[glencorgi]

At that level of competition, I'm not surprised at all by the observation, "These were very long legged, very slim and not at all classical in their looks." and I suspect it was very accurate. That it was noticed by someone who had basically a passing knowledge of the breed speaks volumes.

Threads come up from time to time on the show lists and the performance list discussing "show" lines and "performance" lines. Not many are in favor of splitting of the breed(s) into the two distinct styles as we've seen what has happened with Labrador's and some of the other Sporting/hunting breeds here with "field" lines and "show" lines. We see it also in some of the working breeds - working lines vs show lines. As I said a thread sometime back, breeding for one quality only leads to loss of type and without type, one does not have a breed. Not only does one lose the aesthetic stand point as Cardiguy pointed out, temperament can also be impacted. The drive, energy, edginess, sharpness needed to compete at the levels asked of them make them not the easiest of dogs to live with. As only so many of them will go on to the "career" they were bred for, that leaves a number of puppies left to go into loving pet homes and these homes are often not prepared for what they are getting into with dogs of these temperaments. Difficulties often arise down the road.

Debbie