Re: [PyrNet-L] Giant Breed?

[Bluebonnet <bluebonnet_72@yahoo.com>]

 I
> think the posters comment 
> was relative guarding abilities. 

   How many ways can I say, that is not what I meant? 



    I think the 
> poster has some notion that they are reluctant to
> give up, even in the face 
> of many of us telling them as gently as we can that
> their information or 
> notion is not correct or at least consistent with
> our experience.

     I wasn't gonna bother with this but I really hate
being condensend to and so I'll see if I can't
formulate an answer.  
    Let's drop the idea of experience for a moment and
just look at a normal curve.  If the breed standard
says  27"  is the minimum acceptable, which it does. 
"The Standard gives the minimum weights for specimens
of minimum height, 100 pounds for a male of 27
inches..."  (Strang, p. 76)  
   Now lets define the term normal.  This is arbitary
but lets say for something to be normal at least 15
percent of a population would have to exhibit that
trait.  Now if 15 percent of male dogs weigh in at 100
pounds or less, then 14.99...%  would be less then 100
pounds.   This would mean nearly 15% of dogs were
under the size specified in the standard.  
   You said a number of people say that dogs at 27
inches and 100 pounds are common.  In reality, what
I've seen is a very few people say, I had 1 dog at
that size.  One of which said specifically, that the
dog in question was over 27 inches and was somewhat
under ideal weight at 100 pounds.  One person, said
they have see a lot of dogs at this weight.  One more
made a statement I can't quite decifer but sound like
they've shown dogs at that weight but they weren't
quite full grown.  
   If people who have been dealing with pyrs for
years, say "I have had one dog with X characteristic"
that hardly makes X characteristic the norm.  
   Just evaluating from the standard, 27" and 100 lbs.
is the smallest allowed.  You'd expect most dogs to
fall closer to the middle.  Paul Strang's book says,
"Larger dogs will often weigh much more, even as much
as 150 pounds for a 32 inches male."  (Strang, p. 76) 
This would create an average of 125 pounds, we would
expect most dogs to fall in that average, with very
few on the outlying edges. 
    
 Healthy
> disciplined discussion should be 
> beneficial to us all.  

    Certainly it should.  In order to continue this I
would need to spend a great deal of time, pulling up
information I've read in the past either over the net,
or in books, and compiling lists to make solid
statistics.  I don't have the time as work is really
busy right now, Jake is taking an obedience class,
Ceasar is about to start his, and unless I really get
motivated I doubt I'll put the time and effort into
creating a solid arguement.   
   Anyone else notice, this place has more hot buttons
then a political chat room, and debates are handled
with all the emotional subtext of an abortion
discussion?  
                     Brandy
    

=====
"Bluebonnets" by Julia D. Booth
Offical Flower Song of the State of Texas
Chorus:
Bluebonnets, blue lovely Bluebonnets,
More beautiful than all the rest.
Texas chose you for her flower,
And we love you best, Bluebonnets.
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