The pedigrees' chum?

I have, in the main, a good relationship with those who work their dogs. That is because those who use their dogs for sport, catching or retrieving their supper, herding or guarding their stock, home or family, understand implicitly about breeding for function - and, particularly, how form follows function, not the other way round.

That's not to say that there aren't problems in working dogs - there are. But conformation issues are rarely an issue.

This article, by David Tom, was published in Shooting Times a couple of weeks ago. To pre-empt the inevitable comments, I am pretty sure that is a Komondor, not a Hungarian Puli, on the bottom left of the article (rap ST's knuckles not mine, please!).

I love this picture of my flatcoat Maisie. She often turns her right ear like this when you talk to her. It makes me laugh every time. Which is am sure at least partly why she does it.

PS: for overseas readers, the title is a play on Pedigree Petfoods' 'Pedigree Chum' brand of dog food - sold only under this name in the UK, I think.

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