Fred says: First do we agree dog shows are a place to evaluate breeding stock. The judge is saying with his/her top placing's these are the dogs that in my opinion should be used for breeding. Evan says: No. I do not agree with this premise at all. The judge is empowered by the AKC to decide which dog comes closet to the standard as set forth by the parent club of that breed. It is presumptive to say we as judges should be dictating who or what to do with breeding. We are not privy to necessary breeding information such as pedigrees, or health problems in the background of the dogs we judge. We are just the judge, we are not the breed wardens. Evan, Fred said that dog shows are a place to evaluate breeding stock. A place, not THE place. This is true, it is one of the places where we do that. Not the only one (hopefully). Dog shows are not the place where we CERTIFIED breeding stock, in the US there is not breed warden, so it is, or should be, the responsibility of those involved in doing breedings (stud and brood bitches owners alike) to secure the rest of the information. As you said, we are not privy to the rest of the necessary criteria. But the fact remains, dog shows are one of the ways used to evaluate breeding stock. And yes, you can disagree with my correctness. <G> Ileana ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2005. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://www.showgsd.org ============================================================================