Some people are against using what they term “convenient” studs – ones that are close to home – while others say that they use only their own personal gun dogs. How do you feel about this?
A – We’ve used studs from New York, Virginia, Ontario, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, and Wyoming. We’ve also used studs from our own back yard, or close to it. We base our decisions on our “best guess” as to what might most appropriately balance or mesh with the characteristics of the bitch. In our selection process we don’t weight high test scores very greatly – instead we look at the test scores of a given dog (AND its siblings and parents) for any glaring deficiencies or patterns of deficiences. Such deficiencies may be a basis for rejection, but high scores alone won’t be used as a basis for selection. Most of all we like to have first-hand experience with the dog, and know a good deal about the orthopedic soundness, hereditary health, and temperament of its siblings. We know of several high-scoring dogs which have been used and/or are being used which we would not even consider using because of temperament considerations or our knowledge of major faults in the siblings. In contra
