Breeding Better Dogs 101...

There is still so much I don't know about breeding that it is not even funny. I always enjoyed getting with a lot of the top trainers in the country and listen to the have it out about dogs. Lots of different opinions, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

There are some things you better not do. Don't go telling someone that "Pete or whoever" will do this or he won't do that. Anytime you do he is fixin to make a liar out of you.

One time I loaded up horses and dogs and headed to Oklahoma for a field trial. I thought I was ready. My best dog was outstanding and I was confident she would win. Where I made my mistake was telling the guy going with me that she was so good at backing I hadn't even worked her on it. We turned out an my dog just didn't look right to me and the other dog got the first point. I KNEW when I looked at her she was not going to back. It embarrassed me to death because she did it where EVERYBODY could see her. I don't think she ever refused another back for the rest of her life. Something about driving over a hundred miles and having over a hundred in entry fees.

I made the mistake one night of telling some guys on the lease how lucky we were that none of our dogs ran rabbits. We had one look like a grey hound the next morning.

DON'T TRY TO BREED AROUND A FAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mother nature will show you not to do that.

I had an outstanding dog that did everything right. The guys on the lease wanted some more just like her. We went to the stud dog owner that produced other to see about some pups. He had a litter coming up out of a bred in the purple bitch. They bought 3 pups or maybe 4 out of that litter. When they got old enough to run they cut them loose and they would not handle a lick. This was hard to figure because the stud was a known producer, a 6 time champion, and my best dog ever was out of him. When we examined the papers come to find out she was a litter mate to the crazy dog I had got from the dog jockey's years before. In fact I had run the dog with the original owner and she refused to handle. BAD TRAITS IN A DOG ARE STRONG AND WILL BE PASSED ON AND YOU CAN BET ON THAT.

One time I bred 3 bitches, 2 to the same 6 time champion, and the other to his son. One litter where I bred 2 bitches was great and every dog in it was way better than average an some really good. The other was worthless and I culled every one of them. The male needed to be bred to a strong willed rank bitch. The worthless litter female was tough physically but on the timid side. The other bitch bred to the son had some good and some bad. The one I kept was a cull but the one I gave my buddy won puppy and derby for the state of Texas for the year. Her sire went on to produce a national champion for a guy in Tyler.

If you can find a stud that you have seen run and you like use him. If you can find a female that you have seen run use her. If you have seen some of their offspring run and you like them try to buy one or get a pup out of the next litter.

Some of the best bird dogs I ever raised were setters of all things. I wound up with a setter bitch that I had trained for a doctor. She was a really good dog and I used her all the time to aid in training younger dogs. I ran across a male down south that was truly outstanding and could hang with any dog, any time, any place. They wound up having 2 litters and every dog in each litter was a dog of some kind. Some were really good.