BONE AS A BURDEN
By Stan Zielinski
Have you ever hear someone say, “That dog has a lot of bone!”? Did you ever wonder
just exactly was meant by that expression? There are those among the Saint Bernard
Fancy who admire what they call, “A lot of bone.” There are those who admire a strong
athletic dog. Have you ever noticed that these two sets of people seldom admire the
same dog? Fortunately, I’m here to make all of this perfectly clear.
Let me start by explaining the bone term. The term “a-lot-of-bone” means that the dog
being discussed has great big fat legs. That is, the front legs below the elbows and the
rear legs below the hock joint are unusually large in diameter. Please understand that
the term “a-lot-of-bone” does not mean that the dog has unusually thick bones in its
legs. In fact, it is possible for dogs with a lot of bone to be deficient in the size of their
leg bones.
Since people generally say that a dog has a lot of bone in an admiring manner, just
what is it that that dog has? Such a dog suffers from an excess of what the general dog
fancy calls “useless timber.”
Useless timber? Ah, yes -- useless timber! Now I have introduced a term that can be
found in the standards of many breeds. And every one of those standards denigrate
useless timber as something to be avoided at all costs. The problem I see is that there
seems to be almost no one in the Saint Bernard fancy who is familiar with the concept.
Let us remedy this situation!
You might ask at this point, “Why should I be concerned?” It is my conviction that
useless timber has become a problem in our breed; a problem that continues to become
ever more monstrous. Since my whole purpose in this piece of writing is to denigrate
useless timber, let us see if I can convert you to my point of view.
To start this discourse I want to review the definition of a Saint Bernard. We should all
be able to agree that a Saint Bernard is a dog developed to serve as a mountain rescue
dog in the harshest of climate conditions and the most strenuous of working terrain.
This historic task is what caused our breed to be preserved. The ability to perform this
historic task is what we must preserve to in order to preserve our breed. Another way to
express this thought is to state that dogs not able to perform their historic task fail to be
Saint Bernards, regardless of what their registration papers claim.
Here I must note that the reverse of this statement is not true. It would be incorrect to
say any dog that can perform the Saint Bernard’s historic task is a Saint Bernard. This
is the point in which the cosmetic aspects of the breed come to the forefront. Be there
anywhere a Saint Bernard breeder whose heart does not go pittypat at the sight of a
beautiful Saint Bernard? I think not! Obviously those features that have little or nothing
to do with the dog’s ability to perform but are necessary for our idea of beauty are also
important.
We of the Saint fancy have decided upon a set of features that we consider to be
beautiful. We wrote down a description of those components of beauty, and we called it
our standard. Since most of the written standard is composed of arbitrary beauty
standards, what is wrong with deciding that a lot of bone is a component of beauty?
That, my friends, is the subject I want to talk about here!
We should agree that we can chose the cosmetic aspects of our dogs to be any size,
shape or color that pleases us, so long as those choices of cosmetic features do not
make our dog’s physical conformation less able to perform its ancient job. The Saint
Bernard Fancy must always remember that to maintain type we must breed a dog able
to perform its historic task as well or better than its ancestors.
If we can agree to this goal for the breeders and judges of our breed, how does it relate
to the current fad of seeking dogs with a lot of bone? If the big fat legs were caused by
strong muscles or large strong bones, there probably would not be any problem.
However, these big fat legs are generated by the dog growing extra tissue that
contributes nothing to the dog’s strength – hence the term “USLESS TIMBER.”
Every ounce of useless timber that does not contribute to injury-free locomotion is the
dog’s everyday millstone around his neck. Even one pound extra has a measurable
effect on the performance of an eleven-hundred-pound racehorse. Relate that to the
performance of our dogs in traveling through deep snow and climbing steep hillsides. I
estimate that dogs with extremely fat legs are carrying a great deal more than one
pound extra weight. Useless timber is obviously contrary to correct breed type because
of its destructive effect on performance.
Not that degraded performance is the only problem with useless timber. Extra weight is
known to have a very negative effect on health and length of life.
I want to now call your attention to what our standard has to say on the subject. The
standard may be quoted as follows.
 … , strong and muscular in every part, …
 Hindquarters – Well developed. Legs very muscular,
 Upper Arms – Very powerful and extraordinarily muscular.
 Lower leg – Straight, strong.
That’s all the standard has to say about the feature called “bone” on our dogs.
You notice that it does not mention how big around the forelegs and rear pasterns
should be. It asks for muscles; it asks for power, it asks for strength – it does not ask
for useless timber in order to have big, fat legs.
If you think about it you can understand why the originators of our standard wanted a
strong, powerful dog. They wanted a dog who could travel through deep snow in subfreezing weather. They wanted dogs able to get over ice-covered rocks and to go up
and down steep slippery slopes. It is only logical then to conclude that the task of lifting
up and over snow banks not helped by extra pounds. The original Saint Bernards had
to be strong, athletic, powerful dogs that carried no useless timber.
We see reminders of this even today whenever we ask our dogs to perform in almost
any arena. The strongest dogs do not have useless timber. The dogs who
demonstrate their strength during weight pull events have muscles and power, but they
do not have useless timber. The AKC recently lowered the height of the jumps for
Saint Bernards, simply because we had so many dogs in the breed (with useless
timber) who could not jump the standard height. Useless timber is in direct opposition
to the ideal of an athletic dog.
Under no circumstances should this piece of writing be construed to advocate spindly
skinny legs on a Saint Bernard. The Saint Bernard must have enough leg substance to
balance the mass of the rest of the dog; enough leg substance to give credence to the
words strong and powerful. However, we want substance without exaggeration, for
beyond that point is when we become afflicted with useless timber.
In our search for a dog with strong powerful legs we should be looking for a dog with
big, strong muscles. You do a disservice to our breed when you are willing to accept
useless timber where extraordinary muscle is the only thing that is correct for our breed.
We should all bear in mind that useless timber is a hindrance and, hence, something
that is ugly.
And that’s all I have to say about that!