Once when I showed my dog at a specialty the judge turned her back and went to
the next dog when the dog moved around the ring.  She did not even look at the
dogs movement.  That night at a judges dinner, the judge actually said to the
people sitting around her that collies were a beauty contest and the rest
doesn't matter.  Herding was something they did long ago and it was no longer
relavant.  The most important part of a collie was the head.  I used to think
you could win under certain judges if you cut a beautiful head off, put it on a
stick and ran around the ring.  The judge wouldn't have even noticed there was
no body.
Laura

jan wrote:

> At 7:21 AM -0700 4/23/99, Amy Garner wrote:
>
> >On the eye topic... I was talking with a collie
> >breeder in Florida this week and she is getting fed
> >up with many of the show collie folks. She is hearing
> >the same line I've heard "you can't breed a
> >normal-eyed collie with a correct head."
>
>         There was one collie breeder onthis list for a while who breeds
> beautiful show quailty collies and she prides herself on them being normal
> eyed and winning conformation.  So it isn't true that you can't have normal
> eyes and a correct head.
>         And if it was true, well, gee, then how correct can the head really
> be? Isn't a conformation show all about breeding the "best" dog and
> wouldn't it logically follow that the best dog should be the healthy one
> with good vision? Seems to me like some breeders are really putting the
> cart before the horse....