So how did your pure bred dogs come into being , anyway? Divine intervention?
Cat
Pure bred dogs didn't come to be from haphazard couplings of dogs, nor from allowing "pet" breeding. They came from dedicated breeding for a given set of characteristics. When those who were breeding for a solid hunting line got a pup or two or three that wouldn't hunt
they killed it/them.
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If all you want is a pet, then by all means, get a rescue dog and enjoy. If it turns out that it can hunt a little, so much better!
That pretty much sums it up!
As far as me personally (good, bad, or indifferent).....
I love GSPs but knew nothing about breeding/standards when I got started and acquired my first three dogs from other people. I was like most others and just wanted a good "hunting dog" when I got my first one. Sadie was probably the best dog I will ever have the pleasure of spending time with and caused me to fall in love with the GSP breed. I have her ashes downstairs and fully intend on having her buried with me when it's my time. She was a great hunter and more human than most people IME. That being said, we didn't breed her because she had a genetic defect (elongated pupil) from line-breeding.
My wife picked out the second one (backyard breeder) and while Carli was an awesome family dog with good hunting instincts and an INSANE retrieving instinct - she was very sensitive and naturally gun-shy early on (trained her out of it) so we didn't breed her either.
I purchased our 3rd GSP, Roxy (in my avatar), from a member on this board and she was a hunting machine w/ all the qualities (physical/mental/social) I was looking for in a breeding bitch. Deciding to have her bred was just 1/2 the equation though. The other 1/2 was finding a suitable stud which I touched on in one of my first posts above (worked trials spring/fall for three years!). I ended up going with a 7xCH 4xRU / 2xNGDC FC AFC named Slicks Cuttin Wild - "Joker". The titles are nice but what was more important to me was that I was breeding to a dog I knew had solid lines and that I knew was great all-around from watching him in action on multiple occasions. I could've bred to a GSP with great credentials right here in my backyard, but, when it was time, I drove 8 hours each way (from NE to WY) in order to make sure I had the exact breeding I wanted which cost 3 days of vacation, gas, food, hotels and a $750 stud fee. All well spent because I feel I did my part to better the breed with our seven pups. The one we kept (Ruby) shows a lot of promise but only time will tell if she makes the final cut for breeding.
I'm not afraid to fix a dog and end up with a great hunting buddy that doesn't meet the standard. That wouldn't take away from my enjoyment one bit but not doing so would take away from the breed and that would be VERY bad mojo IMO.
FWIW - I was so impressed with castnblast's Pudelpointer, I did some reseach and found a tidbit on Wikipedia which I'll share because I thought it was a very interesting. It's a good snapshot into how a great breed was actually developed and recent enough that we actually have a pretty specific record.
Here's the actual quote from Wikipedia:
In 1881, a German breeder, Baron von Zedlitz, worked on producing his ideal tracking, pointing, and retrieving gun dog, suitable for work on both land and water. From seven specific Poodles and nearly 100 different pointers, he developed the Pudelpointer. The original sire was Tell, an English Pointer belonging to Kaiser Frederick III and the original dam was a German hunting pudel named Molly who was owned by Hegewald, an author known for works on hunting dogs.
The goal was to produce a dog that was willing and easy to train, intelligent, and loved water and retrieving, like the poodle, and add to that a great desire to hunt, a strong pointing instinct, and an excellent nose, like in the English Pointer, as well as being an excellent companion in the home.
The Poodle breed had much stronger genes, and so many more Pointers were used to achieve the balanced hunting dog that was desired. A mix of 11 Pudels and 80 Pointers were used during the first 30 years to achieve the desired traits and results.
As Ranger1 stated, you can bet your butt there was one heckuva lot of dogs culled outta those litters over the course of 30 years. Sad but true and an absolute requirement (at least fixing) if you really want to develop a new breed or better an existing breed instead of just watering one down....
