other kingdoms

Competitive events can help a dog breeder choose dogs that are good at competitive events.

To know if a line of dogs are good house dogs, good hunting dogs, or good ranch dogs, it is best to find dogs dogs that live that life.

It's not possible to look at a kennel full of dogs of one breed and know, just by looking at them, which dogs herd sheep best, or are best with children,

and taking the dogs out of the kennel and having them led around in a circle, so that you can watch them trot, does NOT tell you which dogs are best at herding sheep, or best with children.

Dog shows help people decide which dogs are best at winning dog shows.

Competitive events are not always helpful, and they can be unhelpful.

For example, competitive retrieving events, dock diving, reward retrievers that JUMP into the water, but if you live by ponds with submerged rocks, a retriever that doesn't look before he leaps, is NOT what you want.

Sled races do not reward lead dogs that gently ease out onto ice making sure that it doesn't start to crack. Racing sled dogs are not judged by their ability to find seal air holes, bear dens, or to avoid raging moose.

They are not judged by their ability to be kept loose in a pack in a shed and yard, rather than staked out singly to dog houses due to dog on dog aggression.

Field trail dogs are not judged on how early they were house-trained, and show dogs are not judged on this either.

Can you name one competitive event that judges dogs by how good they are with children? Neither can I. AFAIK, there are none. Not one event to judge if dogs are good with children - but isn't that what most families want most?

Many people buy a dog "for the kids".

Yet there are show dog breeders who say (and post) that only show dogs should be allowed to have puppies, and that all pet dogs should have their reproductive organs surgically removed to make sure that they never have puppies.

Doesn't this boil down to "People wanting a pet dog, should have to buy a dog from a show dog litter"?

I think the reverse, makes more sense. The vast majority of dog owners do NOT show their dogs. Most dogs and puppies are sold as pets.

Wouldn't it make more sense to say that all show dogs should be fixed, and that only dogs who are good with children should be allowed to produce puppies?

But show dog breeders wont like the idea that they should get their show dogs from litters of well bred pets.

Yet, somehow, you can read plenty of sites from show dog breeders that say people wanting pets should get them from show bred litters, and that pet dogs should not be bred.

In California there was even a state law proposed to only let show dogs breed, and to make all others be spayed-neutered. I have heard that Los Angeles has passed a law with wording like that.