My Little World
The time came i had to face it , my bitch wasn't going to make the grade . it wasn't even going to work to any standard. at 19/20 month old i decided that she wasn't showing any signs that she was to be in my kennels any longer . she had every chance i was prepared to give . all the little puppy earths had all held , which should have made entering her easy business . unfortunately she just didn't have it . some may think the bitch was a little young to call a failure but i just couldn't see her turning the corner and at the end of the day its my call. I'm too long in the tooth to be influenced by others , especially some that relish in seeing a youngster fail and are only to quick to give you their opinion on what you should do with it .we all get failures no matter how well bred or carefully entered . in my opinion anyone that states all the stuff they breed works is a liar ,idiot or has a low standard of working terrier (and its normally the ones that churn out litter after litter)but are usually all three .
This left me short on dogs, i don't and wont keep big kennels i cant see the point in having more dogs than you have work for. but when things start to go wrong you can soon find yourself with nothing and on the lookout for something to do you a job , something to help you see the season out , just something that will work is all i want. i decided i had to buy a dog in that was doing the job . i hear of and see plenty advertised so i thought id try it . i have a 1 1/2 drive over to my mate where we work our dogs at least twice per week in the season , its more often three days so i do a bit of traveling for my sport which is well worth it . i thought nothing of any distance to try a guaranteed dog , money was not a question obviously within reason. yes i traveled the length and breadth of the country buying and trying guaranteed earth dogs .none of them any good , none of them resembled the working terrier, all of them tried and taken back . some bitches some dogs , most had been bred from, some as young as two/three year old and no doubt the pups had been sold to unsuspecting folk who then breed again to get their money back they originally paid and on it go's. "the blood is rite so it should go" is a sentence that translates to "the parents of these pups have done nothing but its great great grand sire may have done a bit ". i finally gave up meeting strangers who thought they had a world beater for sale when i met some character's who couldn't tell me how the dog was bred or who bred it .if they cant tell me anything about how the dogs bred or who bred it ,it makes me wonder if it was their dog to sell ? not necessarily stolen but some underhand trick that i don't want to be involved in. i was even shown a video on a scoats mobile phone of his wonder dog working , the dog was on a lead drawing out of the end of a shallow dig and wrestling its quarry , the boy was amazed i wasn't impressed. alarm bells started ringing and i realised people like me trying to buy in a working dog and cutting out the bringing on a puppy was as much the problem as the folk selling and breeding for fame and fortune .i had offers from good friends who would lend me a dog but its not ideal and we managed to struggle on with the dogs we had ..
I had my fingers in a few pies regarding pups but as so often happens when your down you keep getting kicked . the litter i was looking forward to being born was not to be . the bitch didn't make a good mother with her first litter and non survived . another excellent bitch that was mated to a old dog that has made a name for himself in the ground and produced working offspring was not to be for me . she only had two pups , one for the stud and the other the reason for breeding . a mate down south bred a bitch with a good reputation and i had my name on one of these but she never had pups. nothing was going to plan until i heard a whisper that one of the mates was breeding a bitch that Ive only ever heard good things about and described as bottomless. he traveled the four hour each way journey for the stud dog and this time all went well . around Christmas time i got my dog pup . only time will tell if he makes the grade . he will be given every chance to mature and progress into the workers that have gone into his genes . now I'm on a roll and another well bred youngster is offered to me by a mate . I'm in the motor doing the journey south asap . both these came f.o.c with no mention of money . they both come with the agreement that don't need to be said amongst decent folk . the usual , the dog go's back to the lad that it came from if it needs to go anywhere , not to be used as stud until proven (and old enough to be classed as proven ), not to be used over any shit/young unproven bitches , not to be used for financial gain , and not to be used by anyone who may sell pups to the highest bidder rather than place in the best working home they can . this is the way we try and keep the workers away from the dealers, breeders and general messers . i make no apologies or excuses when asked how my youngsters are bred by any of the mentioned when i tell them they don't need to know, because they will not be getting anything from them if they do make the grade.
Hopefully i can retract back into my own little world with my own little kennel . i will never again strive to buy a working terrier from a complete stranger . some of you reading this may not believe the amount of idiots out there , some may not see anything wrong with selling on dogs you have been given to you or pups out of them . good luck to you all , but please keep out of my little world Ive met enough of you for this lifetime .....
Anon