High Country lives on

[hicntry]

Congrats to both him and you for your breeding. My guess is you knew exactly how they would turn out, behavior wise?

You bet Steve. The purpose of line breeding, as you know, is to create an actual line of dogs that "Is predictable". Without the predictability, it just isn't a line.....just a bunch of line bred dogs. You know what I am talking about.

[STait]

Yes, and even though you have a pretty darn good idea what the pups are going to be like, it's still very exciting to see how each puppy turns out, or as many as you can possibly keep track of.

I'm going to breed a grandmother to her grandson next week and very excited to see what we get. With pointers you can never predict the range the puppies will naturally end up with. And, even once they are adults it can be tough to be clarify what had more influence on them, genetics or environment. For example, some puppies are crazy for hunting at a very young age and have only hunting on their mind from the get go. Those pups always seem to have good range. While others seem to take more game to become crazy for them, and even others just want to feel the wind blowing through their ears. I consider the slower development thing to be a maturity issue, while the latter to be an "over independence" issue. I have seen all three behaviors from one litter. Wish I could create the first scenario every time. Could be I just need to be more selective in my breeding stock. In this case both the grandson and grandmother have the qualities of the first "type" but the bitch has double the males natural range. She may be a bit more independent as well'-)

Not trying to hijack your thread...just interesting how much you can predict, but not everything. What about after 14 generations?? Is there still those kind of behavioral differences in one litter??

Steve

[hicntry]

I know exactly the small differences you are talking about Steve. I used to write about the confident types in a litter. Without ever being handled, they would come up and introduce themselves in the order of confidence. Some being more dependent and staying with you, the other, the others noticeably more independent......introducing themselves and immediately heading out by themselves to investigate parts unknown. I think there will always be subtle differences.
I always favored the independent pup for my uses, but, they were harder to work with in my opinion. It is like you don't have their undivided attention.

[STait]

Exactly!!! Kate is/was so independent as a small puppy and I loved it. Possibly because of the adrenaline she caused when out of site on her long explorative searches for birds. Her grandson has great desire, but also wants to know that I'm coming so he checks in from a distance, appearing to be asking me to get a move on. Most people will prefer that and I will breed for it, but it's not quite as exhilarating as watching his grandmother Kate disappear in search of game;-) if I were to keep a pup out of this litter, it would be one like Kate!

[hicntry]

The breeder had one pup like we are discussing. It was so obvious he called him "explorer".

[STait]

The breeder had one pup like we are discussing. It was so obvious he called him "explorer".

My kind of pup!