After further discussion with Shadow, I have decided that it is not quite so unfair that she is going to be used in breeding and I’m not. It is going to mean she has to have lots of tests and I don’t think I really fancy them. She has to have her eyes tested and her hips and then she’ll have people prodding and poking to make sure she looks all right. Now if you were to leave it down to us dogs, it would be more “Yeah, she looks all right. Now let me get at her.” We don’t pay much attention to whether all her markings are in the right place. It’s a bit like humans. Don’t you ever think it’s a good job that there isn’t a test for humans to be able to breed? Let’s face it, if it was only the perfect specimens in looks, character and health that were allowed to breed in humans, then there wouldn’t be many of you out there! Oh, it might weed out a few problems, but it would also drastically reduce the numbers. There aren’t many of you out there that are anywhere near perfect. Imagine if you were eliminated from breeding because you were too short, too tall, overweight or had a crooked nose. The only people that would benefit would be the few perfect males for whom the opportunities would be endless, if they could actually find some perfect females! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my breed and I wouldn’t want it to disappear because we’d been crossed with other things. At the same time, I don’t want it to disappear because only the perfect ones could breed and there aren’t any perfect ones. It’s not an easy balance to find.