Let us not forget to pass some of the blame to the AKC – advocating dog choice based on aesthetic tastes, and helping to keep up the demand for breeders’ products. Perhaps worse, though, is that many of the design traits that the AKC celebrates (short snouts on pugs, bulldogs, etc., tapered hind quarters on German shepherds, etc.), cause the dogs to suffer, and others have to be created by physically altering the dogs – docking tails, “training” ears, etc. I don’t know how AKC folks can claim to truly care about dogs.
Let us not forget to pass some of the blame to the AKC – advocating dog choice based on aesthetic tastes, and helping to keep up the demand for breeders’ products. Perhaps worse, though, is that many of the design traits that the AKC celebrates (short snouts on pugs, bulldogs, etc., tapered hind quarters on German shepherds, etc.), cause the dogs to suffer, and others have to be created by physically altering the dogs – docking tails, “training” ears, etc. I don’t know how AKC folks can claim to truly care about dogs.