Re: [PyrNet-L] Why ask why?

[JGentzel <JGentzel@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-03-11 17:07:14 EST, you write:

<< Believe me the shows I have attended lately, You probably would think the
 same thing.
 I could agree with you that some Pyr lines will take time in developing. >>

It is great to have Kim on the list.  Not only is she now one of the top young
handlers coming up, she is one of those "kids" (showing my age again)  that
actually grew up with the breed.  The Newfie she is showing is a "knockout"
and her abilities as a handler and groomer only compliment same.  Those of us
here in the East are lucky to see her here as well.  Anyone looking for the
best to help them with their dogs, especially a Pyr, would do no better than
to go to her.

Actually now that I think about it, I think she and I had part of this
conversation at a show in South Georgia last fall.  I got the impression  that
she preferred some of the later dogs bred by her mother over some of the more
original dogs they bred.  I felt at the time that the early dogs literally
changed the course of the breed and might I say for the better.  The style,
elegance, and soundness had rarely been seen in "one package" prior to these
dogs.   They "raised the bar", if you will, for the rest of us and I think in
the process really imporved the breed.    Love them or hate them they were
very important. Go look at the pictures of Nero and Glacier and see Pyrenean
type (out of the first two litters bred by her mom).  Then look at some of the
old dogs Mary Crane imported and the earlier dogs of "de Soum" and you see
correctness.  Mary Crane loved the breeding done by her mother.  I suspect she
considered her mother almost a daughter.  One of the reasons, I always
believed,  was that Mary Crane saw those dogs she knew to be correct and knew
her mother to have all the makings of a great breeder.  Mary Crane threw all
her help and encouragement behind what they were doing.  Few breeders enjoyed
the success and approval via the fancy as did her mother.  There are only two
contemporary breeders who compare and we are lucky enough to have one
currently on this list.

IMHO, and without seeing the dogs she refers, but having had a similar
conversation last fall, I would suggest, as maybe I should have done last
fall, that she look at some older dogs.  Go look at the old Quibbletown dogs
from which much of the breeding of her mother came and look at the Cote de
Neige dogs.  Look at the old French dogs, especially the "de Soum" dogs.  You
will not see coarseness in these dogs and you did not see it in the earlier
dogs bred by her mother.  Everything is a matter of degrees and where one ends
and starts is difficult to pin down.  We only know when it appears to have
gone substantially over the line.

I have some pictures on my web site.  Maybe she would enjoy looking back.
Some to the dogs she grew up with.  Go to:
http://www.pyrenean-journal.com/Pyrenean_Journal.html

There will be no right or wrong here, but some good interchange of information
and views.  Again, so glad you are here.  Almost like a family member.  Give
our best to your mom.  We miss her and wish she were still breeding.

Joe Gentzel