Show Champion: A Proud Title or Debilitating Disorder?

The Siberian Husky show dog.  Depending on which side of the 'fence' you are standing on defines what that term means to you.  It will instantly bring an image to your mind, and how your mind accentuates the extremes or ideals of the image. 

Undoubtedly there are a growing number concerns from breeders and fanciers on both sides of the spectrum.  For the working dog fancier many questions of retention of function in some of the show lines cross the mind.  For the show fancier the loss of breed type in some working lines is an equal cause for concern.  Do we really need to sacrifice breed type to retain function?  Are we doing right by the breed turning too far away from functional form?  Is there middle ground we can embrace before we lose this breed to the extremes?

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Without a doubt in my mind, a dog who is structurally balanced and retaining breed type should be able to easily fit into either world.  There are a number of Siberian breeders striving to, and remaining highly successful in, maintain a typie yet functional dog.   So why does it seem the divide between working dogs and show dogs keeps growing?  More importantly how do we work to 'fix' it?

One of the ways I feel to 'fix' the growing divide is to get more of our breeders/fanciers involved in harness working their dogs.  Let them see function in action and how some of the most rewarded faults are some of the least productive in the working dog.  We need our working dog community to be more involved in judges education and start getting functional structure, moderate efficient movement, and correct gaiting back in the judges minds to reward and get our fanciers to breed away from flash.

We need to work together as a WHOLE breed community and quit alienating one side or another.

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