John D
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Missouri
Posts: 4321 |
Usually, something initially about a stud gets my attention. Maybe I hunted with him or his offspring, saw his pedigree, or maybe it was his hunt wins.
After that, I will look a little deeper.
I'll want to check out his offspring, siblings, half siblings, aunts and uncles and go hunting with as many of them as possible and check out as many of them over the phone as I can. A word of caution, every dog can have a bad night and there will always be someoen that will be negative about a dog, but I look for the trend. Too many "bad nights" and too many folks that don't like a dog and he will be scratched from my list.
I also want to hunt with the dog if at all possible. Yes, you get what the dog reproduces, not the dog himself but since I'm a coonhunter and any stud I breed to will be a coondog, I sure don't mind to go coonhunting before doing something as important as picking a stud. A trip to the woods with this stud dog will be well worth my time, if the stud owner will take me.
If I am comparing two studs with similar reproducing abilty, I will evaluate their reproducing based on the females they bred. A dog that breeds a bunch of top females BETTER have some good pups on the ground. A dog that has bred alot of average females and STILL has some good pups on the ground, is in my mind, superior to the one that has bred the top females.
The dog must be a coondog owned by a coonhunter. This will almost always mean the dog will be a NtCh or better. I will take into consideration the handling expertise and the ability of the handler, as far as hunt wins. I won't consider breeding to a dog owned by what I have found out to be a dishonest person, period, no matter what. Some folks will get the most out of a dog in competition and some guys will hold their dog back in competition and still do their share of winning. I identify with the latter, lol. Hunt wins where the dog dominated a cast and hunt wins a long ways from home are a plus, it shows the dog has one thing on his mind.
I have a whole list of personal likes and dislikes in a dog I will check out. I will want his strengths and weaknesses to match up well with those of my female. Any stud or female owner who says their dog has no weaknesses either doesn't know or is lying and I will scratch them from my list. I want a dog that goes hunting, strikes quick, moves any kind of track at any time of year better than most dogs, locates quickly and accurately and is a classy, hard, steady, stay put treedog. A loud enough mouth to hear, a unique mouth, a distinctive locate, intelligence enough to learn what they weren't born with, and a good looking, well put together hound are all important, too. My requirements go on, but I will stop, lol.
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