“Do you sleep by the whelping box when a first-time bitch is due to whelp? Have you breathed life into a stillborn puppy? And cried when it died… Have you studied pedigrees, planned the breeding, and watched the litter grow as proudly as the owner of a Kentucky Derby Winner once did? Then you can say with pride… Yes, I am a breeder (article by Cindy Smith).

As someone who is involved with dog and equine rescues, is on multiple dog e-mail lists, reads twitter, facebook, etc. I am aware that there are those who feel breeding any animal is a terrible thing. The “don’t buy while those in shelters die” mentality is that for every puppy born another dies in a shelter. I don’t buy that theory as many of us who are committeed to our breeds also rescue them and make room for “one more” many times at our homes. If I hadn’t gotten so involved with Labradors and Pugs including joining regional and national clubs for each breed, I probably wouldn’t have also gotten involved with rescue and placed who knows how many (100, more?) in new loving homes. I’m sure I never would have co-founded LABMED as I wouldn’t have had the ties with fellow breeders who helped and continue to help LABMED with their contributions.

Yes, there are bad “breeders” but they probably shouldn’t be called breeders but rather “producers” as they only care about making a product and not what happens to the pups the rest of their lives. They are a different type of person from the responsible breeders I know and hang out with. I and my breeder friends will always take back any dog that we placed as a puppy or adult dog. In fact most of us have contracts that insist the dog come back to us but sometimes people either have lost our contact info or sadly don’t want to admit they are having a problem with their dog or can’t keep it due to life changes so dump it in a shelter or on rescue. One friend, when notified a Lab rescue had just gotten in a dog with papers that showed her as a breeder, drove at 10 at night to the foster home that had the dog to reclaim him. So I was really happy to find the above article on line today as it really describes what I go through each time we have a litter of puppies here. This is the essence of a responsible breeder, one who always puts the dogs’ (or other animals) needs before their own need to eat or sleep.

So like Cindy Smith, I am proud to say “Yes, I am a breeder”.

Today Nessie (formally Champion Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN) would have been 15 years old. I had really hoped to be celebrating this birthday with her here on earth but sadly I had to make the decision to release her spirit back on January 29th. This is a tribute to her that I wrote that day.

CH Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN, WC
4/1/95 to 1/29/10
Nessie left me to go retrieve ducks and bumpers in heaven. Recently she was falling over a lot and having trouble using one of her front legs. I promised not to let her lose her dignity and not sure I totally met that promise but did the best I could. I realized when she laid down on the blanket at the vets’ that she hadn’t been wagging her tail any more and usually she did not like going to the vet but laid down in the sun in the exam room and never picked her head up again while I petted her and the vet helped her leave.

She was my first CH, my first tracking dog (earned at the tender age of 8 months) and the Queen Bee here. She is the mother of my Ali and Cori, grandmother of Jazz and Zamboni, great grandmother of River. For a few months I had 4 generations of my beloved Labs here. I adored her and would have done anything to have her another week, year, lifetime but I could not let her go on and suffer just for me…….She is now with her co-Queen Bee, my beloved Lily Pug. She is so missed.

Halloween is always bitter sweet for me because I remember my heart dog, Reilly, who I will miss the rest of my life, being born on that day now 21 years ago.

However this year I also have the joy of having 4 generations of my bloodline alive and well in my house and today I was able to get a photo of the four girls together.

Ali is now 11 1/2 and the mother of Jazz who will be 7 tomorrow. Next to Jazz is her young daughter, River, age 16 weeks and next to River is Nessie who is Ali’s mom/Jazz’s grandmother/River’s great grandmother.

We had a litter of Labrador Retrievers born on 7/12/09 so they are now 10 weeks old. Today I took one of my Labs to the Retriever Club http://dunnsmarshlabs.com/bbfarmblog/wp-admin/post-new.php#to work on some issues before our next hunt test and also decided to take Jazz and the female pup we are keeping, River. Basically my goal was to introduce River to a new environment in a positive manner. If she went near or into the water, great, but I wasn’t going to force her.

River was very excited to get out and check out this new place and right away went running after her mom. Pretty soon Jazz was back in the water and River was really watching her trying to figure out what her mom was doing. Soon she was testing the water. Of course she had to test it by drinking it. The bank was very slippery clay so she didn’t actually get in and swim today but still it was a good, positive start. We will try a different pond tomorrow since the nice weather is still holding.

I was at our Lab Specialty agility trial all day today running two dogs as well as working at it. Jazz had some really fast runs (as in fastest in her class) but still can’t keep all of the bars up. People keep saying “wait til she grows up, she’ll calm down” — she is SIX! It is very frustrating to have such a talented dog and still be stuck in Novice Jumpers and no legs in Open Standard. Cori had the opposite problem — she doesn’t like it when it gets hot and in the sun it was hot so she just trotted along or barely ran until the last few jumps. She either didn’t make time (and had the slowest time in her class) or had a knocked bar due to laziness. I think I just need to give up running her outside in summer weather. So I ran two directly opposite types of dogs and no “q’s” today. Just venting…….

ADDENDUM: Saturday Jazz qualified in both rally obedience classes with 4th places in each (95 and 97 out of 100) so partially redeemed herself.