Quote Originally Posted by skipper
Well put. I fully agree with you. A smart and calculating dog who can handle stress when pressured is hard to beat. I am in no way a fan of crazy barnstorming one dimensional dogs. Been there done that. All it gave me were a lesson learned the hard way.
Still more agreement. In fact, I would further modify what I said to posit: all the ability any dog has is controlled by its judgment and poise.

On one of my previous boards, TFX and I had a discussion of economy of movement, which can only be a trademark of truly calm, poised, calculating dogs. If two dogs have (say) 100 units of energy each, then the dog who conserves his energy will simply last longer than the dog who wastes it. Conversely, the dog that is "going wild" is wasting whatever "units of energy" he has, and so cannot possibly last as long in an epic struggle as the dog who conserves his energy.

People seldom see this difference when a "crazy" dog wins in short order ... because of his physical gifts ... but if he ever draws a true calm, calculating bulldog out of the "Deck of Possible Opponents" ... that has the same or better gifts, but who conserves his energy ... then that "crazy" dog is going to find himself deep in the trenches, with all his energy gone, and a still-capable animal taking it to him hard, with plenty of energy still in the tank. This is the very recipe for yet another barnstormer quitting to yet another true pro animal.

Basic principles.

Jack