Canis lupus hominis

Posted in Flat-coated retriever, golden retriever, golden retriever history, Retriever history | Tagged Flat-coated retriever, golden retriever, yellow flat-coated retriever | 4 Comments

4 Responses

1. on May 2, 2010 at 3:52 pm Jan

   I was just reading your blog where you predict the outcome of the Golden Retriever. It’s so sad but I understand why you think that.

   There are some breeders who do not do AKC events who have dogs that look like they have good working ability. I am all for those dogs being bred to performance dogs.

   My dog who looks like CH Michael of Moreton, came form a litter where the parents don’t do events. Her Mom is used for hunting but not field trials. She is smart and retrieves very well and has all the qualities that a hunter would want in a retriever. She is excellent at obedience. Her Dad spends many of his days swimming in a lake and is a pet.

   My other dog, Logan, retrieves back to me every time. He will deliver a ball or whatever to my open hand. He is only 8 months and knows so many obedience commands… His Dad is champion pointed but he does well at both obedience and field work… His Dad has a low COI and so does Logan.

   When I go to the Westminster Dog Show, I of course head back to the bench. I am always amazed at the size of those Golden Retrievers in person. They definitely do not fall in the breed standard. Their paws are huge and so are their legs. They make my one dog look like a Nova Scotia Duck Toller although she is 62 lbs. and the breed standard for a female Golden is 55-65 lbs.. They look like they were designed by Gund, the plush toy manufacturer. They are beautiful golden teddy bears. They all are the same light golden color and they are all related when you look at the pedigrees. These dogs are so beautiful that I never want to say anything negative about them but I have had friends who have owned this type of Golden where the dog lived 5 or 6 years due to cancer. I could go on and on about this but I do have friends who continue to breed and show Goldens like this just as I have friends who breed field goldens. I can’t say enough about the value of a low COI. I have read and have listened to so many people touting the values from line breeding. I say that those people rationalize the facts and I disagree. I feel that breeders who inbreed really need to do some soul searching.

   I would not want a dog with a high COI. I don’t care who the parents are… JMO

   
   
   • on May 2, 2010 at 5:10 pm retrieverman

     I’m a bit more optimistic now. I think the grown-ups are taking over.

     It’s not competitions that are bad. It’s that the competitions lose their main focus– which is to prevent kennel blindness and help evaluate breeding stock. It’s supposed to be a tool that helps us breed better dogs, not become the sole reason for producing them

     
     
   • on May 2, 2010 at 8:47 pm Sengimage

     Jan, I feel the same on the COI. But, then again…with a small breeding population in many dog breeds, that number really needs to be examined beyond the typical 3 or 4 generations. You would be surprised just how related many dogs are once you open it up to 8, 9, 10 generations plus. Sort of leaves an overall defeated feeling. I mean if you narrow it down to just the 3 or 4 generations required by the Kennel Club then you only get a recent window where it can appear as if lines that don’t contribute to double recessives have been the result, but in reality the damage was done prior to the three or four generations you’re being presented. Many times, you need to take the COI based on what is presented with a grain of salt and go ahead and delve deeper on your own. Almost to a point where the breeders of your intended dog haven’t got a clue.

     Or lets see it from the point of view of a breeder with intentions of outcrossing. Sometimes with so much resistance from the status quo…. that breeder may be forced to lie get their dogs in order to build their breeding stock and after doing so may have several different lines of a specific breed physically but only two or three on paper. But, because of the purists with control issues, perhaps they lie about what those lines really are because with all the controlling minded purists forcing them to spay or neuter, the same purists who even with all the care and supposed research they’ve done with their planned matings to “promote a better example of their breed”, expect you to alter the culmination of their supposed hard work, it makes you wonder why they try to force a spay neuter contract on you. Even when in reality they really can’t, Did they actually think that the term possession is 9/10ths of the law does not apply when you buy a dog???. Really now????

     Its all about control. Otherwise, spay neuter would be a recommendation only after examining the offspring at lets say 24 months. Then if they did not meet expectations in health, form, and temperament…. that dog would be recommended as a specimen to spay or neuter. And it would be a choice of the new owner as to whether or not to do so and on record if they chose to go against those recommendations. Which, would also need to be noted on the registration for others to weigh against in the future.

     Then again you could have like in the case of the Flat Coated Retriever, Perfectly healthy specimens with a long list of positives to contribute back to the breed suddenly eradicated based on color alone. Make you question the human factor entirely. Again Eugenics applied to dog breeding. Oh the insanity. ;-)

     
     
2. on May 2, 2010 at 8:52 pm Sengimage

   BY the way Scottie, If Your first Golden retriever looked like this then it passed for an awesome looking Yellow Flat Coat. ;-)

   
   

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