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Is there another breed where the goal has been to sort of "max out" certain of the dog's natural characteristics? It seems that the standard is more of an exaggeration or caricature of the dog. Now, have a look at the Vizsla and the Weimaraner. Those dogs were lean and mean.[/b]
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It some extent that is the case with all breed because when judging based on appearance only certain traits that have no bearing a suitability for become exageratedly important and those that traits that are important to purpose but are not visually observable play no role what so ever. But since you talk sporting group I note you did not mention "Lab" a conformation Lab must be at least 15lbs overweight to win in the ring. There is quite a disparity between field and conformation beagles as well.
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my opinion--- it's a shame that the national breed organizations can't put a higher priority on preserving their breeds as the hunters they should be. Obviously, creating a "pretty" dog is more important than preserving the heritage of the breed.[/b]
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Then again the measure the breed club uses to prevserve purpose is more of a test of tracking ability and less of hunting ability. That said if one looks closely of the history of "Basset Hound" the breed and not all short legged french unting dogs. The original purpose of the breeder of the bred apears to be more centered on the conformation ring, what the dog looks like, rather than their ability in the field.
See
The Early History of the Basset Hound in England, 1874-1921
[url=In 1892 Millais decided to cross his only basset hound, Nicholas (a heavily linebred dog on Fino de Paris) with a bloodhound. ...Here is Millais's own description: "employed the Bloodhound as the vehicle for importing fresh blood to counteract the commencing degeneration on the part of the Basset, considering that this cross would be of infinitely greater value to us breeders than the importation would be of a number of French Bassets of the same variety, but of inferior type and size. . . . I may state at once that when we imported our Bassets from France, we imported the best that France possessed and notwithstanding degeneration, what we have in England is better than France can now offer us." Whether Millais was simply partial to the bassets in England and unjust in judging them superior to their French relatives, I cannot say. What Millais most likely did not realize that he did not just improve the Basset Artésien Normand, he created a new breed: today's basset hound.
...Until the 1890s most of the imports were undertaken for the purpose of showing the dogs and their progeny at dog shows[/url]
So in reality the "basset Hound" was bred as a show dog first and a hunter second.
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find it surprising that until now a beagle or a basset hasn't been best of show there, especially given the relative popularity of these breeds. Maybe the beagle is (perceived as) too ordinary and the basset (and hounds in general[/b]
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It is very hard to find any very popular breed to Chalk up a lot of BIS. This is because large numbers are actual a detriment to the quality of the gene pool. It is far easier to get consistent high quality with a realitively smaller pool but all of supperior quality.