Face Dog = Head Dog?

[Officially Retired]

So, for example, let's take Garner's Ch. Chinaman. They said he "had the mouth of an alligator. He was very clever. He would outsmart slick ear and nose dogs and cur them out. He would finish straight-ahead dogs even faster. Swapping-out was his game."

Correction: Chinaman out-smarted the mediocre ear/nose dogs they put on him ... but Chinaman never the faced anything close to the best head dogs that ever lived.

Would it be fair to say he just never met the right "slick ear or nose dog" that was able to take his measure?

Exactly right.

To read the accounts, you'd think Chinaman was an unstoppable juggernaut.

"You" might think that, but I don't.

The first thing you will learn is people over-exaggerate everything.

The second thing you learn is NO dog is "unbeatable," even legitimately great dogs.

No matter how good any dog is, there are dogs who either (1) are still overall better animals or who (2) have styles that are rough for them.

Some dogs retire before they are beaten, but that doesn't mean they were unbeatable.

Chinaman was a great dog, no doubt, but there are dogs that would kill Chinaman (that he never faced), same as there are dogs that would out-slick him (that he never faced).

The only thing that can correctly be said of Chinaman was, of the dogs he was put with, none beat him, but that doesn't give Chinaman (or any dog) an "unbeatable" medallion against every dog that ever walked the earth.

I mean, all anyone has to do is use their head and think for a moment.

Objectively, record- and quality-of-opposition-wise, what Chinaman accomplished (at best) was middle-of-the-road, compared to a dog like Ch Silver and even some of his opponents.

I am sure Chinaman could have beaten his share of greats, but there are plenty of all-time-greats who would likewise beat him.

Anyone who says different is a fanboy, not a dogman.

Jack