Re: [PyrNet-L] Pyr puppy prices

[Adrienne Wilder <draggon@STC.Net>]

JDG ZIP 1 wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 98-03-25 08:44:01 EST, you write:
> 
> << .the farmers have no one being "big brother"
>  and they are not exposed to the "embarrassment" level.
>   >>
> 
> Adrienne,
> I'm glad to see you on the list and doing well after the storm
> ya'll had in your area!

Thanks
> 
> I was reading where the sheep farmers in Scottland would
> "cull" border collie puppies if they did not show a working
> interest (Cull as in destroy). Now, a farmer who had Pyrs,
> and they 1.) had health problems, 2.) would not work, then
> why would they want to breed that animal and raise more
> with those undesirable traits?

Most dogs that are in working situations do not live long enough to 
develop the "health" problems and temperment is sometimes not understood 
by the farmer who may thing that protective means agressive.
The BC is a good example..the breed is falling rapidly to CHD which goes 
unchecked until the dog blows a hip socket....then he is disposed 
of...but its too late there are 100+ pups of his out there.
I am sure many famers (US farmers) do cull dogs that do not show working 
possibility...however I am willing to bet money they do not kill them, 
rather sell them to the market get a little kickback and the 
undesirables are left unchecked to go on and produce more undesirables.
Breeders (including some farmers and *not* all show people), who are 
knowledgable, will not only sell these dogs on limited reg, but make 
sure they are fixed if not before they go, withen 6 months after they 
go.
The farmers that have a desire to protect the breed are not, in my book 
BYB or mills, they are using the dogs as they were ment to be used, and 
these farmers will also place their "pet" pups on contracts to protect 
the breed as it is.

 One who truely depended on
> these dogs would probably not even keep one like that
> around, because it would not be or could not be doing it's
> job. I think that might be the difference in a framer breeding
> his working dogs to have more and better working dogs, a
> person who breeds his dogs to improve as in show dogs,
> and a BYB.

Farmers who have a desire to improve the breed are also the ones who 
have an understanding of type.  It is type that keep the pyr from being 
another "big white dog".  Ability, ot the farmer, might take presidence 
over conformation, yet when the educated farmer decided to breed that 
less than conformation correct dog, he will choose one that meets or 
beats his demands for ability and structure.  This is improving the 
breed. Remember it is the structure that has to carry around all that 
ability.
Alot of the dogs that "work" work because they were started off in the 
right direction, not because of temeprerment (I once trained a 
golden to guard goats)....want to know if a dog has realy ability...take 
him out of the city, kennel, or suburb, at the age of 3+ where he has 
never even seen any live stock...put him out in the field......will he 
work?  It will not be the fact whether or not his parents will working 
that will decide...
If a person has a pyr, and thinks, well if I had *raised* him with 
livestock he would work, but since I didn't he won't or can't...then 
they do not have a correct pyr.  (I have one just like this from working 
parents.)
If you have a pyr that you can take out to the pasture and he can do his 
job at any age, even if he hasn't even seen a goat in his life...then 
you have a dog with ability...

> 
> I could use the same example with our quarter horses, in which
> we raise show horses. If the stallion don't sire it - geld him, if the
> mare don't produce it - sell her, or else you are spinning your
> wheels - as a breeder.

Horse and dogs are two different spectrums.  When you make a mistake 
with a dog you don't have just one to deal with...you have 5 or more...
Also horses are not sold like a cotton crop to pet stores and or pet 
people who then go one to produce more poor examples...

Dogs cannot be bred with the descression that many farm animals are bred 
because they produce so many of themselvews, they produce so fast, and 
people buy them not to eat, but to live with, and an improperly bred dog 
is a dangerous one.




-- 


Adrienne Wilder  www.stc.net/~draggon/index.htm (pet portraits)
Murrayville GA

"Oh, to be loved by a dog!"

Home of:
The golden gang,
Patou and the evil sister geese.
and many stray cats.