So, Apollo and I have been taking a “Confirmation Handling Class” so that he and I can have a clue the first time we enter a show ring. I almost didn’t bother, with the breed standard changes I didn’t see a point. But after discussion with his breeder, and some thought on my part I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Worst that happens is a DQ, and since we don’t plan to breed thats not exactly the end of the world for us.
While we were waiting for the class to start last night a lady walked by who was able to correctly ID Apollo as Tibetan Mastiff (even among doggy people the usual response is “what IS he??”). But she then said “he’s not full grown right? He looks really small for the breed.” Now, on his first birthday, back in December, we measured Apollo at a bit over 28″, call it 28.25″. He was a bit confused by the whole fuss and was sinking a bit under our hands so it might have even been closer to 28.5″. The new breed standard puts the upper limit at 29″. Which means that by those standards Apollo is NOT small (he’s not small by any standard really but…). Now true, he’s by no means finished filling out, which makes him appear less “big” over all than he is, but even when I said that to her she said, “oh, so not the smallest in the breed anyway.”
Now I agree that care needs to be taken to make sure the breed doesn’t get TO big, there are to many health problems that occur when thats allowed to happen, but yah, 29″ was just NOT the place to put the upper limit.