Your really reaching as most back yard bred dogs are by two dolts that have "good" dogs so they think and breed them. I am assuming alot as it looks like you have done all the stuff that comes from responsible breeding be it genetic testing and what ever else your doing in the pointing world. But to say breeders such as Candlewoods who has a 3x Nfc and countless FC/Afc in the retriever world dont do it as good or know what they have for dogs as a back yard breeder does is just crazy.A few pics of some backyard bred dogs.....
Thats the cool thing about trials, you cant fake showing up. I didn't fake showing up. The dog that I took RU to almost won the Nationals the month before the trial I attended. I have seen and competed against some of the best pointers in the country. I am not near as active now as I was then, but I still know a good dog when I see it.
Some are and some aren’t. Based on your responses I am assuming your knowledgeable about titles and what goes into them. So let’s get started:
Do you do genetic testing and all the due diligence to breed healthy dogs? I dont know what problems pointers have but eic and hips are big in labs so you breed two carriers and you have affected dogs . Thats what most backyard breeders look past then some one has a dog that is sick or crippled (hips) its whole life. I think the semantics is where the divide here is. Back yard breeders by my definition is some one who is just pairing two dogs to make a buck. Breeders are people in it to better the breed and make dogs that can perform at any level. From my take i would consider you a breeder. I dont think numbers are a hard line as some bigger kennels put out winning dogs in the fc and hunt test world as results prove it as do the smaller kennels.
I dont health test any of my dogs. I have tested for a specific gene in a shorthair litter I did as the male was a carrier of a specific disease. In the pointer world I dont really know of any major players that health test on pointers, the specific lines that are popular have been around for decades. If there were dogs breaking down we would know about it. Health testing is more popular in the niche breeds, I also feel its a sales strategy for certain people. If the dog cant compete from a performance standpoint, they pivot to health testing and charge $2500 for a puppy.
I have trialed all over the west. Both wild and pen raised, and have had success in most venues. Wild bird trials are the epitome of field trialing. In pen raised trials you have dogs running horse paths and finding 10 finds in 30 minutes. In the hour wild bird CH in Montana and Idaho a dog may have 2-3 distinct finds on wild birds. Lots of STF as the difficulty in pointing wild birds versus pen raised birds is quite dramatic. Pen raised trials are boring as most birds are just tossed from the back of horse, very few people really put forth the effort to plant correctly.
Talked to Talmage this morning. I don’t know the other guys beside what they post on social media. But I have trained with and competed against Talmage. I wouldn’t consider him a breeder, he is a very knowledgeable dog man. And get his dogs out like crazy and has had success at the highest level. But Talmage is the kind of guy you buy dogs from, he works the shit out of his dogs. When I think of a breeder, it’s a fancy website of a guy with a dozen dogs trying to sale as many puppies as he can.
Interesting thats good that they are that healthy. Labs i would not touch a dog that does not have health certs. to many bad people have tried to make money breeding dogs that never should have been bred.
I agree with you. I know it’s a problem in the lab world. I have never had anyone asking me about health certs and I have never asked. Most of the time I have been around the dogs for years before I buy a puppy.
