New Kennel Club Standard: Dog Must Be Able To Actually Stand Without Assisstance

GSD bitch Cruaghaire Catoria was best of breed at Crufts in 2016.

No, this is not a joke. From the folks at Crufts:

With effect from 1 August 2016, the Characteristics clause of the Kennel Club Breed Standard for the German Shepherd Dog has been changed as follows (new wording is inside the asterixes):

Characteristics: Versatile working dog, balanced and free from exaggeration. ***Must be capable of standing comfortably and calmly, freely and unsupported in any way, in structural balance, whilst both rear pasterns are vertical.*** Attentive, alert, resilient and tireless with keen scenting ability.

This is being touted at DogWorld as "KC imposes tough measures," which pretty much summarizes what is wrong with the entire mind set of the show dog world. Requiring a top show dog to be able to actually stand without support is a "tough" standard!

But guess what? The show dog people are bawling about it. Again, from Dog World:

The German Shepherd judge at Crufts 2018 is having second thoughts about the appointment following the Kennel Club’s shake-up of the breed.

Nikki Farley – who is WUSV/GSD League British Regional Group chairman – said she was not sure that the KC could ‘break its contract’ with her that way.

“I have a contract and letters from them and nowhere there does it say anything about having to re-sit an examination,” she said.

“So I need to look at more detailed information and think very seriously about it.

“What the KC has done is horrible, but it hasn’t really surprised me.”

I have said it in the past, and I will repeat it here:  It's time to shut down the Kennel Club.

It is the Kennel Club that mandates that dogs be bred in a closed registry system in which increasing levels of inbreeding are the inevitable byproduct.

It is the Kennel Club that green lights the standards which select for defect and which means that most members of some breeds suffer their whole lives.

It is the Kennel Club that credentials judges who have no idea of what they are doing because they know nothing about working dogs or even the basics of anatomy.

It is the Kennel Club that gives show dogs zero points for health, zero points for work, and zero points for temperament.

It is the Kennel Club that allows puppy mill dogs to be registered

It is the Kennel Club that refuses to allow any breed club to mandate health tests as a requirement for registration.

It is the Kennel Club that refuses to allow any breed club to mandate working tests as a requirement for registration.

It is the Kennel Club that refuses to allow any breed club to delay registration until a dog is an adult and is actually proven to look like the breed it is supposed to be.

The Kennel Club is not same faceless entity; it is run by people with names, and it time those people were brought up on charges for systematic abuse of man's best friend.

To be clear, what has occurred to dogs is real abuse, and it has not been an "accident" but part of a systematic and regimented plan that has predictably led to millions of dogs in long-term pain, early death, and endless misery.

It's time to shut it down.