In some breeds you will still find breeders who, although they are breeding AKC registered dogs, are breeding for function rather than form. Retrievers are the

In some breeds you will still find breeders who, although they are breeding AKC registered dogs, are breeding for function rather than form. Retrievers are the obvious example - there are hunters who are using those dogs for their original purpose still and breeders looking to satisfy them. Unfortunately, in some breeds there is a divergence between "show lines" and "working lines", and a lot of judges are looking for traits that aren't really present in the "working lines" or much more exaggerated in the "show lines". This isn't so much a problem in the breed that I'm in - the dogs are bred just as much to excel in the lure coursing field these days (and, in Russia at least, for running down actual rabbits and other small game) as they are for the show ring. It might be that the breed's relative unpopularity is in some ways an asset - it's not found in either the top 10 or the bottom 50 breeds. Probably because keeping these dogs is not for the faint of heart.