John Wick
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Feb 2004
Location:
Posts: 27 |
Hello again. This is Lisa, the secretary, posting the following for John:
To Christy: No. If the papers on Sid are correct, he does not go to Preacher as far as I can tell. Tar Rattler was the darkest colored I know of in your pedigree. Not Preacher colored though.
You are the first post on this new section of my answers. This is from a few days ago so since that time, my first post to you has appeared. This is an answer to your second post I found. Christy none of the dogs you pictured from ole Sid to several of his pups are Preacher colored. They may look somewhat like it, but in truth, are definitely not Preacher colored. They are typical Walker blanket backs. That red front leg on Sid is probably a lot of what you’re going by. I don’t know where that comes from, but I’ve seen it several times in Sackett Jr. dogs. I’ve also seen it fairly regularly in X Jr. and his littermates. It seems the blanket back Walkers are getting more blanketed all the time. Gradually, there are more and more that some folks might think are Preacher colored, but in reality very few are. Remember, Preacher actually had more white on him than most Preacher-colored dogs I’ve ever seen. Don’t know why that is, but they always have just a small white tip on their tail and the color goes down all legs past the knee. Not just a little streak of it on the back hind legs. I mean completely colored. It is interesting that Walkers are getting darker and darker colored. In general, that’s not because of Preacher.
To Shaffer: I’m not aware of what caused the gray patch on your dog, but I don’t see any Preacher in the dogs you mentioned. I also never saw gray come from Preacher. Over the years, I’ve seen and heard of quite a few mouse-colored Walkers. All that I have seen were easily traced to Merchant’s Bawling Barney. The gray you described is different than the grayish-blue coloring instead of black that used to appear on some Walkers but it’s happening less and less.
To Huntingnick: Wow! Well thank you sir. I do believe it’s important for factual info to be available on many different aspects of the tree dog sport. Sometimes that’s hard to find. That’s a shame because many people around the country do know the straight story on lots of subjects. For some reason, though, a lot of the people doing 
To Nitechamp Bud: Thanks for the update. It would be interesting to know exactly how many dozens of Preacher-colored dogs Paul has had from the early 70’s until now. They’ve been good to him.
To 18436572: What kind of a handle is that? Yes, I buried the ole boy, and it sure was an unpleasant day. At that time, I had no clue as to how much and how long and how many generations he would affect the Treeing Walker breed. But still, if I could go back and clone him, I would not. Remember, the Preacher dogs got better after one, two, and three generations of being mixed in with other top Walker bloodlines. I firmly believe that if a bunch of serious, hard-to-please breeders worked together, the best is still ahead of us--not back in the grave.
To RobbieC: I’m not sure, and I don’t want this post to become a sales tactic for people just trying to market dogs. I am hopeful that someone can establish a web site or that a bunch of people purchase one page of magazine advertising a month and list dogs for sale and also list Preacher breeding that they’re looking for or have. In other words, a lot more information sharing of males available for stud service, pups for sale, all those things like that.
To Huntingwalkers9: Well, these dogs aren’t for everyone. On the other hand, there is a lot of diversity in them these days. Actually more people can use them and get along with them now than way back when. However, I think it’s important for several of us to try to maintain those core traits that made these Preacher dogs especially enjoyable and also made some of them strong producers of those traits. Remember though, then and now there are many Preacher-colored dogs that do not possess those good, core traits. There are also many that don’t produce very well. Of course, that was always the case, but it’s true now more than ever. We sure have to be careful.
To Jesse: Yep, you’ve sure got some Preacher stuff there. If you’ll call me, we can talk about this much more. When you say your dog is “one mannish,” then I’m not sure that’s something we want to breed into the dogs. I also think it’s always important to find out how a whole litter did before we’re thinking about breeding them. The one or two good dogs in a litter seldom produce very well. If both of your dogs come from litters that for the most part turned out in the upper class, only then would it be time to consider breeding, in my opinion. Remember, too, there are proven Preacher-colored dogs around the country available for breeding even it’s on a very limited basis. We just all have to share knowledge and learn about them. By the way, in general, I’m not a big fan to breeding to young, unproven or only partially proven dogs. In my experience, I’ve learned to take a “wait and see” attitude because nineteen out of twenty hotshot young dogs do not produce very well. I prefer to go to older, thoroughly proven dogs whenever possible.
To Josh: To be honest, I don’t remember that dog quite well enough to say. I do remember he was for sure a Preacher-looking hound.
To Christy again: I’m looking at your picture of Skean’s Dolly, and no, she is not Preacher colored. If she was Preacher-colored, there would be no white on her hind legs above her knees. She would only have one to three inches of white on the tip of her tail. The white on her belly would be limited to a narrow band from front to back. You would see little to no white on her belly looking at her from the side view. Often the Preacher-colored dogs have a dark spot somewhere on their belly or lower chest.
By the way, Christy, most Preacher dogs did not hug that tree or shine up the bark like Dolly did in this photo. They tended to stand near the base. Some of them danced around while treeing. A few occasionally would spin around. Although some put their feet on the tree, most of the earlier ones did not. To most of us with lots of experience, that’s a good thing!
Look at Preacher’s picture. Most of the dogs descended from him that are Preacher colored have more color than him. I don’t have a clue why. There were very few that showed as much white as him.
To Art Jr.: I agree with every word you said. I also raise beef cattle, and I sure wish these tree dogs were half as easy. Another nice thing about cattle is the ones that don’t meet our expectations can be fattened up and eaten.
To Dale Browers: I hope your buddies will come forward and let us know about their Preacher dogs and also where they are and if other folks can get some of it. I’m hoping that many people are writing to me using regular letters so that me and others can start compiling info and trying to figure out how to spread the word. By the way, the dewclaws you mentioned were not from the Preacher side of the family. The only place I’ve seen rear dewclaws in Treeing Walkers is going back to Wick’s Stylish Banjo. I assume there must be some of that in the pedigree.
To Berger: I have not had a pup born at my house in the past 15 years that had the Ozark Preacher blue eye. I do know it still exists. I see it occasionally and often have someone tell me about a dog they know that has that eye. I guess this proves some of the undesirable traits are disappearing, as well as some of the desirable ones. Hopefully, at this point, we can concentrate on latching on to the dogs that still possess and produce the desirable ones and let the others slip away. I’ve seen no evidence that having ole Preacher in the pedigree multiple times produces the blue eye that he, himself, occasionally produced. It does make sense that it would show up, but it seldom does.
To Jackbob42: You’re partly right and partly not. I am encouraging other folks to look into this and consider it as part of their future breeding and enjoyment. I am not planning to do a major revamping of my breeding program, and I don’t plan to raise over three or four litters of pups per year.
You know, I’m just a country boy, and everyone that truly knows me realizes that. Other folks often try to figure out how that guy got to be so well known. To me, it’s this--I’ve spent as much or more time trying to help other folks than I have trying to help myself. After over 40 years of doing that, I guess a lot of folks feel they have benefited from me sharing my knowledge with them. This Ozark Preacher post is just more of that. I do not expect to capitalize on this in any way other than what I’ve been doing for years. I’m sure some other folks will capitalize and some probably in a big way. That’s fine, but my biggest interest here is letting folks know this is some stuff worth talking about. It’s a strain or bloodline, however watered down, that deserves to be considered for your future hunting pleasure. If it’s something you think you want, get it wherever you can find it because it’s time to latch onto it if you think you want some. Remember though, some of these dogs, like everything else in the dog world, are not something that will really help you, especially if it’s something for sale. Be sure to be careful, cautious, and selective.
That’s all for now. I won’t be available to reply to any posts that need a response for a week or so. I got this thing going and now it’s time for other folks to take it from here. I hope interested hunters and breeders will continue with this discussion and keep the helpful info rolling. Please feel free to call or write. Happy Hunting! John
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02-07-2007 03:31 PM
NITE STALKER KENNEL
