Our lab, Shamus, was born 8/9/93 and purchased from Gordon Sousa. Shamus was the best thing that happened to our family of three boys. He died 1/29/09 and never had health problems, maybe an ear infection now and then. Our years with him were the best.

Not only are these witch hunts unhealthy, they are also the fruit of much ignorance....

I never had his lines but he was at Potomac and I did talk to him. He was looking at my stud dog to possibly use on a bitch that he co-owned. I hadn't seen him in many years but he has always been pleasant. They did use my boy and I could dig for the co-owners address if you don't come up with his info.

I think it really stinks that some of you are slandering this guy, I don't know him or what he's done or hasn't done but unless any of you can look in the mirror and say you've done everything right you should shut your stinking mouths!

Sounds to me like this guy was successful with his breeding program and produced nice dogs that won and lots of you are jealous. And as for health problems in any dogs he's bred, come on now people, give me a break, everyone has produced something bad in their lines and if you haven't yet produced something bad then you haven't been breeding long enough for it to happen to you but if you continue to breed i'll bet my last dollar you will.

I am surprized that Jill has let this go on.

I must put my two cents in for what it is worth..
I met Gordon many years ago as a newbie..he welcomed me and my girl into his home, evaluated her, reviewed her pedigree, health certs and spent two hours of his day educating me. He had three young children then, a kennel full of beautiful specimens, a litter of pups in his kitchen and a couple waiting for a breeding. He was kind, patient, full of important information and had a sense of humor. The very first thing he told me was "You never want to give a family a heartache" The first breeding I ever did with him he would only take half a stud fee up front and said "if she has pups you can pay the other half when they arrive"-he did not knew me but trusted me anyway. Over the years he helped plan a few breedings-he never pushed his own stud dogs but would steer me to other kennels where the pedigrees were better matched and the dogs complimented each other. When I encountered issues with a litter he was the first to return a phone call, even before the vet could-I had a diagnosis before I spoke to the DVM, and by the way-he was always right on. He gave many newbies a chance and many of you went on to start your own kennels-are still showing and breeding today and you have him to thank for that first foundation girl or planning the breeding that produced your first CH.
In all the years I have known him he has always been there with advice and friendship-even though he has faced many, many challenges life has dealt him-and which you have no ideas of.
As we all know it usually takes two dogs to produce pups, very rarely can we attribute a health defect or issue to just one dog but the stud is usually the one to take the blow. We also know every dog anyone built a foundation on came from the work of someone before us and that no lines are perfectly clean-like previous poster said-if you are in this long enough stuff will pop up-even with the best laid plans.
I have never before read a thread that went this long that allowed a persons name or a dogs name to publicly bashed..Gordon reached goals in this breed that some of you finger pointers will never accomplish.
We all make mistakes in life-we should all be more forgiving-you may one day walk in those same shoes.

What someone says doesn't mean they obey by that statement in breeding decisions. It just looks good. Believe me.

Huh???

The fact is he did breed beautiful dogs. And yes, his knowledge in breeding/fertility is wonderful.

However, the health issues that we dealt with on a co-own bitch that went blind from PRA and produced too many pups with hip and elbow problems (some needing surgery) were heart breaking.

We refunded money on a number of pups and paid for surgery but our "Co-Owner" would not stand behind his dogs and never paid his share of surgeries or reimbursement. We were left with a bitch we would never breed again and the keeper of our last litter out of her that ended up with elbow surgery on both legs and could never be bred. We trusted "this breeder" and were left having to start all over with our breeding program.

Certified letters went unanswered.

This is not heresay. It is the cold hard truth.

Find another breeder for a pup. I truly believe you were lucky in the health of your boy. You most likely won't be so lucky with "this breeder" the second time around.

First, I'm sorry for what you and the pups went thru..
If you co-owned her and bred her I'm assuming you did all heath certs and that she passed...
If so how were the problems that resulted his fault..does that mean every foundation girl bred who produces problems down the road is the fault of the breeder you purchased her from?
And when you say her "last litter" how many did she have-pups with all those issues should have probably presented with some lameness/limping by age one if the problems were as severe as you say. Why was she bred again?

There is no excuse for not returning calls, etc and if he took money from the litters than the costs should have been split-unless you had other arrangements.

All of the stories sound so familiar to me. Many posters chose their words gently. I've been through much of the same. Some was worse, some not as bad. I won't elaborate but it's happened repeatedly to so many of us to different degrees.

Thank your mentor that treats you well and teaches you the right way to do things. Thank the stud-dog owner who treats you kindly and with honesty. Especially, hug your Labs that are healthy and alive, special hugs for the ones that aren't healthy. Have good memories of the Labs that went to the Bridge way before their time should have come and could have been avoided.

Too many of mine are and were in these situations for the wrong reasons that could have been prevented.

To Gently-
You are a kind person and I wish there were more postings like yours on here. Most of what ends up on here is evil. You have had the same bad experiences as some on here, yet you chose to word it without crucifying the subject. Bravo.