Rumor has puppies - Page 2

They have frozen

Well the Canadian Select is an interesting choice ... but if you were doing a double mating like this, what would be the reasons for choosing one that's the Sire of the other male ? Clearly they were not going for 'variety'. Do they reckon Mailo that highly ?

It's a real head-scratcher, isn't it?

And the other surprise is the German lines! Most ASL breeders don't cross the lines like this. When I bought Star, they hadn't had too many people interested in her and her brother, because she was an ASL/GSL cross.

Ah well Sunny, over here we have a couple of people who bring in ASLs to an all-English or English / German lineage base. Where they do so with "Alsatians" it is slightly more credible, but when they tack it into a 'middle of the road' or even distinctly Germanic / International style of dog, whether SL or working stock, it is definately odd.

I've seen nice results when ASL dogs were crossed with GSL (Star turned out with pretty decent structure) and I've also seen dogs that were a mix of the worst features of both types: weak, overangulated rears, roach backs and long, stretched bodies.

Mixing types is definitely more of a crapshoot than breeding within your own lines. But I'm sure Kent and Rumor's other owners must have their reasons for doing it!

Why can't people just acknowledge that dogs are...just dogs...
"Rumor dedicated it's life to the showring" , "loves to show herself" and similar nonsense -
no wonder a lot of people don't know how to deal with dogs...

I don't know Rumor, but I had the pleasure to meet Mailo one year ago.
I really liked his temperament-no "best buddy", but stable and agile, willing to please it's owner, a lot of prey.
Just a "happy hour impression" on a parking lot, no training, no bitework, but I really liked him...( a very good looking male, too...)

No further comment on the sire/son double breeding though 😎

susie, while I agree that the dog rarely has any input as to whether it will spend the first 6 years of it's life on the show circuit, I have known dogs that really do love being in the show ring...dogs that love to show off for people, and be admired and fussed over, just as I've known dogs that absolutely hated it. So I don't discount the possibility that this bitch liked being shown.

As for the selection of the sires, maybe it's as simple as wanting to compare pups from her that are 50% WGSL to those which would be only 25% WGSL--can't get a much better controlled comparison than to have all the pups born at the same time, and experience the same start in life, with the only difference being the amount of the WGSL genetics from that specific male [Mailo].

Hexe, that is as good a theory as I can think possible ! I had wondered whether it was some hesitation about Mailo's potency as a sire, thus the use of his (younger) son as a sort of 'backstop', that was in the owners' mindset.
Susie, good to hear Mailo is such a nice dog.

On whether the bitch 'enjoys' her Showing, it is certainly true that there is a percentage of showdogs (all breeds) which appear to get more enjoyment out of the whole process than others; it is most often those dogs which have this "bring it on / look at me" demeanor which are among the most successful. I have even seen dogs Placed because they have this look to them, even when there were physically better specimens in their Class. Maybe they really get a kick out of it; maybe they are just more extrovert characters in everything they do.

Dogs are no humans-the bomb detection dog doesn't know it's saving lifes, nor does the drug detection dog or the search and rescue or the blind dog-all of them do what they are trained for, based on given genetic traits.

Nature and nurture -

happens in the showring and in real life.

A dog able to "shine" in the ring either is very self sufficient, outgoing, with genetically already good gaits, the head always up, or nervy, always alert, but well trained and supervised...

Make your choice, and think about the sire in question.

The reason of my post-a lot of people nowadays tend to "humanize" animals as a whole, not only dogs.
Because of this we do have a lot of trouble with our pets-we forgot why they behave like they behave.

TV, movies, social media, tell tales...
A lot of lies

"A dog able to shine in the ring is either very self sufficient , outgoing, with good genetics ...or nervy, always alert but well trained & supervised" - yeah, you'll get no argument from me there, there certainly are dogs that would fall apart if it wasn't for having been well trained and conditioned to show well in the rings. I think I am referring to a little something "extra" though - a dog of your former type (v. self sufficient, outgoing, genetically sound); and we'd no doubt like to think that applies to all decent entries - but some dogs do seem to have 'a bit more' about them which singles them out. I don't think I am being anthropomorphic about this [ ME ???], I just think its a variant of nature, with a few animals even more confident than yer average good dog. Not trying to say its anything special which would lead to any additional cogniscence of where they are & what they are doing, or, particularly, WHY they are doing it.