I see the YES votes are piling up and creating a little separation. Great topic and a great string of posts.

I voted NO and after reading all the views and thinking a little more on the topic I am still on the NO side of the fence.

Homer and Jeep are great examples. Many have said Jeep could not have taken what he put on Homer. Many have said if it were done at Homer's weight he would have dispatched the great Jeep dog. Some have even said that the actual Jeep dog died that night and the owners stood one in to cash in on the 4 hour-plus history making match.

Those are all assumptions based on hear say and personal opinion. Not seeing the match but reading the reports and accounts I would say Homer was the gamer of the two dogs, and that would be opinion as well. I think the DOY should be about facts and little about perception and the fact is Jeep beat Homer. Regardless of whose camp one sides with, or which dog you would rather breed to, the fact remains one dog won and one dog did not. The winning dog gets the vote for DOY because DOY is about being the best dog for that given time.

The probable PBB DOY by all accounts basically dominated what was put in front of him for the given period of time. The entire big picture of the dog world should not be factored in as it is simply a performance title. Being crossed will he produce? We will see but it does not matter. Is he from a family of performers? Does not matter unless one of them pulled off 7 and is on the ballot as well. Is he a game dog? I would say yes, but on match night it does not matter if he has enough of everything else to win.

Matching dogs is about winning not answering 'gameness' questions. (With maybe the exception of using the first match as a game check so basically it is not 30-45-60 minutes of time that will not count, but that is a different topic altogether). I have seen several dogs I would bet on but would not breed to. I have seen several dogs I would breed to but would not bet on. People that receive "Gamest in Show' titles never left home with that goal in mind. They left home with the intentions of winning. And if they leave home 6-7-8 times and win, they are then candidates for DOY. EWO