Mr. President of the congress, Members
of the Presidium of our International Club, Congressmen,
and you Mr. Wiblishauser: first of all let me welcome
you in Desio today and let me thank you for your attendance
here and for your many foreign show entries.
I wish you a pleasant permanence at the world cup Dobermann
IDC 2004, and I wish you to keep many good memories
of this great event that we are honoured to host for
this year.
Please feel free to interrupt at any time if my speech
is not clearly expressed, if you have problems with
the simultaneous translation, or if you have questions
of any kind.
Today, in quality of the AIAD president, on behalf of
the AIAD National Board and in representation of all
our peripheral delegations and all the Italian breeders,
I'm here to submit an official request to this Committee
to modify the rules and regulation about awarding the
IDC titles. Starting from next year we would like to
assign the IDC titles only to those dogs that have accomplished
the Ztp and have also a minimum of working grade.
Among the reasons that induce someone to choose a pure
breed dog there is one very important, that we all should
keep in mind, and it is the foreseeable of certain morphological
and characterial attitudes typical of the breed. This
concept should always be a cornerstone in the pure breed
dogs' selection.
The dogs' domestication started about 14000 years ago.
During this time men decreed certain breeds favouring
the reproduction of certain subjects that mostly express
and respond to those working necessities like hunting,
herding, watching...
For this reason we can consider a direct selective system
done on the temperament and behavioural attitudes but
there was also an indirect system of selection for the
morphological characteristics (for example the coat
colour or the ears shape). The population division in
relation to their working attitudes was the first constitution
of the "primordial breeds". This first division
constituted the genetic pool on which is now based the
modern selection of the pure breed dog. For this reason
it is fair to say that the modern breeds descend from
the primitive working dogs.
The working attitude together with the research of the
ultimate harmonic dog, was the main selection goal for
a long time.
When the morphological aspect became the main goal,
the dogs working attitude seemed to become of less importance.
During the breed standard layout and the advent of the
first 'registry data' (stud book) (toward the end of
1800) most of the importance given to the working attitudes
was lost.
Luckily, for the Dobermann breed that did not happen.
The standard layout kept in high consideration the dog's
working attitude and even in the third and last edition,
the standard strongly refers to the natural (innate)
endowments and the docile temperament of our dobermanns.
The high consideration of those characteristics has
been, and is, a big help for the selection work done
during the zoothecnical demonstrations as well as for
breeding.
The Specialized Breed Clubs' main work is to select
those dogs that are physically and psychically healthy
and stable keeping in mind those specific breed 's characteristics
described in the official standard, with reference to
the whole breed population.
Any officially organized zoothecnical manifestation
has the main purpose to pick out and exclude from the
breeding those dogs that do not meet with the standard
codes, and to point out those subjects that meet with
the standard in all parts and that could be a positive
improvement for the breed.
This can be possible with the consideration of a predetermined
work that is: judging- breeding- selecting.
It is necessary to follow this exact order because the
judgment can condition the breeding and these two together
can operate toward the selection that is concreted by
picking out the next generation reproducers.
The phenotype control has a key role for the selective
goal's evaluation and it covers several different fields,
like: health, behavioural and working attitudes and
morphological aspects.
I always remind myself that the in cynothecnique the
judgement is an expression of a critical evaluation
done on every single subject in consideration not only
of the breed standard but also of the past, of the present
and of the future turn that is to wish to be taken within
a single breed.
At this point the specialized breed clubs provide specific
selection programs to protect and divulgate the pure
breed dogs.
The European judging method always ends with the subjects'
qualification and in the case of several competitors
also with a classification among them. This classification
is not and must not be an arbitrary interpretation but
only an application of the breed standard. The judgement
is the most important aspect of it. A wrong judgement
can bring to wrong conclusions regarding the temperament,
the conformation and the natural endowments of the single
subject. The wrong conclusion can bring to wrong mating
and can take us away from the breed standard. The breed
standard describes the Dobermann as the ultimate dog:
beautiful and useful. It means that the standard requires
our Dobermanns to be at the best of their functionality
as well as at the best of their beauty. The qualities
that express the 'functional beauty' are the most important
to determinate the Dobermann singularity. That is why
it's better not to even consider for breeding a dog
that is not an expression of the dobermann type. The
Ztp is based on this very simple concept.
Thanks to the Ztp we can verify and control the temperament,
the conformation and even the health of our dobermanns.
(hereditary pathologies could jeopardize the breed,
but we need to consider also the incidence and the frequency
shown in relation to the entire population). |
