Posted by Diane on January 31, 2002, 5:32 am As I said originally - a long and possibly rambling discussion which I'm happy to have by myself but have no objection to comments on. I shall read on and see what new insights may present themselves over time.
Form and function. I was asked what the Boxer was bred for recently and I really don't know why it has taken me so long to say what I think about this as it hasn't really changed in any way. They were bred, I believe, to be an all round dog, a super breed if you like, to get out there and be able to do anything at all given the correct training and conditioning. Karen said - "form equals function" and I agree totally. But I guess the question is why and how. My dogs have awful toplines, they have a notable dip in their backs, very yuck in my opinion, and something I hope to correct given time but even given this Piper moves like the best conditioned athlete so I had to wonder - is it really that bad (taken from a perspective of what actually works in a working breed), I wondered about it, wondered if it was maybe more of a cosmetic thing (I'd still want to correct it, it's become important to me to do so). I'm still not totally sure but I am reading and thinking about the whole thing - apparently it's not so much about bone structure as much as it is about how that affects muscle. 
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