[PyrNet-L] Breed Standard

[Carol Brescher Boyle <carol@NaturalDogFood.com>]

Hi Karen and list,

Sorry I am so behind in my mail. Yes, your post also got me
digging back in my old Mary Crane book. While I don't pretend
to be a student of the Breed Standard's history I did remember
that the first AKC standard had a very short duration - and as
you mentioned, it was indeed 2 yrs. According to Mrs Crane's 
chronology, the breed was recognized prior to the formation of
the Great Pyrenees Club of America and therefore the use of the
French standard.

On pages 24 and 25 of the 1949 edition of The Great Pyrenees
by Mary Crane:
	"Before the Great Pyrenees Club of America was
	formed and at the time that the American Kennel Club was
	prevailed upon by Mr and Mrs Crane to recognize the breed in
	1933, a verbatim translation of the French Standard for the
	breed then currently in use was drawn up and submitted to the
	American Kennel Club and accepted by them as the official and
	acceptable standard of the Great Pyrenees breed. This standard
	remained in force for two years, until on January 20th, 1935,
	in response to many requests received from judges in particular,
	the breed standard was revised and clarified in order to better
	set forth the true type of Great Pyrenees to be rewarded at the
	shows and to correct the dog phraseology used in the old 		standard so
as to assure a more complete understanding of 
	what the best and truest type of Great Pyrenees should be.
	It was worked out in every detail to the best of the ability 
	of Mr. and Mrs. Crane, in consultation with dog experts 
	and authorities, enlarging and clarifying the French standard 
	so as TO MAKE IT APPLICABLE AND CLEAR to students of the 
	breed in America."

The phrase "A dog of immense size, great majesty, keen intelligence
and kindly expression..." is the opening statement of the 1935
breed standard. I am certain that in preparing this standard,
the Crane's selected each word and phrase carefully to reflect
exactly what they had intended to convey as a verbal image
of the Great Pyrenees. For 55 years this standard was the 
official verbal/written representation of our breed ala GPCofA.
All breeders bred toward that standard, and all judges 
were supposted to judge the Pyrs in front of them against this
standard.

After Mary Crane gave one of my males a nice major, I spoke with
her briefly and she commented very favorably on his size, and
said something to the effect that he was surely a large handsome
dog. In a conversation held under less stressful circumstances (for
me anyway), she reitterated the need to take size and balance 
and type into consideration when breeding. The Great Pyrenees
is a composite of all of these factors, and more. And in the dim
recesses of my mind, I remember her saying that if all things are
truly equal, "the larger dog is preferred."

If the reports coming back from the French National are accurate,
the French took Mary Crane's advice better than we did.
 
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 06:02:48 -0500
From: kreiter@servtech.com
Subject: Re: [PyrNet-L] Breeding - American vs French

> Which brings me to the point about the GPCofA. This club holds
> the key to our breed. Its called the "Breed Standard." I remember
> the opening phrase of the old standard "A dog of immense size...."

I found much of this information to be very intertesting.  After doing
some
initial digging and then discussing this with someone who is a *student*
of
the Great Pyrenees standard I was provided with the following
information...

It might be important to know that the word "immense" was added to the
US
standard with the 1935 revision of the original 1933 standard (which
BTW,
was a translation of the French standard).   The 1933 US standard said
"A
dog of large size...".   The French standard has never used the term
"immense".   The 1907 French standard said "great height" and "great
size".
The 1927 "large size" and the current one "great size" just as does the
current US one which changed the US standard to be in agreement with the
French.

Karen Reiter
kreiter@servtech.com
Fairport, NY
-- 
  Carol
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