I guess Tonedog that is why people write books about different dog breeds to acquaint people with their breed. Now you may not agree with different viewpoints in various RR books as I haven't. That is your opinion. It could be based on belief or fact. Fact is it's there in black and white photos in Major Hawleys book. Now you may choose to disagree. That is your choice. Those Lion dogs were not 60 pounds.

Did you just pull some arbitrary figure like 60 pounds out of the air? It isn't based on fact. Dane crossings were done before the 1920's. Sure the Dane of old was not as gigantic as todays. Hunters are pragmatists. When a crossing is done there is a functional purpose behind it. Historically there were many large breeds used to create the RR. Please do your homework.

Now through personal experience with this breed I have seen males standing as short as 25 inches at the withers from an African line of mahogany coloured dogs. These dogs had their followers. People joked at the time that they had bull terrier infused.I have seen another dog brought out from Africa 30 inches at the withers. This dog had Boerboel build. There were tall ones that were rangey. Chamwarri and Tugrabakh lines best exemplified this. Laughing willows lines were pretty standard 27 inches 90-110 pounds.(males that is) Lionheart dogs were big. Lionheart Antaeus father of my first male would have towered over him. Sixemm Randji replica a very solid dog who had a litter brother that was a demon on feral dogs. John Singleton's Purrline dogs. Buffalo hunters up in the territory. All large dogs.

When American bloodlines were introduced and started to dominate the show scene the build became more sighthound looking. Colours changed as well. No longer red wheaten to wheaten. Darker shades of brown were even included.

If you choose to believe Tonedog that RR shown today are closer to the Liondogs of old perhaps the validity of your reasoning is questionable. Showing RR is not about testing their functional purpose. Sure it would be a joke to do this. However wouldn't it be a more plausible, logical thing for these all breeds experts to have a look at RR history including the black and white photos? I don't think that's too much to ask.