2 sep. 2016

Thoughts about the whippet breed - what do you focus on?


When you go to shows, where is your focus? The dogs you appreciate or the ones that you dislike? After reading all these Facebook groups for some years I think that the focus is so negative and it feels like the whippet breed will cease to exist in a few years or be so deformed it can’t live………or….  I go around Sweden as well as Europe and beyond to judge, show or look at whippets and I can’t see all these abnormalities everyone is talking about – yes they do exist – but in what extant? Flat toplines, to much behind, to big, and so on.

The list of what is going wrong in the breed is long and it seems as dooms day is here…… But again, if 75% have a good topline and 25% are too long and flat, what do you focus on? The 75 or the 25? Is it so that the 25% disturbed you so much that they become the norm? Is it that we can interact more that feeds the negativity or is the breed in crisis? Wherever I go I see so many nice whippets true to type, well-constructed and well moving and with a lovely outline.

 I do see specimens being too big, too much behind and so on – the list is long but generally I see well typed whippets. Sometimes I wonder if I am naive, to positive or just plain without knowledge but why do I react so much to all these negative comments on FB, blogs and so on?? But a friend said to me, Henrik you have over 30 years of experience as owner, breeder and judge of the breed so don't say you're naive or without knowledge!