I once had a dog, an expensive dog, she was. An import, yes siree. Superb specimen she was, with an immaculate family tree, starting with a famous father and a mother who in turn was a daughter of another famous one. How could one go wrong? SchH2 KKL1 for life, fertile, beautiful, good hips. I remember I asked Why are you selling Sally? The reply: Too many dogs, I must give room to the new mothers. Of course, what a silly question, I thought blushing a bit as I stood before the commanding figure of an old time German breeder. Deal done, doggy in car, all happy, especially the German fellow who put the money envelope in one of his front trouser pockets as his broad, reddish face widened further with a smile that I had not seen in the previous two days of negotiations.
Sally would be my first brood bitch, I had looked long and hard. I had paid my dues researching the field. I even got referrals and recommendations from several sources. Most of all I had depleted my savings account completely, but, I was sure I had hit the jackpot. Her first litter at home (her fourth overall) had six puppies, two girls and four boys. The sire was a son of a renowned Sieger, everything was going great. I found one of the puppies dead in the whelping box at two weeks of age. It was a big, red female whom I thought was the best of the two. Two of the boys were longhair, the only female left was small and light colored. At six weeks I realized that three of the males had no testicles, and one had only one. The little female was not very promising.
I sold Sally’s litter as pets, heart broken, but hey, I still had the mother. I rationalized the incident as a bad genetic click (a favorite term among us.) I know who not to breed to again, now don’t I, I said to myself with a Barny Fife type attitude as I pulled my chin in, straightened my back to appear taller, and lifted my pants by the belt in a defiant attitude of I’ll show you next time. Next time she got pregnant with one puppy, a female. Well I got my female, she looks good, I would say to myself hiding the anguish of wondering if her fertility days were over, now approaching six years old. The answer came soon. Her next pregnancy produced only three, two males, both monorchids, and a long coated female. It was time to say good-bye to Sally. All the questions were answered. A family with two beautiful kids drove away one autumn afternoon with Sally, now spayed, who looked back at me one last time through the back window of their brand new car. Must make room for the new female, I said to myself as I wiped a tear. I thought I had heard that phrase before, I just could not remember where.
Sounds like a story you once heard? Sounds like something you went through? Over the years I met several Sally’s in the homes of so many folks I visited during my seminars or going to shows or trials. Other times I get calls from friends or strangers who would like an opinion on a specific female that is sitting in some kennel thousands of miles away awaiting a world-wide destination point that can range from Japan, to Indonesia, South America or the United States. I often tell them that I am the worse one to ask, since my life story is made up of some better or worse version of Sally. But over the years, the Sherlock Holmes in me took over Barny Fife, hence this imperfect attempt at giving shape to some kind of methodology to try to keep the Sally’s from invading our shores.
Pedigrees, Titles, Breed Surveys, and Show Cards
Everyone has them. Although a prerequisite for breeding it is not exactly a guarantee of success, but only a starting point for consideration. The paperwork does, however, give vital information on the dog, and can serve to read between the lines. The first piece of information is the female’s age. Many times breeders sell young females who have never had litters before but have been put through the process to become breed worthy. Usually these are females who did not realize the owner’s expectations but who may still make a good foundation bitch for someone. However, the decision of packaging the female for sale, may have come early in life, and the breeder or owner never had the intention of keeping her for any personal purposes. This can often be suspected when the dog had little or no exposure to the normal competition events at an early age.
Promising puppies start as young dogs with exposure to conformation circles. By the time they are a year of age they will have participated in the young classes with VP ratings and good placings. What the owner thinks of his prospect is often reflected not only in the number of times the young female participates but in the magnitude of the event they felt confident to tackle. An SG12 position in a large regional show with over 700 dogs means not only that the puppy was good enough to warrant this rating under strong competition, but that the breeder, or owner is sure of the quality they have and are willing to go all out shaping the future of their prospect. At some point in time, though, some of these animals find themselves in the national or international market.
The reasons behind these decisions vary widely. However, you must assume (to keep yourself on the safer side) that in spite of what the seller tells you, you may never know the true reason why the dog was sold. This is why you must do your own homework and never accept face value explanations of lack of money, broken marriages, moving to smaller kennel, etc. In fact I would almost tell you not to bother to ask, unless you are willing to take someone’s word. But even then, his or her story must match the evidence that you should discover on your own. Some of the better dogs come out of owners and breeders who have a very competitive spirit and high level goals and expectations. The same dog that took the SG12 position at the Regional Championship in a class of 150 may not be a good enough option for someone who has three others placing consistently higher. Maybe the SG12 female begins to place in the mid range once she moves on to the working class, and that alone may be sufficient reason for the owner to let go. This is a very different picture than the obscure breeder or broker who is in the habit of putting minimal titles on females, showing them once to get a V rating and KKL1 at the smallest local show he can find, and then placing them in the global market as a young prospect of decent lines.
However, even if the female was packaged to sell putting together the minimum requirements to satisfy market demands (SchH1, KKL1, a stamp, and V rating) she may still be a viable option for breeding, although this determination requires intelligent research. The value of the genetic power of an individual dog does not lie exclusively in the quality and achievements of that particular specimen, but also in the qualities of its siblings. It is a well known fact that a mediocre specimen from an excellent family, (meaning not only mother and father, but brothers and sisters) may be a better producer than an excellent specimen who happened to inherit the best traits from two mediocre parents and who’s brothers and sisters are mediocre themselves. (In a future article I will discuss inheritance and pedigree evaluations) Therefore, in selecting our foundation bitches we must be extremely mindful of the quality and achievements of this female’s siblings. For example suppose you are considering a young maiden female packaged for sale. She is out of a family of dogs where the father is a well known sire, the dam is not well known and has a mediocre breeding, and after investigation, you find that none of the siblings of this female are pursuing a breeding career (no titles, no breed surveys, etc.) You should suspect that perhaps not only is this female just mediocre herself, but she also is the best thing the litter had to offer! The genetic baggage that a dog like this may bring into your kennel could be quite detrimental, and the likelihood of this bitch leaving a long line of outstanding males and females, is very minute. On the other hand you may find out that this same female is indeed not a very good option for a show career but, it turns out that all her siblings are titled and breed surveyed, most have an a normal stamp, and one is in the high V’s or VA category. What a different scenario that is! What you may be getting is the ugly duckling out of an excellent family, just like Palme Wildsteiger Land once was.
The front of the pedigree has a list of brothers and sisters of your future Queen. Take time to search through the Koer Books and Breed Books in Germany and find out who these dogs are and what they have achieved. I mentioned Breed Books as well because it would be very advantageous for you to follow the breeding career of one or more of your candidate’s siblings.
If what you are about to buy is an older female with some breedings under her belt, then the breeding books become an even more important research item. Many people believe that a good brood bitch must be one that has been bred a few times so that fertility and good mother instincts are guaranteed. This may very well be the case but if you are buying a female that has several litters on the ground, you have no one but yourself to blame if you do not find out A) who this bitch was bred to before, B) what the outcome of those breedings was in terms of numbers and quality, and C) how many of those puppies went on to pursue a breeding career and with what results.
It is often difficult to have access to these books. But this is a problem of distance and expense, not of availability. Most breeders in Germany have access to these records by simply walking over to their club house! It would be invaluable for you to have some type of connection in Germany that can help you get this vital information on dogs you are considering to buy. Another very important piece of information that can help you read between the lines is the section on the back of the pedigree dedicated to the transfer of ownership. If things were done properly everyone that ever owned the female will have signed on the back as the new owner in order to register litters with their own kennel names. Many times however, females are leased for a breeding and this would not be apparent by just looking at the ownership section (this is why you must refer to the Breeding Books). Some females display a list of owners that looks like the German telephone book. This type of scenario often spells trouble. Think about how protective you would be of a female that it having great success with her litters. The most you would do, if you were approached by old friends and breeding partners about purchasing, would be to grant them breeding rights over a lease agreement so the female could have puppies that could carry the kennel name of your associates (like Palme was when she produced Uran under the Wildsteiger Land name and Quando under the Arminius name), but selling? No way!
So what does it tell you when you see that your candidate is a five year old bitch who was sold as a puppy, then someone put her through the motions and got her minimal requirements, then sold her to another fellow who had a litter from her, and in turn sold her to another who bred her once and sent her to a broker/breeder in the U.S. who then proceeded to get two litters from her and now has her up for sale in this magazine? The price tag may be right, especially due to the age, but you probably would be better off taking your chances with a maiden female with her bag of genetic questions and surprises than with a well known non-producer (although fertile and with good maternal instincts.)
The same general rules apply to the rest of the dog’s information. Many breeding females have scorebooks with very meager scores. An AD, a B, and the proverbial SchH1 with 81, 78, and 84. This is not always an indication that the owner meant to just slap a one on to later sell her, since many of the keepers and foundation brood bitches that are not for sale also have similar meager score books. Poor scores are often not an indication of the dog’s character or innate ability, but rather of the low value placed on high performance by people who are interested mainly in the sporting aspect of showing dogs. It is not uncommon to find that many of these dogs actually have very nice drives and courage, and display excellent gripping ability and a good overall nature in spite of such poor scores. However, unless proven otherwise, your assumption should be that a poor score denotes character deficiencies. This position, although it may seem harsh, is the least risky, since assuming that every dog with a low score is a victim of poor training will open you up to great disappointments. It is an established fact that mothers account for the greater portion of the offspring’s character. This is due to the mother’s influence through socialization. The primary characteristic of a good foundation bitch should be an outstanding character, indicative of soundness, strength and courage with an very high desire to please and the ability to bond deeply with its master. If at all possible, always have someone you know and trust give you an unbiased evaluation of the prospective purchase. Any owner of a dog that is for sale should allow someone who is acting in your name, to see all of the dog’s papers and to witness the dog’s performance in protection work. An ill-deserved working degree put on a flaky female with a weak nervous system and lack of strength will only invade your kennel like a virus on a computer. Soon, your better stock will be gone and your current line-up will all be affected overtly or covertly by the weakness of your new blood.