sndmn11
WKR
To the underlined part: 100% that is the way to do it. One of my friends who studs his Griff out will not do so unless he can put eyes on at least one dog PER LITTER from the dam's past litters, without the Dam's owners knowledge. His logic is that if the Dam's past dogs aren't performers, he doesn't want to pseudo-sully the name of his Sire. Likewise, he wants to learn if the Dam's owners did their due diligence on placing pups with hunting homes, and he thinks that if they did so, he should be able to anonymously track one pup per litter down either through acquaintances, pedigree research, or at NAVHDA. So far it has worked.
Likewise, I think someone who is hellsbells about this might track a dog's litters for a bit, look at progeny's litters, etc. to then decide they want a litter from X sire or Y dam. The three folks I know who love this stuff, including the guy above, start planning where their next pup is coming from about the time they pick up the current pup. In other words, they are planning 3-6 years out, and regularly place deposits to hold their first choice, but turn down litters and pups if they don't think things are perfect.
To the bold point, for me that is what owning a dog is all about. The dog in my avatar was a spur of the moment thing when I had a significant sport's surgery with 18month recovery time. My gf at the time thought I would stay out of trouble by spending my time training a dog. It worked and I LOVED that bond and communication process. She was awesome. My griff I have typed about in this thread somehow was easier to train and is probably smarter. We went through the same training program as before, and she aced everything before 8months old. It took the other dog until two years which is on par for others. Both of those dogs sort of made my snooty, and I tend to dislike most other people's dogs because you realize how out of control most are and how terrible the dog-human relationship is with those. Its a cool thing.
