He may have a blocky head, but he (and most of the Seawild dogs) has beautiful rear angulation for a toller -- something extremely uncommon in the breed. I have never seen a toller kennel with such consistency in it's decent rears. Fronts could be better, in fact some appear quite poor, but those are easier to get. Bred to show lines with consistently nice fronts, the Seawild dogs, in my opinion, can really contribute to the breed. Tollers have gone downhill as far as structure goes, and rear angulation is it's main fault in my opinion. Rarely do I see a toller that isn't straight-stifled, and very often I see short rear legs (which often goes unnoticed because in this breed a high tail carriage is allowed, which short rear legs often cause). Some heads may not be typey, but the dogs as a whole can still be clearly defined to any knowledgable dog person as tollers.
I also don't find the dog's neck to be short. Not well-arched, but definatly not short.
You can see in this picture of the same dog, here. If you cut an invisible line through his topline, the head is well above the line. It is only when the line touches or goes through the head that the neck is almost definatly short. He appears to have nice shoulder angulation (hard to tell from a picture, but his front is well set back), but judging from other pictures his legs are placed too far off his body causing his elbows to turn out; Too bad. His pasterns could be better too.
All in all I don't find this to be a particularily bad kennel at all. Like I said, nice rears -- for tollers. That is something I would definatly focus on if I were in the breed. I also don't find their dogs to be long -- I find them to be short-legged which can be confused with long. Their length is actually quite nice, they just need leg to match; Not too hard to get.
Breeding to a standard is harder than it sounds. I am not willing to sacrifice health, movement, temperament, and structure, just because my dog is a bit coarse in the head and half an inch longer than she is tall. Everyone has their priorities.









Reply With Quote
Bookmarks