a health issue.
I used to study pedigrees of presumed (pretest) EIC carriers/affecteds, then google away. Some known carriers were sold on, and bred to poodles. Sure they are so called mutts, but by crickey or crickey doo doo doodles, they have another health concern to add to their mix.
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