How important is conformation?

i think some people are confusing beauty with conformation. i think some people look at conformation as how beautiful the dog is. conformation is nothing more than hips are good, feet aren't deformed, etc. i think you can find dogs that are EXACTLY what the breed says they should look like, but they don't hunt worth a dang..and vice versa. i think that if you got dogs that are good hunts then nine times out of ten they are structurally sound.

one thing i will never do is breed a dog that is beautiful but hasn't proved itself. the cathoulas and the lacy's are prime examples of breeds that people took the glass eyed dogs and started breeding them into the ground, then took the pretty blue coat of the lacy and bred them into the ground. dogos are starting to get this way. people are taking a dogo female that has never seen the woods but because her dad and mom were catch dogs and some of the litter mates were catch dogs they bred her to another dogo. nothing could be worse for the breed than when they get popular.