Conformation 101
Heads or Tails. Oops, I Meant Heads AND Tails
Heads or tails. That was a slip of the tongue, due to my propensity to like to gamble. I really meant that this month’s discussion is going to be about judging heads and tails and how much emphasis they should receive in the final analysis.
There are a number of breeds that we know are ‘head’ breeds, those where a dog must have a really correct head in order to be considered a great dog - breeds like Collies, Bulldogs and Pekingese. Their breed standards make a point of emphasizing head properties and explaining them in great detail. There are also some breeds where the tail is considered extremely important - breeds like Labrador Retrievers, English Pointers and Afghan Hounds.
This discussion isn’t about those breeds where the head and tail are considered absolutely essential elements of breed type; instead, it’s about the rest of the breeds. How do we determine how much importance we are supposed to place on the head and tail of all the other breeds?
“They Don’t Walk On Their Heads.”
During discussions with other judges, when talking about the relative importance of the various parts of a dog, I’ve had a number of judges quote me the old adage, “They don’t walk on their heads.” Nope, they don’t (well, some of them do, but we’ll get to that in a minute). But they would have a hard time motivating on their legs if they didn’t have that head to guide them! The same could be said for tails, I suppose. They don’t walk on their tails. But again, actually, some of them do.
Judges who want to fall back on judging every breed on ‘up and back’ soundness are doing the breeds a general disservice. First, what constitutes up and back soundness is not the same in all breeds. Second, the importance of up and back soundness is not equal in every breed. Third, judging on up and back soundness and ignoring detailed elements of breed type will most often leave you at the end of the day with a very generic, unexciting dog that lacks the characteristics to make a positive contribution to the future of the breed.
Just How Important are Head and Tail Details?
They should be very important. While this may be a rather strange thought, if we were to mount the heads of one dog of every recognized breed, idealistically we should be able to walk down the row of heads and easily identify each breed based upon its distinct head characteristics. Of course to be able to do that, we have to have studied enough to know what details the standard of each breed requires. Have you ever gone to Cabella’s and stood and looked at the long row of antelope and gazelle heads mounted on the wall? If you know your antelope, you should be able to identify each just by studying the details of those heads. The length and width, the set and shape of the eyes, the size and carriage of the ears, the shape of the horns and the unique coloring on each defines its variety. The same should go for dogs. If you know your breeds, you should be able to identify them from just their heads.
But what if a dog has a head that is so untypical that it would be almost impossible to identify its breed just by looking at the head? I have occasionally seen dogs in the ring with head so incorrect that I have thought to myself, “If you cut this dogs head off and put it on a wall, I wouldn’t have a clue what breed it is.” If a head is that untypical, a sound body behind it is not enough to carry the day in my opinion. No, we shouldn’t fault judge, but a dog that has a trait that makes it hard to define its breed is not just faulty, it is completely untypical.
Back To Walking On Their Heads
I said earlier that some breeds do walk on their heads and tails. Okay, not literally, but this is what I meant. Dogs that are used for scenting, and are the most successful at it, have the tools to locate and follow the particular scent they are used on. Those tools consist of particular head traits that allow them to be outstanding at their job. Upland game bird dogs have been designed to have straight nasal bones and parallel head planes. This is because to be efficient at air scenting, the dog must have a head that allows an unrestricted air passage from its nostrils to the olfactory structures in its head. A dog that is down faced, or has a Roman nose, is not as efficient at air scenting and will frequently go right past the birds it is supposed to be locating. Additionally, these air scenting dogs must have high head carriage and move with their muzzles parallel to the ground or they will be too close to the bird when they find one (due to ground scenting with a low head carriage), and the bird will run or fly away instead of set.
On the other end of these dogs is a tail. Head carriage and tail carriage go together. What goes with a low head carriage is a high (or gay) tail, which is another hound characteristic. A properly constructed head, and the carriage of that head and the tail on the other end of the dog, are hallmarks of the air scenting bird dogs and cannot be too highly regarded. They do, in fact, walk on their heads and tails!
The trailing scenthounds also must have distinct head traits that allow them to gather ground scent and get it to their olfactory structures, or they will fail on the trail. The water retrievers have heads that are structured to allow them to breathe easily when swimming, see over the game they are carrying when they are in the water, and keep their ear canals dry. These swimming dogs have tails that are used for balance and turning capability in the water, so tails become a crucial type characteristic. The terriers that are bred to go to ground must have a tail that is thick at the root and properly set and carried because it is often used as the tool to pull the dog out of a burrow.
There are many more examples that I could cite, but the point is heads and tails are extremely important in any breed that was created to work, and we as judges must familiarize ourselves with the details of both ends of every breed and judge the whole dog, not just the four legs that support it. Remember, a typical dog that is sound is priceless. A sound dog that has no type is useless.
Correspondence invited at vincefan@centurytel.net.
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