go to your other posts... go to a non CAFIB forum bro, you will see exactly what I mean. Now go to a CAFIB site and look at the pics where the owner asks for critiques... the dog gets torn apart and the owner actually thanks the people... Slim sounds like an old school dogman and will tell you straight out no matter what. he doesnt have any stake in CBKC or CAFIB, he just wants a good dog. I have stated over and over that I have seen some very impressive cbkc dogs they just arent filas.. part fila, maybe but not a true fila. I agree with Ace. He believes that filas are not a breed but rather a type... yea, the non cafib ones are a type or rather multiple types but there is a Fila Brasileiro breed that has existed and still exists today.
For me, I try not to say if this dog really is a Fila or if it is crossed or whatever. I try to only speak about things I see or things I have experienced. I won't ever say one dog is a Fila because it came from a certain place or a dog is not a Fila because it came from another place. That is just a topic that is very broad and can't be proven or dis-proven. The real problems with Filas are that the standards are subjective. I can look at one and say it is really nice and the next guy can see the same dog and say it is crap, or somewhere in between.
Back around 2000 or 2001 there was a female on the cover of the CAFIB magazine. She was CAFIB approved and had thrown CAFIB approved offspring. She had one of the absolute worst split lips (non U shaped) I have ever seen. In the very early days of CAFIB it was an automatic disqualification. Now it is a fault, whether it is a major or minor I do not know now in 2013. The split lip was once regarded as a direct link to the infusion of the neopolitans which is the source of the black dogs. So the CAFIB standard was not carved in stone as most think, it has changed.
In 1999 the Xadrez of Eshabeta (Reno---Dawna Berg shown by Daniel Rosa) was the 1999 world champion. Two of the judges he went thru en route were two CAFIB approved judges from kennels who practice the CAFIB way. He competed against CAFIB type dogs and bettered them although he was a CBKC/FCI dog from the beginning. He was originally here in North Carolina. He had no temperament and he moved horribly.
If you read Uncle Tom's Cabin there is a section about 'bloodhounds that would track, chase and ravage runaway slaves' Bloodhounds will not ravage. In Dave Putmans Working American Bulldog book he references these dogs and the possibility they were brought here during the South American slave trade. These dogs were then bred down thru the years to get to what is called the 'Florida Cracker Curs'. They are used as bay and catch dogs in the Florida swamps. I did some research and found some pictures. They are a sleeker version of a Fila, many of the same outward appearances and they are funny towards others they do not know. So being the funny guy I am, I copied and pasted pictures from a book of a Cracker cur and forwarded it to the Cafib forum for review. And did the same on a couple of the CBKC dominated forums. I got pretty good reviews from both sides. Both said it needed more bone in the front, the CAFIB forum liked the head structure and earset. The CBKC people like the rear and the top line. This dog got good reviews from both groups and it was not even a Fila, not even a cross bred Fila. When the joke was out in the open both sides pretty much said they did not want to hurt my feelings or they were being polite instead of saying for the most part, most people would not know a good Fila until it bit them in thee ass.
Events such as these led to my current way of thinking and that is simple. If a dog can't do what it was bred to do or trained to do then it is pretty much useless to me. Nothing just hangs out around here. It has to serve a purpose for me. It has job to perform. So if my ugly non-conforming Fila, mixed or not, will go to the door and put a display that turns away someone with evil intent, then he can eat here. If it is a purebred anything, and can't jump a rabbit, or point out a covey of quail, again, he can't eat here. So from the early 2000's I dismissed myself from the rhetoric and back and forth debating between each camp. I see it is still going on a pretty much getting no where. That is why I asked about the working videos in the other post. I see a lot of people with their Fila tied to a tree and working them, but I do not see them off lead accomplishing a task. So as long as people are upfront with what they expect from their dogs and what they are getting from their dogs then what each think of each other is a non-issue. S
