The Labrador is a gentleman's gun dog. What does that mean? After attending a few trials for WC JH SH and MH I have come to the conclusion that a gentleman's gun dog is one that can obtain a WC and/or a JH. I think there is a misconception in the breed about what a gentleman's gun dog is. After what I saw I just can't imagine an average hunter a gentleman's hunter putting their dogs threw anything I saw at the senior or master level.
Great posts Sue. I do disagree a bit on the JH thing though, but maybe it's a matter of semantics. I have trained (on my own, w/ no help of pros)a dog to SH a few years ago, that along w/ CDX, open agility titles and tracking certification all by age 4. She was bred twice after that as well. I was pretty exhausted to say the least as we were training 7 days a week most weeks.
Now w/ more numbers here, I have come to feel very comfortable after training for JH, CDX (on 5 generations), tracking etc, in my assessment of individual working ability/trainability. I have one fire breather who I'll likely do a SH on but holy cow, she may need to be 9 by that time to just mellow out a bit! She earned her CDX handily at age 2, like several others here, and is also working on utility concepts as time allows. The thing is not necessarily do these dogs get the titles, but what the breeder/owner/handler LEARNS about the dog in the meantime. Do *I* really WANT another just like the fire-breather though? Not really... I'm personally hoping that by breeding her to a more grounded, but highly capable/trainable stud, I will approach my goal though. I'd not know any of that if I didn't at least do the JH, maybe do some SH handling at least (not necessarily title but see how they "learn") and do the CDX (which I know CAN be done very reasonably w/ a smart and biddable dog). OTOH, I've watched some MH titled dogs that were painfully pokey, so just saying that titles don't tell the whole story. I'd much rather breed to the untitled son of a fantastic dog from proven lines. But sometimes that takes really knowing the breeder well and being able to trust what they tell me about their dogs too.
The reason for all my posts about Romeo is one word... Balance.
Balance allows beautiful movement.
I do think Mary Roslin - Williams would love Romeo.
I really like how Crufts works. One judge for the girls, another for the boys. If they can't decide between them, a senior judge is called in to cast the deciding vote. I am sure glad that is the case. Three sets of eyes are better then one.
One has to remember that real life hunting is not a competition . It is a time to enjoy the outdoors with your Labrador. If you have a balanced one it will have no trouble in a field, on a mountain hike, or a swim in the ocean.
Most often it is our lack of training ability that makes for a poor hunter. As another poster said, most Labradors have the instinct. Will every Labrador excel, no way. Life does not work that way.
Whole Dog,
Excellent post. I too think we will not have another Dual. The games have changed too much in the extreme. Though I do think there are one or two kennels today that might be able to do it.
Sue Puff
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