[brendah]

Originally Posted by Mardelin

Being a Breeder/Exhibitor (the correct term), I'll see if I can explain myself.

1. According to the AKC the reason for showing is to gain approval of your breeding stock. How your dog meets the standard.

However, since conformation is looking at a dog from the outside, how it's put together......it's up to the breeder to breed responsibly and only breeding healthy dogs that are a good representation of the breed.

As a pet owner, prior to exhibiting, I didn't know the difference between a good dog/bad dog....coat texture, color, head carriage, gait, layback, health issues, etc. What exhibiting does is teach you all these things, along with a good mentor. Once I began exhibiting I began looking at a yorkie completely different that I used to. It makes your eye sharper in recognizing faults in a dog. There are other aspects, we attend breeding seminars, whelping seminars, genetics, pour over pedigrees...learn them backwards and forwards; learning every dog in that pedigree, it's offspring, it's siblings, etc

Now the true definition of a hobby breeder is one that did exhibit and no longer does, but still breeds.

This is usefull information. Thank you