Before we discuss Walter, I want to share our experience with stud dogs so you can better understand how wonderful Walter is!
Both the mother and father (stud) contribute equally to each puppy, but a high quality stud dog is especially important to a breeder as he will likely be partnered with many females over his career. For this reason, a common phrase used among breeders is that a stud dog is "half of your program". Keep this in mind.
Established breeders have the luxury of being able to carefully choose each female pup, born and raised from day one in our home, whose mother was also raised and selected from birth, just as her grandmother, and maybe even beyond (some of our maternal bloodlines have gone back 5 generations). A good breeder knows their maternal bloodline like the back of their hand, it is truly jaw dropping to see how strongly some traits (physical and temperamental, good and bad) pass on for generations. Here is the tricky part... typical in-home dog breeders cannot produce genetically unrelated stud dogs to breed from their females as all male pups born are already related to the females. So you must lease or purchase a stud EVERY SINGLE GENERATION. Each time those new bloodlines will have an overall positive or negative impact on the quality of your dogs, and the effects of this can linger for generations.
For many years we had a relatively large breeding program (for an "in home" breeder), and during that time we purchased a dozen or so stud dogs. There is a sea of doodle breeders in the United States at this time, and sadly the vast majority are simply awful, while others are actually good people and good dog owners! The good ones are members of better-the-breed associations, have professional looking websites, beautiful photos of well groomed and happy dogs with nice coats and some have stunning color patterns. Dogs are fully health tested with lovely sounding descriptions of the dogs disposition under their names, like we have on Our Parents page, or even better... some of the really good ones have carefully raised their puppies with intense socialization protocols from birth and immediately send them to professional training. The dogs are lovely! I would join private breeder forums and discuss what I was looking for with other breeders and finally commit to a stud. Here is what I discovered:
*It is easy for me, as an established breeder with a good reputation and was willing to pay top dollar, to find a healthy and beautiful stud dog who comes from generations of health testing from a caring breeder who's program has a good reputation.
*What is extremely, extremely hard to do is to find a stud dog who has all of the above as well as a natural calm and stable temperament who can be raised by a typical family (without professional help) and still turn out to be a lovely, easy going, go with the flow family dog. I am not exaggerating when I say "needle in a haystack." It was a crapshoot- some of these dogs had far more energy than the average family is prepared for, super intelligent and needing constant mental and physical exercise, barky (like genetically just prone to barking a lot, definitely saw that first hand)... or worse, others were unstable, overly sensitive and neurotic.
*Intense early socialization and professional training is awesome if you are getting a pup as a family pet, but it masks problems when selecting dogs to use for breeding.
Both the mother and father (stud) contribute equally to each puppy, but a high quality stud dog is especially important to a breeder as he will likely be partnered with many females over his career. For this reason, a common phrase used among breeders is that a stud dog is "half of your program". Keep this in mind.
Established breeders have the luxury of being able to carefully choose each female pup, born and raised from day one in our home, whose mother was also raised and selected from birth, just as her grandmother, and maybe even beyond (some of our maternal bloodlines have gone back 5 generations). A good breeder knows their maternal bloodline like the back of their hand, it is truly jaw dropping to see how strongly some traits (physical and temperamental, good and bad) pass on for generations. Here is the tricky part... typical in-home dog breeders cannot produce genetically unrelated stud dogs to breed from their females as all male pups born are already related to the females. So you must lease or purchase a stud EVERY SINGLE GENERATION. Each time those new bloodlines will have an overall positive or negative impact on the quality of your dogs, and the effects of this can linger for generations.
For many years we had a relatively large breeding program (for an "in home" breeder), and during that time we purchased a dozen or so stud dogs. There is a sea of doodle breeders in the United States at this time, and sadly the vast majority are simply awful, while others are actually good people and good dog owners! The good ones are members of better-the-breed associations, have professional looking websites, beautiful photos of well groomed and happy dogs with nice coats and some have stunning color patterns. Dogs are fully health tested with lovely sounding descriptions of the dogs disposition under their names, like we have on Our Parents page, or even better... some of the really good ones have carefully raised their puppies with intense socialization protocols from birth and immediately send them to professional training. The dogs are lovely! I would join private breeder forums and discuss what I was looking for with other breeders and finally commit to a stud. Here is what I discovered:
*It is easy for me, as an established breeder with a good reputation and was willing to pay top dollar, to find a healthy and beautiful stud dog who comes from generations of health testing from a caring breeder who's program has a good reputation.
*What is extremely, extremely hard to do is to find a stud dog who has all of the above as well as a natural calm and stable temperament who can be raised by a typical family (without professional help) and still turn out to be a lovely, easy going, go with the flow family dog. I am not exaggerating when I say "needle in a haystack." It was a crapshoot- some of these dogs had far more energy than the average family is prepared for, super intelligent and needing constant mental and physical exercise, barky (like genetically just prone to barking a lot, definitely saw that first hand)... or worse, others were unstable, overly sensitive and neurotic.
*Intense early socialization and professional training is awesome if you are getting a pup as a family pet, but it masks problems when selecting dogs to use for breeding.
GALLERY
(Click Photo to Enlarge)
|
|
|
|
|
|
See More of Us Online!
|
© 2012 Red Spring Farm™
All Rights Reserved |