Decisions

Oh, it was another really early Saturday morning again. I can’t wait until it cools off some and herding won’t have to start at 7 AM on my weekend.

Today was Lyla’s turn to go to class. She did a really good job. She is still a little spotty in her interest sometimes. She’ll work the stock for 60 seconds, roll in poo for 30 seconds, come back and work, leave and go pee… it usually goes like this the whole run. The thing is though, when she is focusing on the stock, she’s really good. She has a pretty natural sense of balance and has nice focus on me and my commands.

Our instructor suggested that we do at least one run at the trial coming up in October. The only thing is, it is the same weekend as an AKC show I was going to go to, and I’m not altogether convinced that her interest is going to be sustainable enough to trial her in a little over a month. On the other hand, I have several reasons to go to the herding trial. I have three dogs that could benefit in some way from it, and AKC shows happen all the time, but herding trials don’t happen as often. So, we’ll see.

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Ode to the Show Dog

I wanted to take a moment to highlight what, in my opinion, dog shows are good for. When I talk about a show dog, I do not envision some overdone caricature of a dog that is so dumb or so cumbersome it cannot do the job it was originally bred for. There are certainly dogs like that out there, but it is not what I prize, and I would dare say it is not even the “most winning” dog in the ring. Under some judges, maybe, but overall, no.

To me, a dog show is all about evaluating one aspect of my dog, the physical aspect. Technically, that physical aspect of my dog is made of two parts: soundness and type. Soundness is the basic structure of a dog. Is the dog built in such a way that it is not going to break down or become repeatedly injured doing its job? Can it move in such a way that it can do its job all day while exerting the least amount of energy possible? Type is all about what makes a certain breed of dog a certain breed of dog. It’s what makes a Lab look different than a Golden Retriever, a Cardigan Corgi different than a Pembroke, an Aussie different than a Border Collie. It’s a head, a body, a coat, a color, and a lot of stuff that’s hard to put your finger on but you know it when you see it.

There’s a fair amount of discord among people in the dog show world about which is more important. Personally, I value soundness above type. I would rather have a sound dog that is not going to get hurt over and over again, even if I sacrifice a little of what makes it really look like a perfect dog of that breed. To me, type is the pretty. However, that is not to say that I do not think type is important.  Without type a dog would be a dog would be a dog. There would be nothing that kept a Poodle from looking exactly like a Chihuahua, and then we would lose some of what makes “our breed” special and different than all the others. So it really is a balancing act.

A dog show is only judging this physical aspect of a dog, and I am under no illusion that a CH in front of a name is some kind of magic pass to breed whatever dog I want. A CH says this dog was sound enough and had enough type to win over a few other dogs a few times under a few judges. It tells me nothing about the temperament, the working ability, or the genetics of the dog.

I do think dog shows are an important part of evaluating breeding stock and breeding decisions. It is a peer review. If nothing I ever bred can win in the show ring, I need to go back and look at my breeding choices. What am I doing that is making these dogs unable to get positive feedback by my fellow breed fanciers?  Where am I not meeting the breed standard and how can I change that?

Also, keep in mind that how you see dogs look on TV dog shows, or even at a local dog show you are spectating, is sometimes an illusion. My dogs get lots of product in their hair and get blown out with a super powerful blow dryer to enhance the way their coat looks. It’s just part of the game we all play to be able to participate. Remember that sometimes when you see something that makes you go “holy cow, what have they done to those poor dogs?!,” it really is just grooming magic.

I’m writing all of this because, before I can really talk too much about the breeding for working ability discussion that was had this weekend, I had to give you a working definition of what a “show dog” is to me. A show dog is just a dog that had some good structure and maybe a pretty head. It is not a magical kind of dog that is exempt from being good at anything else just because it is a “show dog.”

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Responsiblity in Breeding (and Breeding Stock) Choices

I had a discussion last night over fried cheese sticks and spinach-artichoke dip (yum!) with a friend of mine about the ethics of choosing to breed a dog. I was outlining this and that and saying things like “If I bred a dog that was XYZ, it probably wouldn’t crop up in a puppy but what if it did? Even just one puppy… am I willing to take responsibility for that one puppy with an issue?” Her eyes got kind of big as she listened to all the considerations I had just for a litter of cute, wiggly, puppies. I laughed and explained that’s why you were better off buying from a serious, responsible breeder, even if it costs more money, than some ad in the paper for cheap puppies… we actually care about these things (can I even say “we” when I’ve never bred before?).

All of this got me thinking about my own decisions in choosing a foundation bitch. Obviously if I want to only breed the very best, I need to start with only the very best. The problem is that sometimes the very best can take different forms. Take for example a litter of puppies I saw about a month ago.

They are from a particular line that has a reputation for producing really nice, really winning Aussies. The litter is actually from a different, smaller breeding program here in Oklahoma, but the pedigree itself is straight from this other really big name. The dam finished her AKC CH in one weekend with three 5 point majors (for those of you who don’t know dog shows that is a really big deal, and for those of you who do know dog shows but don’t know Aussies, a 5 point major for Aussie bitches in this region requires something like 27 bitches). The dam’s dam finished in a very similar fashion. The puppies’ sire also finished quickly and is one of the nicest dogs I’ve ever seen in person. Just gorgeous. The puppies look to have it all, structure AND type.

Someone in dogs who I respect very, very much once told me that when buying a show/breeding puppy to go out and find the nicest dog I could, who I knew would finish as fast as possible (now to be fair, she certainly never meant to do this at the expense of health, as we’ll talk about shortly). These puppies, the ones held back for show homes anyway, definitely would seem to fit that bill if they live up to their pedigree, which I imagine they will.

Here’s where the balancing act comes in. I asked someone else who I love dearly and very much respect, who has 10 years of experience in the breed of Australian Shepherd, what she thought of the pedigree. Her first response was, “I love those lines.” Then very quickly she picked two dogs out of the pedigree three or four generations back and said, “That dog and that dog will never be in my pedigrees. Too many health issues.” This got me thinking about a lot of things.

Let’s say the dog behind the puppies’ pedigree is Bouncer and the issue of concern is Syringomyelia, or SM (it is not, I’m just pulling something out of the air here that doesn’t generally affect Aussies). SM is a serious disease and not one that I would wish on anyone’s dog, and certainly not one I would ever breed into my puppies if it was within my power. I certainly would never breed a dog that I knew to have SM. The risk of passing it along would be too high unless we knew genetically exactly what to breed him with to avoid the disease, which we don’t.

Bouncer does not have SM, but according to good sources, it seems to pop up in dogs that he’s behind for some reason. On the other hand, Bouncer has been bred a lot, so perhaps it’s just how he matches up with certain other pedigrees, and SM is bound to crop up when you have that much breeding going on. In fact, Bouncer, or one of his close relatives, crop up in a whole lot of pedigrees, so to stay completely away from those genes would be hard. The breeders of this particular litter of puppies, when asked about the occurrence of SM in these lines, don’t deny that it’s there, but say they have never once had a single dog with it and think it may have more to do with certain medications being given to dogs.

So the question becomes, am I comfortable enough with the chances of producing healthy puppies because these particular breeders haven’t seen SM to take that risk, or am I going to forgo a beautiful dog because of something that might be lurking there? The answer is a tough one to arrive at. When I go back to thinking about that conversation last night, the question becomes, “Am I willing to risk that even one puppy could have SM because of me?”  Of course, nothing is ever a certain, I could avoid all dogs with even a whisper of SM possibilities, avoid Bouncer’s lines like the plague, and still inadvertently end up with it in my puppies. But with this knowledge I do have, what is the best choice?

Ultimately, I’m leaning toward the “I’m not comfortable with that” end of the spectrum. Health is very important to me, and I want every single last one of my puppies to have the best chance at a long healthy life as I can give them. I won’t lie though, if that puppy I loved so much when I first saw her showed up on my doorstep with a bow around her neck, I don’t know that I could turn her down. There are so many what ifs on both sides, but I keep thinking about that moment when I get a call from an owner I’ve sold a puppy to saying, “My baby, who means the world to me, just got diagnosed with SM. What do I do?” Maybe it would never happen, but what if it did? Am I ready to take responsibility for that?

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Big Deal, Short Timeline

So a certain Australian Shepherd club that may or may not be located in the state of Oklahoma has been behind the curve on scheduling ASCA shows this year. Their grand total has been… zero.In fact, of all the ASCA clubs surrounding me, there has only been one show since Brando came of legal showing age that has been within 3.5 hours of me, and I went to that one. I spent twice as long driving as I did at the show. But, as of today, this ASCA club has scheduled a show… four shows to be exact. That is to say, four shows in two days; one super long, super fun weekend. Four chances to try to get a point or two on this boy of mine.

Brando has been to two shows and a handful of matches, but this is the first show I’ll be taking him to where I will actually expect him to be competition. I don’t necessarily expect to win, he still looks very beaky and puppy, but he’s not going to be a throw away either. Well, that is if my awful handling skills don’t get in the way.

The show is scheduled for the first week in Sept so it’s really not that far away. I have to get a little weight on him between now and then. I’ve kept him on the thin side so as not to ruin him by too fast growth, but the judges might not appreciate feeling his ribs. Then we just have to get it in his head that galloping and climbing in the judge’s lap is unacceptable, and we’ll be good to go.  Ha! If that doesn’t work out we’ll be meeting up with his breeder the next month at Nationals, and as she so subtley put it, she will “kick his red butt.”

Here is a picture of the big show dog to be after he got a much needed ear trim by someone who knows a lot more about grooming than I do. (I choose black and white because I almost never do B&W, but I know some people go bananas for it. It does add a special touch of nostalgia, but I just really like color in my life. So for all you black and white lovers, this one’s for you!)

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My B Boy

I think the only dog I haven’t introduced at this point is Brando, although you’ve seen several pictures of him. This, my friends, is my B Boy (with a guest appearance by Amelia):

I don’t really have many pictures of Brando just hanging around being calm and cute because he never is. Actually, that’s not completely fair, he has an incredible “off switch” inside and will lay at my feet and be sweet, but outside everything is go go go.

Brando is my first show dog and will one day make one heck of an agility and/or herding dog. We haven’t done many conformation shows together yet since we are waiting to let him grow into his body enough so that he can compete against all the adult dogs before we get too serious about showing. I plan to make his debut in Sept/Oct of this year, and if it goes well start hitting up some shows. If it turns out he’s still not quite filled out enough to make an impression on the judges yet, then we’ll wait until he’s closer to 18 months before really getting out there.

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