Because I love this Breed

Stop Making Excuses — The Breed Deserves Better

Too many breeders today are falling back on the same tired excuses for why their dogs don’t have conformation championships (AKC) or Grand Championships (UKC):

“I’m not breeding for show dogs — I provide pets.”

“I’m breeding for performance, not conformation.”

“You can’t win in AKC unless you hire a professional handler.”

Let’s be clear: these are excuses, not reasons. And every time we allow them to justify skipping the ring, we lower the standard for what responsible breeding should be.

You don’t have to breed Champion to Champion or Grand Champion every time — but at minimum, one dog in the pairing should be a finished conformation Champion (AKC) or Grand Champion (UKC). The untitled dog should still come from a pedigree with recent champions close up, not just buried deep in the background. This is how we maintain — and improve — type, structure, and breed integrity.

Saying you’re “not breeding for show” doesn’t give you a free pass. Conformation titles are not about glamour. They are about verifying, through third-party, breed-knowledgeable judges, that your dog physically meets the standard. That the dog has the structure to perform its function. Form and function go hand in hand. A dog with poor structure is far more prone to injury — whether it’s in a sport ring or simply living its life.

Some will say, “But I do UKC, not AKC.” It’s important to understand the difference.

AKC conformation is widely recognized around the world as a gold standard for evaluating breeding stock.

UKC, while valuable and historically more focused on a breed’s original working purpose, does not carry the same global weight in conformation evaluation. That doesn’t make UKC irrelevant — but it does mean breeders who are serious about long-term preservation should take a hard look at what titles they’re chasing and why.

If you are breeding dogs, the goal should be improvement with every generation. That means measuring up — not making excuses.

Excuses don’t strengthen a breeding program. Accountability, evaluation, and commitment do. The breed deserves nothing less.