Has anyone read the Gazette Labrador column in the Oct issue...............

Yes, and didn't like the article at all. I think rather then informing us on the breed itself, it was more about the judges going to hunt tests and field trial? They should send letter to the judges rather then printing that for this month. I can see were the parent club wants the judges to judge more on the labrador as a performance dog, but this article made me wonder if they are educating the judges in the wrong way? I would think they should be learning more abour correct coats and correct shoulders and correct toplines and correct rears and correct movement. Yes, you can have a nice looking show lab that can do it all and we all know that! I got rather concerned as to "what" type of labrador the judges will think is correct in the show ring? Any thoughts about this?

Field trials and hunt tests are not what Labradors were bred to do.They are a gentlemans hunting dog.The Master tests and Field trials of today are competitions that go needlessly far beyond the natural hunting ability of the dog.

I read the stinking article. The LRC Directors continue to create their own flame wars built upon their unbelievable arrogance toward the conformation community. Sending judges to watch field trials? For what? So they can spend 3 days watching some of the God awful ugliest Labradors on the earth? Let's have a side competition: "My dog can lick the last drop out of the bottom of a Coke bottle faster than yours can...." When are these freaks going to die off so that the rest of us can return to the FCI Standard and finally see some decent looking dogs? Better yet, split this breed into the Labs loved around the world, and those loved by no one but the LRC.

As if the LRC hasn't done enough to ruin judging already.

Field Trials and Master Hunt tests are so far off from a real hunting situations it is not a true test of what our dogs are bred to do.

I hope Judges do go to field trials, they will see what the trial people are trying to pass off as Labrador retrievers!

The show community is working to do hunt tests with our dogs and the field community is doing nothing to help there dogs comply with the standard, accept, trying to change the standard and judging to conform more to there dogs.

Here's a thought: Since the LRC says a conformation champion must have at least a WC, how about requiring a field champion to have a CC? Seems fair to me, but it will never happen.
By the way, since the LRC is such a weak parent club and has no influence over many Labrador folks, that WC requirement has no teeth.

Well, there are lots of things that puzzle me in the "akc" "dog world". Why is it that Labs have the highest number of registrations in a given year - but - we are judged as one color (unlike Cockers) and one height (unlike beagles) and - that the body type of a Lab (for hunting purposes) has be contained in the ONE standard that we have? Would it not make more sense to have dogs that hunt for different game in different terrain? Seriously - you can't have an all sizes, all shapes - fits one need. I think that we all know what we are looking to see at a conformation event and what we are hoping to see at a hunt test. How that gets translated to an all breed judge to digest is - a- work - in - prorgess.

Cockers are judged by color because their national club lobbied for it and got it - increased entries or something - it really makes no sense if you think about it. There is ONE labrador standard in the U.S. How about both show and field breeders abide by it? If you want a dog for speed get a different breed. Labradors were bred to be a 'gentleman's' hunting dog.