Few Good Men or
Collies
Before I go further I need to thank all those who sent
emails or cards during my recent bout with pneumonia. It was a nasty time, but I’m home now and on the mend. Unfortunately my wife, Phyllis, falls
victim to doing all the outside work for now since I’m forbidden to go out in
the cold for a while. As the boy
said when he swallowed the pin cushion, “even this shall pass!”
Tom Cruise has made a number of movies over the years. One of my personal favorites is “A Few
Good Men.” It got me to thinking
as I often do about how it applies to dogs. Sometimes people get too caught up in the numbers games and
that, in my opinion, is a great mistake.
If your goal in dogs is to breed the most champions, win the most shows,
have the top studs or brood bitches, that’s nice, but it isn’t always as great
as it might seem. Just because
many dog magazines devote half their pages to meaningless statistics does not
make them important. They only
cater to those who love the numbers game more than their dogs.
Years ago when I was breeding and showing with considerable
success there were never more than a dozen grown dogs in the kennel. Generally a number were champions and
there might be some pups who I hoped would be the next link in the chain. Breedings were never done to supply a
market, but to continue the program with a goal of breeding better
Collies. The pups who didn’t fit
my needs were sold and often did quite well for their new owners, but I seldom
had more than three or four litters in a year. Raising puppies right is a job and I had a full time job and
three boys to raise plus the grown dogs to care for as well.
Now back then I competed with some breeders who were quite
successful and knew of some who preceded me who likewise made quite a record. The winning and lofty records left me a
bit cold at times when I spoke to people who visited some of the kennels. One place was mentioned with the puppy
yard where puppies stood at the fence on several inches of feces. Another had dogs that were so lacking
in socialization and/or good temperament as to have to literally lasso the dogs
to catch them.
While I never visited either place I know of some that are
very similar. Too many dogs not
only takes the fun out of breeding, but they never get proper care. We know thru some of the terrible
things that come to light such as the nightmare from Alaska that this is
true. There are very few cases
such as Bellhaven where the owner’s wealth allows for sufficient kennel help to
allow large numbers to be kept.
Raising Collies is not like raising livestock such as cattle
or hogs. You don’t just provide
them with food, water, and shelter and expect them to thrive. The right kind of Collie is born to
make its master happy and when you take that away you’re missing the whole
point of breeding dogs.
You don’t need to have lots of dogs to do well and have
others respect your efforts. There
have been and still are many kennels that are low in numbers, but high in
quality. Wayside, Marnus, and Shenstone could compete at the highest
level. Gayle Kaye breeds very few
pups, but the Chelsea Collies do just fine I assure you.
Years ago when the CC of A was still putting on seminars to
educate breeders we talked about kennels that had laid the foundation for those
who came after. We mentioned
Lodestone, Tokalon, Sterling, and Parader among others, but as we dug deeply
into Collie history we came upon the “vein of gold” that lay behind all of the
notable current dogs. That vein of
gold was the Collies of Charles and Lillian Wernsman and their Arken dogs. They had an impact on the breed that
was phenomenal and showed that we Americans could breed dogs as good as the
imported ones.
The Wernsmans had a kennel that seldom had more than twelve
dogs of which almost all were sable.
Interesting how many of the successful old breeders stayed away from
blues unlike some today who seem to think it’s the only important color. It was a different time and Collies
were much more popular than they are today with the public based on registration
numbers. They were also a breed in
those days where owner handlers could be quite competitive. My how times have changed!
I mean no disrespect to those who handle dogs for
others. Many of them I consider
friends and I’ve often told people who didn’t do their dogs justice to get a
handler. My concern is, as it has
always been, for the Collie. If
our breed becomes a dog with its appearance geared to a few breeders rather
than the public and if so many tricks need to be mastered to show one successfully,
then I wonder if we’ve served the Collie well.
Don’t worry about the numbers game and keep what you can
properly care for and love. If
that’s too big an order you might try breeding guppies.
Think about it!
