|
Reflections on 2004 and Looking Ahead to 2005 By Jennifer Krawsczyn This time of year usually makes us all look back at the past year (or more), evaluate how things have gone, and then make plans for the new year, attempting to do things better than we did in the past. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we don’t, but in general we do spend time pondering our past, present, and future as we greet another year. I would like to share a couple things I believe I’ve learned this year. Perhaps my lessons will help others make choices that will prevent them having to learn the hard way. As they say, it is good to learn from your mistakes, but it is even better to learn from other’s mistakes. LESSON ONE Early this year I finished the youngest daughter of my foundation bitch. It was a wonderful win! She won a 5 point specialty major and the icing on the cake is that her older sister’s daughter was reserve to her as well as the day before. The show was awesome, the club out did themselves, and the trophies were magnificent. My bitch, Comet, won a beautiful wooden clock with a wooden cut out of a Golden in the center. It is proudly displayed on my mantle. I call it her biological clock. You see, I was determined to owner handle Comet to her championship. She was one of those dogs people thought would finish pretty quickly. She was one of those dogs that won a lot of huge specialty and sweeps classes. She was one of those dogs with a lot of “almosts”. She was in the ribbons at major point shows more often than not. She was also a dog that looked awesome as a pup, then blew coat and stayed rather thin, so she never really came back into coat until she was about 4 years old. I think it was because she was thin, and a picky eater, that her coat was not great. Or maybe she was just a late bloomer. Who knows? But I do know that she looked awesome at 5, and that is when she finished. Up until 18 months of age, she was really doing well and had a very thick, full coat. My friends told me if I’d send her with a pro, she would finish fast. My pro friends told me that she should be finished. I was stubborn. I liked to show her. We had fun. But as months turned to years, full of almosts, I was starting to get more desperate. I increased my frequency of shows from once a month to about twice a month. I increased my radius of how far I’d travel, too. And I did finish her, with a great win. But at what cost? You see, biologically the best age to breed a female dog is around 1 ½ years. Now, we don’t typically breed this young, but another few months is not really all that critical. Ideally, we should breed them by the age of three. Every heat cycle that they go through unbred is damaging to the uterus. Veterinary experts say breed them by the time they are four maximum. Now I have a just-turned six-year-old bitch that has missed three breedings. If I had it to do over, I would have handled this differently. There are two different routes I would have selected from. One would be to show her until she had final clearances, then pull her at two (at the latest three) and breed her. Then I could show her again after she recovered from her litter. Many people have chosen this method and find that having a litter seems to “jump start” the uterus so they can wait longer for the next litter. You still have the aging of the uterus, but at least you have had one litter, and the odds of another a year or two later are better, or so it seems from the experiences of other breeders. The other option, and one I chose with another bitch this year, is to show them until they are two, then send them out with a professional handler. This way the bitch can be finished at a biologically better age for conception. And realistically, if a pro can’t finish my bitch in a reasonable amount of time, she probably isn’t finishable anyway. But that is another subject altogether. So my big lesson for the year is that owner handling my dogs is great, but there comes a time when one should remember that if you want pups, you can’t let them get too old. LESSON TWO This year, I’ve had the pleasure and pride of watching dogs I bred and co-own earn titles in obedience, agility, and field events. I’ve decided that I really want to do more with my dogs than just the breed ring. At this point, I’ve not done much more than train and study, with a few attempts at some titles. Perhaps the more accurate term for my few competitions this year would be “learning experiences” as I learned just what I inadvertently tried to teach my dog that messed her up! I think my biggest handicap is living so far away from just about everything, so training groups are not close (I’m talking 3 hours!) and this year, the usual training group didn’t train much. I can come up with all kinds of excuses (can’t we all?) but I’ve been studying things a lot, and while handicapped by my location, I plan to work at these titles anyway next year. I am grateful to the owners of some of the Shilo Goldens who have put titles on their dogs this year. Watching them and hearing their stories has made me realize what fun I am missing, and what talent is being wasted. In the highly competitive conformation ring, the odds of winning are much less. Yet in the performance and hunting venues, there can be many “winners” (more appropriately called qualifiers) and titles can be earned with a decent dog simply by perseverance and training. In 2005, I plan to pursue more titles with my dogs as I believe they have the talent and hopefully I can be taught! I am excited about this and my New Year’s Resolution is to attempt to become more organized with training and travel the distance to training groups. LESSON THREE This is not one I just learned this year, although it is certainly one that goes through my mind often. That is “There are no perfect dogs”. When searching for a stud dog, or a new puppy, we need to remember this. It is a lesson most of us had to learn over time, too. It seems that those who have bred no litters, or few litters, are the least likely to have grasped this reality. While there are certainly better breedings, as far as possible risks, than others, all breedings have risks. All dogs have history behind them of health issues. We must research things and we must share with each other our successes and failures to help our breed’s future. As mentioned above, we should learn from our mistakes, but even better is to learn from the mistakes of others. Yet by the same token, we have to again remember there are no perfect dogs. Please repeat that daily over the next year! When researching the pros and cons of selecting a stud dog or buying a puppy, we have to look at all of the good things on one side and weigh them against the bad things on the other side. We must prioritize just how good and bad those things are, and weigh them out. We need to not only see a potential red flag dog in the pedigree, we need to also follow that dogs’ production down through the pedigree. If this dog is back many generations in the pedigree, how did the ancestors produce coming down from him/her? Did the potential problem manifest itself in those subsequent generations? This can give us an idea of if it passed down, but not a guarantee, of course. While there are some dogs we don’t want to see in pedigrees we are studying, we also need to realize that bad things can be bred away from, too. And we need to look at how many red flag dogs there are, and how many times those dogs are in the pedigree overall. If you think there are no bad things in a pedigree, you need to research more. That is just a reality. There should be no blame in careful breedings that come up with problems. As long as we research, try to see where the potential pitfalls might be, share what we see as potential problems, and then do the best we can, we have done our jobs. It is not our place to point fingers and suggest others are wrong. Their choices may be wrong for us, but perhaps a better approach it to attempt to understand their thought processes in making those decisions. What are they trying to achieve? While each of us have our own comfort levels with things, and issues we feel we can or cannot sacrifice, we can’t impose our personal comfort levels on others. I think we would all be well served to try to understand that first of all, all dogs have risks when breeding, and secondly that our main concern should be our own choices, not those of others. It is true that your friends’ choices may be hard for you to understand, but if we try to understand their thinking in making those choices with an open mind, we may just learn some very valuable lessons that will help us make wiser, more informed decisions for this breed in the future. And after all is said and done, SHARE what you got with a particular breeding choice. As a wise friend once said, we should all try to breed for bettering the breed, but perhaps the most knowledge is gained from those more risky breedings. If the results are shared, that is! I do hope you all can look back at the past year, or years, analyze the direction you are taking, and build on the lessons you’ve learned. As we toast in another new year, I’m wishing you all a great 2005, with lots of fun times with your dogs! |
|
|