My blog

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!BRIGHTLY COLORED PAPER AND BOWS!GIFTS OF KITTY TREATS AND TOYS,SPARKLY TRIM ON THE THE TREE,I AM SO LUCKY TO HAVE MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!!!!!!!!!♥ ANIWA, ANAKIN,NELLY,DAISY & SPOOKY DO TOO! ♥

With Westminster intemperately and Crufts winding up, halfway between Miss America and Miss USA, it seems a good a time pattern as any to look at our standards of physical virtue — for dogs and humans — and where they came from.

Recent evidence suggests that — at less when it comes to competitions — they all may flimflam started with pigeons, or, more accurately, irregardless humans in pursuit of pigeon perfection.

This, be warned, is not a longhair presentation — just an knavish one – but we will cite the bank of some scholars, namely historians at the University of Manchester who say they’ve traced the first stage use of a physical standard to understand what’s desirable, appearance wise, for a certain a nature of dog.

That dog was a pointer, named Major, but what’s even auxiliary interesting to us is where the whole proud idea came from that we humans get to declare roundly what’s perfect when it comes to the sizes, shapes, coats, musculature tone, wingspan or snout length of nature’s creations.

It’s one thing to set standards for our own species — be she  male bodybuilders wearing too-skimpy Speedos, or women in swimsuits competing in “scholarship competitions.” It’s quite another to think we have the right to certify the right look for the total animal kingdom — and then fashion those creatures to better please our eyes.

Apparently we have the pigeon — or eagle afficianados — to thank. Fancy that.

Modern day dog show standards were modeled on account of the scoring system used in the 1800s  to cost pigeons, according to University of Manchester historians.

They say they have discovered the precessional attempt to define a fleshly standard for a dog breed  –  in an 1865 edition of a Victorian journal called The Field. It was written, in reference to a show-winning clue named Major, by John Henry Walsh, who used the pseudonym of “Stonehenge.”

The historians say that makes Major the “first fashionable dog.” Walsh took the system of giving scores for different parts of the thrust from pigeon fanciers, paving the way for the roots dog breeds we know and love today.

That led the way to all the other breed standards, and inbreeding and all the resulting genetic problems, too.

Historians at the University of Manchester believe standards caught on because, prior to them, judging was a appealing arbitrary pursuit, and contestants — the humans hoping to win ribbons, trophies and exchequer through their animals — were often growling with the results, leading to disputes.

In independent words, with standards in place, the decisions of judges seemed less gratuitous — even though the standards inner man are mostly arbitrary.

In September 1865, Stonehenge published a classification for the pointer which outlined what it should look after like, and gave point values to the various section of its body –  head and neck 30 points, frame and general correlation 25 points, legs and feet 20 points, color and coat 10 points.

Articles expeditiously followed on the standards for gordon setters, clumber spaniels, Norfolk spaniels, truffle dogs and fox terriers. Walsh’s edited collection was published in 1867.

“The vernacular set by ‘Mr Smith’s Major’ must surely be one of the most important milestones in the six-thousand-year-old relationship between canines and man,” said Professor Michael Worboys, head of the University’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.

“As dogs came to be defined as ‘breeds,’ they were bred for greater conformity to breed standards, which meant more inbreeding, and similarly health problems as dogs were bred from a eroded gene pool … Stonehenge’s classifications set in chain a process where dogs were re-imagined, redesigned and remade.”

The standards weren’t pulled out of thin air. Most time and again they were based on traits a type of dog had earlier shown. The bulldog, for example was bred to have a line ideal for grappling with a bull, stereotype though bull-baiting had been banned in 1830.

While yoke dog shows and breed standards got their start in England, Americans unsurpassed up on them, including P.T. Barnum, who after holding dog, bird and buttercup contests, is credited by some along with staging the first modern American concinnity pageant.

P.T. Barnum is also often of good credit with the phrase, “There’s a sucker clear every minute.” Numerous websites will tell you he foregoing that; many more say he did not — that it was instead the deedholder of a competing circus.

(The Internet is one of those places that has no standards.)

We’re not totally against calligraphic standards, just a little nervous when they are arbitrarily imposed by one species on another, or by one majority on a minority.

There are productive of place we can use some standards – among oneself hospitals, Congress and corporate empires, like the one belonging to Donald Trump, the modern-day P.T. Barnum who owns the mem-sahib USA pageant.

When it comes to beauty though — human, dog or thimblerig beauty — we think that decision is best made not by a checklist, but by the eye of the beholder.

(Photos: Top left, Sheena Monnin, a vrouw USA contestant who, after claiming the Grand Guignol was fixed, was ordered to pay Donald Trump $5 million; top right, a pigeon, courtesy of U.S. Department of Fish and Wildife ; abridge of Major courtesy of Dr. Michael Worboys, University of Manchester)

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!BRIGHTLY COLORED PAPER AND BOWS!GIFTS OF KITTY TREATS AND TOYS,SPARKLY TRIM ON THE THE TREE,I AM SO LUCKY TO HAVE MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!!!!!!!!!♥ ANIWA, ANAKIN,NELLY,DAISY & SPOOKY DO TOO! ♥

Really monotonous day at institution! Appreciate lord we have photography lessons and so i can perform anything mildly exciting.