In April of 2014 the Labrador Retriever Club sent a letter to conformation judges stressing particular aspects of the standard they felt were being ignored or misinterpreted.
https://www.thelabradorclub.com/uploa...C%20Judges.pdf
This was not a new standard, just a sort of "Dear Colleague" letter.
My sense is this action was
not taken because of undue influence of "field" people. However, some field people seemed to think the 2015 Westminster labs did look somewhat more svelte.
As noted in the title, I took this from another website. I don't know the background or politics that go on in other retriever circles/activities. But in the article there was a picture of a recent ring winner, comparing it to CH Shamrock Acres Light Brigade. The differences are daylight and dark. I am not sure how long ago "Briggs" was cleaning up in the show ring, but presumably it was before the field people influenced the change in the way the standard was written. Yet, contemporary show champions (my info comes from the web and very limited personal experience) seem to diverge more sharply from the field labs than they did in his day.
What is going on? Though I don't do conformation (temperamentally unsuited for that sport) but I do care about the breed. Please offer your opinion or any info you have on the background scoop.