breed standards

[quinnybear]

i was informed by a breeder who said she would give me her judgement on showing if i sent her pictures of rocky. she emailed me back that he was not show quality because he is too big, too long nosed, too long in body and his mask will fade away by the time he is a year old. and that bmf's rarely achieve the breed standard. in 17 years she has only seen one that did. have you ever heard of that? i'm sure she knows more than i do as she is a breeder and shows. i looked up akc standards and they say "distance from wither to ground in good relation to distance from withers to onset of tail" i measured him both ways and they are both 11 inches. and is 14 pounds at five months"too big".his mask is as black now as it was at 11 weeks. i am so discouraged now because i was hoping to give him a shot in the ring. but now i'm not even sure i want to try. :(

[Carolyn]

Quinneybear...I don't know who this breeder is and don't know whether or not he/she is qualified to make judgement based on a picture of your pup. Maybe Fran has more insight and can give you advice if you are really interested in showing. Have you gone to any shows and talked those showing? Carolyn

[franp]

I think what I would do is look for breeders in your area (there are several) and ask them for an opinion.
Ask them if you can come to see them; even if it is a long drive. Showing is a very expensive propostion and a few hours in the car now may be well spent.

Otherwise you might want to go to the next dog show in your area and ask there. Then you will have several handlers/breeders at one place.

Why don't you email the breeder and ask them as well.

[evangelie]

You shouldn't listen to just one breeders opinion because that's all it is. One breeders opinion. Check out some local shows and talk with a few breeders. Maybe even do a few ukc or akc shows to get some experience going. who knows?

[quinnybear]

i have heard some stories about the backbiting that goes on between some show people. i just want an honest opinion and i think i would be best to take him to a show (which i didnt know you could bring your dog if he wasnt actually being shown) and see if i could get an opinion from someone that can actually see him and not just a picture. do any of you know someone that will be at the akc shows coming to puyallup, washington in mid-june?

[Martina]

So I just started flipping through The Flat Face Encyclopedia (again!) and they have a great section on standards - with several pages of drawings and written descriptions.

However, I did see that they talk about how these are a different set of standards from those of the early 1990s -- this copy was printed in 1997 and is the most recent printing available. So I don't know if standards have changed again since it was printed. It's also a special order at Amazon.com and will take several weeks to get.

Just a thought, but I'll bet you can find the most current stuff at the AKC - I just like the pictures ;) 'cause some of those descriptions are hard for me to understand!

[gilazno]

I would attend some shows if you have not already and see if showing is something you really want to do in addition to the other recommendations you received...it can be pretty pricey and like you said, have heard some stories about the backbiting that goes on between some show people

the more shows you attend the more you will see this...at least this was my experience..

[gilazno]

this comes from the frenchbulldog club of America..I am not sure if these are the current standards
http://www.frenchbulldogclub.org/BreedInfo/BreedStandard.html
here is the link to the akc standards
http://www.akc.org/breeds/french_bulldog/index.cfm

[Mieke]

On the Dutch French Bulldog Club (HBC)site are some drawings of the standard. Some show what's good and some what's wrong.
Ik give you the link, but the words are in Dutch.
HBC Standard. (http://www.hbc-fransebulldog.nl/index.php?id=100&lid=1&view=page#anchor_9)
This standard is from 28 april 1995.

Maybe it helps?

[quinnybear]

thanx everyone. and mieke that site did help because even though i couldnt read a word of it :confused: i could tell from the pictures how they are supposed to look........thanx again :)

[Martina]

Ha ha!! I went and looked at the site too ... the book I mentioned has almost identical drawings but the explanations are in english ;)