Excellent post. The quoted text above is spot on. I always wondered about improving the breed as stated by many clubs an breeders. It implicitly means that either the breed is not good as is or it needs to be made into something else.  Preservation also has problems.. just what is being preserved? is it the current crap heap of what used to be the breed or someones vision of what the breed should be.

both have problems - to preserve something we must first define the qualities and characteristics that are worthy of saving. That is the biggest problem as we all have different views of what a breed should be. Standard be damned.