“Hunting Up a Dog Breeder", Its been about a week since the Waterfowl season ended. Today I got an email from a friend who has owned Yukon sired pups since the turn of the Century and now his last pup, a littermate to Chief is 10 years old. What’s he going to do now? Well, here are some things to think about.- Almost anyone who breeds a litter of pups can rattle off a series of unknown, faceless names in their dogs’ pedigrees and thoroughly confuse everyone within earshot, especially if they give no indication of what relationship each of these dogs contributed to establishing the desired qualities in this particular strain. Why was this dog chosen as a sire to breed to this particular bitch rather than another? - Why was this particular dog chosen as a foundation for an entire successive line of dogs? What did the individuals in the pedigrees do to improve this entire breeding program; what did they do to the detriment of the line? Have these two been bred together before? How did pups from previous litters turn out? - Serious and responsible breeders know these things. They know the dogs intimately. They may have actually bred or at least laid their hands on many of the dogs in their pedigrees. They are dedicated to their breed. And, they happily answer your questions about their dogs and are glad that you asked. - It is easy to breed a litter of pups. Producing pups that are good physical examples of their particular breed that have the genetics to do the work expected of them is another matter. - I find that the dogs that come from breeders who are seriously involved in field trials, hunt tests or are avid hunters who have serious hunting dogs are much easier to work with. It seems that if a breeder is seriously involved in training, they can better see the positive and negative attributes inherent in a particular dog and thereby make better educated breeding decisions. It is my opinion that poor breeding coming from breeders who are not involved in training their dogs for working in the field often results in retrievers that are difficult, if not impossible, to train. More later!

Stephen W. Kendall