Sunday 15 July 2007

Affenpinscher Anatomy and Conformation

Why does the affenpinscher standard say what it does? My view is that the standard represents the blueprint of a functional affenpinscher, but what is a functional affenpinscher?

The main difficulty in establishing the function of the breed is that in FCI countries affenpinschers are classified in group 2 (section 1) Pinscher and Schnauzer type ( a working watch dog and vermin catcher) whereas in the rest of the world, including the UK where I am based, the breed is a toy breed (so an appealing companion).

Should form be put over fancy in a toy breed? Should the original function still uphelp in the country of origin be ignored?

Thinking from a functional point of view, we need a quick turning, agile dog with fast intial speed, to catch vermin in the small area of a Farmyard/Farm buildings. Does everyword in the standard have a functional reasons for being there?

My thought for the blog is to go through the different part of the standard (of course the UK standard to start with) and explore why the standard says what it does, compare it to what definative texts on canine conformation and anatomy says about the requirement of a quick turning/high intial speed breed and also look at what other countries standards say on the subject and where there is a difference explore why that is.