Body Bone Bum Brevity Beauty Bouyant does epitomize 'cob' don't you think? _________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
" I can't remember when they started docking, perhaps Patricia can help? "
Yes I can!
I have looked up the subject in my " Gaston Pouchain " book, which is till very much more simple and easier to refer top than aother books. So I will translate for Victoria.
The tail left naturally could be from nothing to about 10 cms. A referendum in 1933 decided to stop the natural bob and include the docking of otherwise excellent subjects.
"In 1932, I judged a remarkable dog in a trial who came from Mieur Mege. He was ch in the field. But in the shows, he was eliminated regularly because, so they say, he had a docked tail.
We approached Kermadec & Lessard and discussed this case. At the time the judges were looking for " a wheat grain" at the end of the tail. That, they thought, proved without doubt they were tailless. But...all who know how to dock, could create " this wheat grain" by squashing down the last vertabrae with pincers. You could then cheat!
And I always thought it was deplorable to select a dog on the tail criteria, a gundog needing his nose before anything else.
No one wanted the responsabilty to decide about the tail. 2 dogs were presented to a judge who was asked to find the bob tail. He picked the docked one! There was therefore no way of knowing. A referendum was therefore called and by 234 against 14, in 1932, the word" naturally taiiless" was taken off the standard.
Fo those who want to know when the Black colour was introduced in the standard, it was 1956.
I have an imported bitch myself, a friend came to check her" grain of wheat" at the end of her tail. She could not find it!!!
Hope you found the Gaston Pouchain explanation of interest.
Patricia
First of all sorry to be going backwards on this thread, but have had my mother ill and not been able to respond recently.
What beautiful pictures Guy, I used to show horses in hand and under saddle before I got into dogs, mainly warm bloods and thoroughbreds, but have always loved the cob maybe that's why I like the Brittany so much because it is a little cob.
would love to own a show cob but they are quite hard to come by now days and the top class ones are very very expensive.
The 2nd picture the horse which stands behind the main one is truly magnificent it has an excellent shoulder and exhumes quality, without even seeing the head.
It has substance and quality without heaviness, which applies also to the Brittany. I don't think the French could have got a better example than the Cob to explain the overall picture of the Brittany, if you know the cob horse it puts an instant picture in your head of what they mean when they say the Brittany should be a cob.
.Couldn't agree more with Anne I think the cob is getting to be in the minority of the Brits nowadays in this country and not the majority, especially with the tail, a lot of judges especially the all rounders tend to knock the dogs with the correct substance and cobbiness as they do not look as flashy and elegant as the ones with less bone and substance.
As for long legs the cob horse unlike the dog does not require these it asks for short legged animal which has strength, stamina,compact, stout built and the saying
Quote:
A cob should have the head of a lady and the backside of a cook
I myself don't mind a good length of leg, as long as the overall picture is balanced, if you get too long a leg and a very short body the overall balance is wrong and you end up with an unbalanced dog which looks like it is on stilts.
My opinion only of course.
Does it say in the French standard anything about leg length ???
On another note! I have a tailless bitch with a grain of wheat, which will be available for demonstration at Le Weekend
I hope you mean exude and not exhume Joanne, I had visions of you digging up a body [not sure who's it was though]
Must admit I love the Cob look as well....I remember one which I used to ride up in Shropshire, he was the kindest horse I have ever ridden. I could let my daughter go out on him without any qualms and know that he would look after her all the time.
Not sure that Merlin has a 'grain of wheat' more like a lump of porridge . _________________ Jan
Merlin, hips 9/9=18 and Ghillie, hips 8/9=17
Pull [n or v] An equal and opposite force perpetrated on both ends of a lead that results in the inevitable tripping and falling of the human involved!!
Allez has a 'lump of porridge' too, with an ear of barley on the end of it. This rain is doing my head in - I have hoovered and dusted the whole house now, cleaned all the windows, and still it rains. No point in taking the dogs out - they just get soaked in the long grass then are miserable in their kennels. They have all settled well to being outside while the babies are in the house. As for Belle, and her lump of muesli (not thick enough to be poridge) I doubt if she'll want to go back outside when the pups stink up the house too much. But out she will be
Ah well, agility with Freckles to look forward to tonight!
Annie _________________ Annie
Handle every situation like a dog, if you can't eat it or play with it, just pee on it and walk away
Check Page 64 in Jean louvet's book, Jadis de St Thurial and Lambic du Sulon( Toscane's grand father!!!)
Also on the calendar done through Paul - Puk des Pigenettes-
My ideal are those legs. And they are pretty balanced, they make me melt
Sometimes you see a dog who sends goose pimples down your neck, they are so good...Lambic was one. It was love at first sight
Sadly he was ran over by a tractor and was worth sooooo much money....
I was lucky to find his son Ozo who won the Nationale in 2001.
Few dogs do that to me. The perfect COB.imo.
Thank you for that Jan, darn spell checker I will have to start checking my post before I send them thankfully you knew what I meant to say.
Defiantly not digging any body up especially not in this rotten weather Lets hope it is getting all the raining done before Le Weekend and it is going to be glorious sunshine on the first Saturday in October
I keep telling them we need a spellchecker on here _________________ Jan
Merlin, hips 9/9=18 and Ghillie, hips 8/9=17
Pull [n or v] An equal and opposite force perpetrated on both ends of a lead that results in the inevitable tripping and falling of the human involved!!
" Hope you found the Gaston Pouchain explanation of interest.
Anything written by Monsieur Pouchain is of great interest!! Naturally, yes? Thank you, Patricia for the translation. Do appreciate you doing that. The results of the vote are interesting...
_________________ "...amitie, respect mutuel et amour..."
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- I have hoovered and dusted the whole house now, cleaned all the windows, and still it rains. No point in taking the dogs out - they just get soaked in the long grass then are miserable in their kennels. They have all settled well to being outside while the babies are in the house. As for Belle, and her lump of muesli (not thick enough to be poridge) I doubt if she'll want to go back outside when the pups stink up the house too much. But out she will be 
thankfully you knew what I meant to say.
