I went to the sheltie show in October and found there was a great amount of "small" shelties winning things. Litrally you couldnt see under them they were so low to the ground and their coats where dragging along the floor.

My Alaska is top end of height and kai is one of these new small ones although his mum was large and his dad was large (14in) Kai is...well....tiny. But the show people consider him perfect.

Its funny everyone stops me and goes "its a mini lassy" I am like...no not really. :|

Worst one is "Oh look its a border collie..." Alaska doesnt look like a flaming border collie!

Have just checked with the KC and this is what it says about the pyrenean, I thought there was an upper limit but there isn't. When a breed is classed as 'giant' then it should be giant

As for what you see in the showring, we do show our dogs and I'm happy to say that none of my boys are 10in, they are not hugely over it but they fit in with the majority of others in the ring. At Crufts this year, my oldest boy was in a class of 13 and only 2 of those were 'correct' size they looked odd !!

On saying that though, I have seen a couple of lhasa's that made my eyes bulge as they really were way over the standard, in fact, they were even taller than most tibetan terriers, I had to check their paperwork for proof... they were like bloody goats !

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ShazaLhasa
My fabulous furry friends

Our breed has the opposite problem the are getting bigger. Owen I always think of as a big lad he is just under 21" but at crufts a couple of years ago he was stood next to a dog that was easily 23". Our bitches are mostly 18.5" which is breed standard for a bitch but we get told they are too small.

When I was showing William the standard for a male show bred greyhound was 30" William was 31" but was one the smallest males in the ring with only the ex racers being smaller than him. Some of the males were 34-35" tall more like small ponies than greyhounds. Rather than breeding them back to the standard I heard at one time the breed club wanted to make the standard bigger.

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Sammy you may be gone but your sprit will always live on in the sunbeams R I P Sammy

William- 6/11/03 - 24/3/10
Midge - 8/2/11 - 10-2-11

Irish setter and Irish red and white setter's don't have a set height in the standard.
Which is odd, I don't think any other breeds are like that?

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Interested in Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers? www.thetollerclub.org.uk

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You've made me measure Shorty now

At 13mths she is 23.5 inches and 36kg, she is def on the big side for a girl,
yet she still tries to be a lapdog lol

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aww bless and she still has room to grow Maya is 4/5 years of age and weighs between 30-32kg generally though she's 31kg.

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R.I.P Barney, I had 4 wonderful years with you, Thank you-29/04/06-25/11/09
The dog who saved my life
Proud owner of Maya, the Rescued Alaskan Malamute

http://www.dog-breeds-plus.com
Mine and My husband's Dog breed website

Rotts have also changed alot in look, height, type etc.

We did have health issues back in the 80's with wet heads which in some cases causing entopian, and HD was thought 2 b down 2 being a heavy build more than genetics in some cases, so a few of the top breeders decided 2 breed smaller, which resulted in

> Smaller cleaner heads (Rotts were known 4 their large noble heads)
> Smooth coats like a Dob (should be a rough coat)
> Finer boned (should b heavier set)

We r now going back 2 hopefully breed larger more powerful, I don't like 2 c the finer boned Rott, 2 me they r a powerful working breed so hoping this resolves itself, the next problem we have coming up is tail set, this will b judged in the next few years, we have a huge variety of tails as we haven't written the standard yet, due 2 have a seminar on this 2 discuss how we would like 2 go, some prefer the EU tail sets, like in Germany, this 2 me will take a good few generations 2 get wot we want, and I hope they get it right

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"Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way."
Martin Luther King Jr.

Those giant Mals are amazing !!!