Portrait of the collie as a young pup.
When people ask me, why breed when there are dogs for free on Craig's list?
When someone wants to know what the point is of working so hard to conserve working drives and temperament.
When someone questions my sanity for jumping on an airplane and flying across the country, then driving over the Cascades in the fog and into the high desert, so that Pip could meet the exact stud dog I wanted.
This is why.
Pictured above: Young Audie, when his name was Andy. Janeen's dog, just biding time at my house where he happened to be born, waiting for me to get around to taking him home.
When someone wants to know what the point is of working so hard to conserve working drives and temperament.
When someone questions my sanity for jumping on an airplane and flying across the country, then driving over the Cascades in the fog and into the high desert, so that Pip could meet the exact stud dog I wanted.
This is why.
Pictured above: Young Audie, when his name was Andy. Janeen's dog, just biding time at my house where he happened to be born, waiting for me to get around to taking him home.
Dunno exactly why - but that brought a tear to my eye.
ReplyDeleteGawd how I love that boy...
What a picture! Truely worth 1000 words. Now when people ask me why I have chosen an ES instead of aGSD, I will just give them your blogg address as an answer.
ReplyDeleteVikki
Sad thing is, you'd still be looked down upon for simply breeding Pip anyway, no matter how invested you were in the stud and the pups.
ReplyDeleteI caught up with an old manager who still works at the retail store where I used to be. (They're BIG into helping shelters and rescues, nothing wrong with that.) We got to talking about our dogs and whatnot, and I said quite truthfully "The only reason I'd ever get a puppy from a breeder is if I would need any type of working dog," in my case Schutzhund and police K9 work. I couldn't believe that even then, she went on about how rescues have adult dogs who are capable of that type of work and they can still be successful. (Never mind that a true working dog breeder actually does care about the pups more than the profit!)
With all due respect, dear manager, I'll get my future K9 puppy just like I said I would, and you can rest on your laurels that anything else will be adopted. Future guinea pigs included.
My next workign dog is, I think, going to be an ES. (I need to join the mailing list and start lurking, and find out about some gatherings to meet more than the handful I've met- but hopefully Kaylee will be working for many more years.)
ReplyDelete