She has been breeding Aussies for more than 8 generations so she could be considered "a crazy dog person" as my brother so affectionately calls me.
While we were driving in the car my brother mentioned that she allots 2 hours to each potential puppy person. He confided in me that he couldn't imagine it would take 2 hours to look at puppies. Boy was he wrong!
The breeder was a wealth of information and discussed with us the mentoring process she had been through, what she put the most importance on when she was judging( the first thing she asks herself could this dog herd) and described in detail each personality and why this puppy would or wouldn't be a good fit.
For a minute I was taken a back and then explained that the Dalmatian should have a nice layback of shoulder with the upper arm almost as long as the shoulder blade. Her next comment was well that's not what I am seeing in the ring when I attend AKC shows. and I had to admit she was right.
We have way too many dogs being shown with bad fronts, whether they have short upper arms resulting in straight fronts, elbowing out, or narrow fronts more and more of them are being seen in the show ring and this is creating the perception that the front should be straight because so many of the dogs have a straight front.
The Dalmatian Club of America has a illustrated explanation of the standard. I suggest everyone check it out.
I would be the first person to admit that there is no perfect dog but every responsible breeder should be reading the standard and asking themselves can this puppy I want to show do the job it was bred for? Can it coach for 20 miles a day? and the answer is, if it is straight in the front or heavy in bone NO.
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