Dog Showing Guide: What is the Conformation ring?

Many American Kennel club dog shows are both "all breed" and "obedience". They also can be "specialty Shows" (shows put on specifically with just one breed). An "all-breed" show hosts regular conformation classes, and "obedience" classes are exactly that...Obedience classes. Specialty clubs also host both conformation and obedience classes and also they often host other types of working classes, such as field trials or working trials..This article will describe to you what "conformation" is about. Conformation, to put it quite simply, was originally developed to determine and select the best breeding stock. For this reason, the dogs are judged accordiing to the standard of their own breed, with an examination of the dog's conformation by a individual judge. It is the subjective determination of the Judge on that day, with that particular group of dogs, that determines the winners of the classes at a conformation show. To make his determination, the judge will do a "hands-on" inspection of the dog, noting such charactieristics as broadness of skull, number of teeth, depth of muzzle or lack therof, depth and breadth of chest, length of loins,conditioning and musculature, length of tail and correcctness of the "tail set", straightness (or angulation) of legs, and presence or absence of correct testicles in the case of a male. The judge will also do an inspection of the movement of the dog, commonly called "gaiting". All of the characteristics will be based upon the standard of the breed as written by the "parent club" of the breed, which has been fully approved by the American Kennel Club. The "parent club" is usually a National breed club such as for example the National Newfoundland club of America, or the national Brittany club, etc. (for further information be susre to click on the link in the resource box, this will take you to a larger selection of articles on exactly what are the classes at a dogshow, the group ring, and the best in show classes)