exposure by Dr. Pierluigi Pezzano
Translation from Italian by Renata di Fazio

In summary only working dogs will be able to win big titles
Mr. President of the congress, Members of the Presidium of our International Club, Congressmen, and you Mr. Wiblishauser: first of all let me welcome you in Desio today and let me thank you for your attendance here and for your many foreign show entries.

I wish you a pleasant permanence at the world cup Dobermann IDC 2004, and I wish you to keep many good memories of this great event that we are honoured to host for this year.
Please feel free to interrupt at any time if my speech is not clearly expressed, if you have problems with the simultaneous translation, or if you have questions of any kind.
Today, in quality of the AIAD president, on behalf of the AIAD National Board and in representation of all our peripheral delegations and all the Italian breeders, I'm here to submit an official request to this Committee to modify the rules and regulation about awarding the IDC titles. Starting from next year we would like to assign the IDC titles only to those dogs that have accomplished the Ztp and have also a minimum of working grade.
Among the reasons that induce someone to choose a pure breed dog there is one very important, that we all should keep in mind, and it is the foreseeable of certain morphological and characterial attitudes typical of the breed. This concept should always be a cornerstone in the pure breed dogs' selection.
The dogs' domestication started about 14000 years ago. During this time men decreed certain breeds favouring the reproduction of certain subjects that mostly express and respond to those working necessities like hunting, herding, watching...

For this reason we can consider a direct selective system done on the temperament and behavioural attitudes but there was also an indirect system of selection for the morphological characteristics (for example the coat colour or the ears shape). The population division in relation to their working attitudes was the first constitution of the "primordial breeds". This first division constituted the genetic pool on which is now based the modern selection of the pure breed dog. For this reason it is fair to say that the modern breeds descend from the primitive working dogs.
The working attitude together with the research of the ultimate harmonic dog, was the main selection goal for a long time.

When the morphological aspect became the main goal, the dogs working attitude seemed to become of less importance. During the breed standard layout and the advent of the first 'registry data' (stud book) (toward the end of 1800) most of the importance given to the working attitudes was lost.
Luckily, for the Dobermann breed that did not happen. The standard layout kept in high consideration the dog's working attitude and even in the third and last edition, the standard strongly refers to the natural (innate) endowments and the docile temperament of our dobermanns.
The high consideration of those characteristics has been, and is, a big help for the selection work done during the zoothecnical demonstrations as well as for breeding.
The Specialized Breed Clubs' main work is to select those dogs that are physically and psychically healthy and stable keeping in mind those specific breed 's characteristics described in the official standard, with reference to the whole breed population.

Any officially organized zoothecnical manifestation has the main purpose to pick out and exclude from the breeding those dogs that do not meet with the standard codes, and to point out those subjects that meet with the standard in all parts and that could be a positive improvement for the breed.
This can be possible with the consideration of a predetermined work that is: judging- breeding- selecting.
It is necessary to follow this exact order because the judgment can condition the breeding and these two together can operate toward the selection that is concreted by picking out the next generation reproducers.
The phenotype control has a key role for the selective goal's evaluation and it covers several different fields, like: health, behavioural and working attitudes and morphological aspects.
I always remind myself that the in cynothecnique the judgement is an expression of a critical evaluation done on every single subject in consideration not only of the breed standard but also of the past, of the present and of the future turn that is to wish to be taken within a single breed.
At this point the specialized breed clubs provide specific selection programs to protect and divulgate the pure breed dogs.

The European judging method always ends with the subjects' qualification and in the case of several competitors also with a classification among them. This classification is not and must not be an arbitrary interpretation but only an application of the breed standard. The judgement is the most important aspect of it. A wrong judgement can bring to wrong conclusions regarding the temperament, the conformation and the natural endowments of the single subject. The wrong conclusion can bring to wrong mating and can take us away from the breed standard. The breed standard describes the Dobermann as the ultimate dog: beautiful and useful. It means that the standard requires our Dobermanns to be at the best of their functionality as well as at the best of their beauty. The qualities that express the 'functional beauty' are the most important to determinate the Dobermann singularity. That is why it's better not to even consider for breeding a dog that is not an expression of the dobermann type. The Ztp is based on this very simple concept.

Thanks to the Ztp we can verify and control the temperament, the conformation and even the health of our dobermanns. (hereditary pathologies could jeopardize the breed, but we need to consider also the incidence and the frequency shown in relation to the entire population).

Part I        Part II        Part III

Source: dobermannreviewl