[ SHOWGSD-L ] culling off-colors....
- From: "Laurie Pruett" <pruett@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 08:34:10 -0400
>I had a puppy born with 4 white feet an a blaze. Shocked the heck out of
>me...she wasn't hard to sell at all, in fact she went to the nephew of a BIS
>judge. He had his choice of three, two black and tan bitches and the one I
>called "Bootsie". I told his Aunt she was an off color, no one cared and NO
>I
>didn't reduce the price either. But cull her...OMG never.
I, too, had a puppy years ago with white feet (never before, never since - go
figure). She was the first to go out of the litter. When I've had blues they
also have been easy to sell to good homes (one of my blue puppies went to the
president of New England Telephone). I can't bring myself to cull anything
that isn't "perfect" as long as the puppy can be placed into a responsible home
and live a good life. That includes the occasional elbow puppy (I do the
surgery, then give the puppy to a good home) and the occasional mega puppy - as
long as they can keep food down and are growing well, I give them to a good
home. (on spay neuter contracts, of course).
As far as I'm concerned, dealing responsibly and humanely with the problems
that can crop up in our breed is part and parcel of being a responsible
breeder. Off-colors are the least of any problem a breeder can have. And, as
to the OFA discussion, to me it is a tool to be used in selecting breeding
partners. I don't believe it should be used to eliminate animals from breeding
programs. The worse elbows I ever saw were produced by two animals with OFA
"normal" elbows. I've gotten terrible hips out of an OFA excellent bitch bred
to an OFA good sire. I've used a bitch with one hip that was OFA mild who
never produced a hip problem in her lifetime. I need to be informed as to hip
and elbow status when making breeding decisions but I don't need to be told
that the animal can't be used in my breeding program.
Laurie Pruett
Windy Acres
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