Straw, Sticks and Bricks – Understanding the blueprint to build a brick house, a foundation for better dogs and how breed history and the breed standard work together. Conformation – principles of the ideal dog. What is a dog supposed to BE? History Matters – What was your dog designed to do and how form follows function. Understand that a breed’s innate quality and instincts matter. Happy and forever homes depend on an owner knowing that herding dogs herd. As a Breeder: Memorize your breed standard and be able to apply it Learn the language of dog – vocabulary and meaning of anatomy, movement, balance, and proportions. Front Assembly – Function, construction, angulation. Geometry and Angles Balanced Angles Mechanisms and Suspension A race car is built different than a truck. The suspension and wheel placement has to be in the appropriate place. A dog’s “suspension” is also well underneath in the appropriate place for its function. Cement the Blueprint in your Mind Fix the ideal image in your mind and work to evaluate and grade how your dog and other dogs match or lack against the breed standard image. Understanding why you are winning, or not, may be answered in your education of yourself.