The Undesirables

[FrostyPaws]

If we insist on using the non-thinking word "cur," and define it as "any dog that will quit," then all dogs are curs.

Cur is just a word used to describe something. Dogs that quit in an hour are curs. Dogs that quit in 3 hours are curs. A dog in shock most of the time can't go when it gets so far, so I don't lump them into the discussion. Before I label a dog a cur, I would like to see what exactly happened. Did the dog just quit or was it stopped? Lord knows most folks simply can't tell the difference. So no, I don't think it's a non-thinking word. I think if I label a dog as such, I've given it a lot of thought as to what happened.

With the right helpings of poor health, human stupidity, odds stacked against it, etc. every dog will quit.

Don't believe that as I've seen those right helpings and the dog paid for it with it's life.

If we want to be the eternal skeptic, and question everything, then even dogs that have "never" quit and have shown extreme gameness under ONE set of circumstances, only didn't because they weren't exposed to the right circumstances.

Question everything? I can see a dog's ability, talent, it's strength, etc. There is nothing eternally skeptical in those thoughts. You may be right, AND you may be wrong about dogs that have never quit. At that point, it's simply supposition on our part as people. And that supposition holds a lot more weight coming from some people as opposed to others, and I'm ok with that.

Gameness is like ability ... it comes in varying degrees.

Gameness is not like ability IMO. I believe dogs are either game or they're not. Now, that doesn't take away from a dog that loses in 3 hours, gets drilled the entire time and stops. There is no shame in breeding to a dog such as that, but that being said, he wasn't a game dog. Maybe he was in the 2 or 3% of dogs on the planet at any given time that will take that much, but he still wasn't a proven game dog. Top shelf cur maybe?

We want extremes in both; but no dog is perfect/flawless/infallible, etc.

I don't want extremes in both; I only want extremes in one.