I have found it interesting to note the changes in RR's in Australia over the past 30 years. I owned 2 which I bought from a pioneer breeder of this breed back in 1981 and 1983. She started breeding them in 1968. My first boy weighed 105 pounds at maturity and my second one was 120 pounds. They were both around 27 inches at the withers. I was never interested in showing dogs but used to go along occasionally to the big dog shows to see her dogs being shown. Some of the lines being shown at the time were taller and larger than my two. One such line was favoured by Major Hawley at the specialty show for RR. They would regularly go around 29 inches and some could be over 30. In his book on the breed Hawley wrote that Von Royen's lion dogs were an inch taller and the standard was changed after his dogs passed away. These were actual lion hunting dogs.

A certain Canadian RR enthusiast wrote a book on the breed in the eighties declaring that a RR was predominately a sighthound. Before this it was considered that they use their sight, hearing and scent equally well. This was evident in tracking dog trials where they would be disqualified for cheating. This author was a dog judge as well and his opinion began to be accepted by the RR community in Australia but not without much criticism.

By about 1997 the dogs had markedly changed. They looked a lot more like a sight hound. People who had condemned the sight hound theory were now promoting it. I guess one has to go with the flow when it comes to showing dogs and this trend that was set has remained to this day.