Crufts March 5-8th 2009

Crufts starts tomorrow. I don't usually watch it, just catch the odd glimpse.
What usually irritates me is that some of the dogs are such a disaster from the veterinary perspective and yet continue to win awards. I remember a huge, ungainly, puffing Labrador Retriever winning one year and I thought to myself 'here we go, a good excuse for all the owners of overweight Labs to tell me they are normal!'
After all the negative press following the documentary 'Pedigree Dogs Exposed' (BBC1 August 2008) the Kennel Club has had to review and revise its breed standards- thank goodness!
The breed standards have been re-written to exclude anything that could encourage features detrimental to breathing, walking or seeing freely. Also the judges at Crufts have been instructed to report any dog which appears to have a trait detrimental to function.
So, I guess we'll see over the next few days if this change actually helps in creating winning dogs which are fit for function and without detrimental traits...