CONFORMATION: A QUESTION OF PURPOSE By Jim Osborn

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The Samoyed -- hunter, herder and hauler -- or so he is advertised. Is he really a "triple threat" dog? A jack of all trades? Or is he simply a mediocre performer at a variety of odd jobs? Those are startling questions, and providing a comprehensive answer would require an in-depth examination of a large number of factors. A broad consideration of these questions would fill a large volume, and that's obviously not the intent of this article. What is intended, is to consider these tasks in the light of the requirements of confor- mation that each task imposes on the dog, and try to determine whether or not a single dog could function effec- tively at more than one of these jobs.