That could certainly be true, "Hund" being "dog" in German.

They look quite odd compared to ours.... and are smaller, top weight 7kg, compared to 7-17kg for the European.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_badger

Fit for function should also include to be able to live a healthy life
I know the UK breeders are better than many countries but I know when I am making my sculptures of some breeds I get sad making all the wrinkles and think how much that must interfear with a dogs day to day movment

Unfortunatly in a ring it is going to be imposible to be able to judge temprament really well - I know if I wanted to I could train up Mia to be perfect in a ring surrounded by dogs - so to a judge she would look fine - but I would still know her temprament wasnt right
That one is up to the breeders to be totaly honest in themselves as to the nature of the dogs they are breeding

But that does not test for the all important correct temperament.

Bullmastiffs were bred for protecting game keepers from poachers. Suppose you could still test for that as poacher is just a stranger trying to hurt you. One side of my brain is telling me Phoebe would fail this the other is hoping she wouldnt should a stranger ever attack me

MM your right, that badger does look odd, the European Badger looks a lot better, but ever since I was told of the Dashies its stuck, owners say that they think their dogs are more terrierlike then people think, and the ones I met could be fiesty little things when they wanted. And LS when talking about fit for function the part of the temperment thats important is the part that allows the dog to do the job is was bred for when applicable, which is the drive, trainability, focus, etc, other then that it would be up to the owner and the judge to assess as much as possible whether the dog has the correct temperment for the breed.

These are earthdog trials. They like everything else here would be totally illegal.

They also do not IMO give anywhere near a true test of a terriers working capabilities.

Were they? I thought they were bred to protect game and bring down and subdue poachers. Never to attack?

Also like everything many dogs orininal function is now illegal so do we really want to keep their orininal temperament or a modified temperament that fits in with the modern world

thats what i mean by protecting the game keeper - i didnt mean they would attack the poachers. My book worded it as - game keepers faithful assistant