DOES ANYBODY STUDY PEDIGREES ANYMORE,OR JUST BUY WHAT'S HOT AT THE MOMENT? - Page 2

Yes, everyone of you has mentioned buying a Dog meaning i guess Half, full grown,  worked,  not worked but an adult Dog, only the word Puppy bought up once, and there lies the difference, lets say you are interested in a working Dog for the sport of Schutzund, you can buy a ready made article which is easy, already with titles,
or you can buy a Pup take your chances on how good a trainer you are. Note i said how good a trainer you are not if the pup makes the grade or capable enough to do it,
For that thing alone is important so many people blame the Pup when the fault is the owner trainer, So now you come to pedigrees, with a full grown dog you have possibly the finished article you can see what titles it has you can see its ancestry, then if it suits you can buy it,But what happens then.
 If you buy it for breeding that is another thing, if you still want to enter competitions that too is different for the dog may not work for you at all and i have seen this many times
With a Pup we have the unknown, you can study the bit of paper pedigree until you are blue in the face it will only let you know the Pups relations and only going back two generations is worth anything, more back than that is not worth the paper it is printed on, because it is like the football pools to many permutations
Then we have You' the Owner Trainer that depends on how good you are, and you need to be fairly good with Pups for one is easily ruined, Then we come to the Pup itself, did you watch the litter at play, did you notice any little pointers which would tell you there is a special one in that litter, It is all hit and miss really
But the important thing of all this post is this, You think you are a good handler and trainer of Pups, you think you have picked the Special one. now is the time to put it into practice will it be a top dog in say two or so years time or be showing the great potential we all crave for, To buy an older ready made Dog is easy But even then the quality of the titles they get is not always great,
Not many great dogs are passed on again this happens a fair bit
But the best bit for me is to see a Breeding weight up the pos and cons of the genetics of what the Pup to be will possibly turn out to be
 Watch the Pup with its litter mates up to weaning time as often as possible, get to know them there little ways and quirks then say to the Breeder that is the one i want,
Then the Best part begins when you take it home and then the training starts from that moment you put the little thing in its new kennel or home
That to me is the very best part of owning one of this breed to find out the unknown and see how you can mould together and finish up the full article as a complete winning team
Steve

P.S. When buying a pup once you have determined that the breeder is solid,and the dogs being bred are the ideal's that you are looking for the most important next thing is looking at the sire and dams production record, some dogs produce and sum just dont and research goes a long way in saving $$$ and heartbreak.......RUUUUFFFFFF

Duke:

How,s that adoption thing going? 
 

B

I do have a open kennel fresh air and lots o food but you will have to work and not by finding misplaced crack pipes...

Y

H

THIS IS TOO FUNNY ,..WOW,..I GUESS I WAS REALLY BEING FOOLED ?.....NOT!,............

Can you slack jawed high school dropouts at LEAST keep to your own garbage threads and stay off the useful ones? Your whole little trailer park crew is pathetic, I'm so glad to see welfare these days allows you to pay for internet. Don't you have a second cousin somewhere that needs romancin'? Begone, please.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system-

Rick, I am a "showline" person so probably not your cup of tea, but I will say I do not go for current fads, in fact, I try to make it a point to find dogs whose lines are becoming less common because I feel hanging on to them is vital for the genetic future of showline dogs. I tend to gravitate toward Mutz and Canto line studs. There are some modern dogs (Hill, for example) I am nuts about, but many modern dogs I do not like at all. In my experience dogs from "older" lines are also not nearly as extreme in angulation and have much more working ability.

In opinion, take it as you will, breeders who only ever use the most popular studs whose puppies sell like hot cakes may not always have the best interest of the breed and its genetics in mind, but rather what sells and fills the bank account fastest. We must also remember "popular" dogs are usually in demand for a good reason, they themselves being outstanding or producing outstanding pups, but too much of a good thing sooner or later becomes a bad thing.

Steve1,

I totally agree.  I bought my female with the intent on Schutzhund.  I thought I was doing everything right,  I also have a husband and a nephew living with me that don't always follow what I said to do with the pup from day 1.  Turns out now that she's not Schutzhund material so I'm doing PPD with her.  I bought a male pup, different lines and have really put my foot down on this pup.  I think, had I done this with my pup before she could have gone further.  My fault.  So, maybe it was environmental, maybe it was genetics.  Maybe both, who really knows.  My female is DDR and my male is West/Belgian
I've been told there's a difference between the two mentally.  Any thoughts?