sam kirkland
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jul 2008
Location: East Tenn.
Posts: 855 |
Lyle it looks like your half walkers sire had a blue eye too, you think maybe thats why the offspring had one? That deaf pup should have been culled at birth for the amount of white on its body and head.No one ever said you wouldn,t get pups that need culled when breeding merles together that show no white but when I do it I have never had over two pups in a litter that need culled.To me when the ability is there it is worth it to me to cull two pups to get 7 or 8 that turn out great.I,m sure every one that bred merle females to Camo Jug probably had to cull at least one maybe two in some litters but look at all the outstanding dogs and more importantly the great producers some of the other pups out of these matings grew up to be.For all I know Camo Jug may have been out of two merles. All i,m saying is I wouldn,t advise anyone to get so hung up on this breeding only solid to merle that they no longer breed the best to the best.If this happens I think it will hurt the ability of the breed in general and no one needs that. What needs to be done as Jason said is when breeding merle to merle be prepared to cull and don,t raise deaf pups like you are showing.If someone doesn,t want to cull for whatever reason then by all means stay away from merle to merle. My tips were for breeders that like myself want to breed and raise for the best possible performance and ability.There are many breeders that raise some of the most sought after dogs that breed merle to merle when its the best way to get the desired ability.I think most people that are in the never category when it comes to breeding merle to merle are well meaning beginners and if thats what they choose more power to them. I,ll stay with the results I keep getting out of my matings and keep on culling when necessary.When I asked the question earlier about the well known established breeders on whether they bred merle to merle when necessary to get better than what they have I only got an answer from Jason Abbott, I know the answer without most of them saying anything because I know the color of the dogs in a lot of matings. Some choose to say nothing as maybe they think it will hurt pup sales. I believe in being straightforward about my matings and what I believe in. When you are producing good pups that start early and make nice dogs word of mouth will get word around most people that are wanting a nice pup will go where theres a proven track record and not be concerned with too much about parent color. Unless your using dogs that look like the deaf pup for breeding purposes most potential buyers I talk to aren,t concerned at all that both parents are merle. Hopefully it will stay that way as Jason said this is the way these dogs have been bred since their beginning the only difference now is there are people wanting to breed them using a book for a ref. to supposedly keep from having to cull pups with excessive white which is fine unless it has the possibility of taking the ability of the breed backward.
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Kirkland Kennels, At Stud American Leopard Hound Kirklands Hard Knockin Chug UKC Perf.Sire DNA-P Dedicated to breeding better Leopards and Walkers.
Last edited by sam kirkland on 11-01-2012 at 01:42 AM
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