In another thread the topic took an immediate turn into a prospective hijack, so to salvage the possibility of that thread, and because it's an interesting topic, I thought I'd start this one.
Do you care what your birddog looks like? I spoke to Ben Williams on the phone today and I asked him if he considers conformation at all when he's breeding. He said he breeds for nose and that's his standard, though he wouldn't breed a dog with a jacked up bite or anything like that. Said a guy he knew has a Britt who the guy complained was ugly. Ben replied, "He won't be ugly when he's putting birds in your bag."
You hear this alot. When I went to pick up Moxy I was checking her bite and her breeder said, "their teeth don't find birds." Honestly, though, asthetics in a birddog is important to me. I don't bird hunt, I bird dog and without the dogs I'd never chase another bird in my life. I want a dog with style, a dog that's nice to watch. Bob Wehle felt this ways to and said he had no interest in owning an ugly dog.
Not talking about wanting a dog to meet a sanctioned breed standard, just talking about the dog meeting your standard of looking like a good looking dog should, do you put any stock into looks or conformation?
I have a house dog - pet that hunts... She was a butt ugly pup, but has actually turned out quite nicely at 2 yrs... we still kennel her with the breeder and he always laughs and says how much better she looks now... Her tail has always been at two or three o'clock until once this year she had a grouse nailed down good for the first time & it went "bang" at 12 o'clock and stuck... so i dunno, perhaps she'll be one of those gals you see years later at the reunion and say "wow"... we missed that how?.. doesn't really matter to me tho'... 
behavior & performance trumps looks for most i think.
