When I first got into dogs, I wanted to breed, solely because I LOVE animals and love puppies and raising them, my first dog was not a Labrador it was another breed that I did no research on and got only because it was "pretty to look at", what a disaster it was the most horrible breed to live with. So then a few years later after placing all that I had bought or bred we got our first lab and I was hooked. I did come away from the other breed with a major plus in that it the breeder I bought my girl from taught me all there was to know about why you breed dogs and that you must do clearances and prove the dog worthy of breeding in doing conformation and obedience. I had no clue, I was ignorant about those things, I thought if you got a AKC dog it meant quality and you just breed to another AKC dog, I was SO lucky to have this mentor.

Reason for this post is I think we seasoned breeders need to take a step back when we see people posting for help or in the case of the breeder who bred her bitch at a earlier than most of us would age and have some compassion and try to teach them what is wrong or right instead of belittling them. We won't be around forever so lets be giving in our lessons learned and share and help others new to our breed or any other breed for that matter.

There isn't enough of this sentiment flowing - thanks for bringing it up. I, too, was really lucky to stumble into what has been a long term mentoring relationship that has been invaluable for me. When we look around and see a lot of signs that our sport of dog shows is dying we need to encourage and support new people who show a willingness and need to learn. If not, there will be no "next generation".

Thank you for those refreshing words. I come to the board for help, and to try and learn something new. There is a wealth of knowledge on this board. I think most are helpful and mean well. I try to ignore the critical words that are useless.



Bud W.