You might wonder why on earth we are making it so difficult for ourselves while we have our own stud dogs that live with us. We firmly believe that our obligation is to produce the best pups we can, and for Paika Moose (FC Nurmi von Moosbach-Zuzelek) is a better choice than any of our own boys.The picture below shows Chuck with Moose (on the left) and John with Paika last summer.
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| 2011: Chuck with Moose and John with Paika |
We actually were very lucky that the weather cooperated as the beginning of February can be really nasty. But this year our winter has been very mild, and John reported that the drive to Hillman was smooth and easy (just very long).
While in Michigan, John and Chuck went to visit Scott Leindecker, who lives in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada. Scott has been working very hard on making the use of leashed tracking dogs for tracking wounded big game legal in Ontario. He also owns a wirehaired dachshund Arwen, who was sired by our Tommy. The men had a good visit with lots of talk about tracking and work on legalization in
Ontario. Thank you Scott for all your hard work!
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| From the left: Chuck Collier with Moose, John Jeanneney, and Scott Leindecker with Arwen. |
Do you think Moose is a better stud than Tommy? I was wondering what you meant by better dog than your own stud dogs, since tommy would be a outcross. I take it the coat has something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteDave - Moose is a better match for Paika. This is a very important point. With Tommy we would get pups with very soft coats as Paika's coat is full and quite soft. Tommy's coat is better, but based on our experience a cross like this would produce some pups with coats that IMO would be too soft. Also Paika is quite low to the ground and so is Tommy. We don't want to double on this. So Moose is a better choice for Paika than Tommy. Moose/Paika pups will have better coats and better ground clearence than Tommy/Paika pups. In the first litter from this combination all the pups had perfect wirehaired coats. There were no defects - all males had their testicles and all pups had a full dentition. This is why we have repeated the breeding.
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteAnother point to be made. We think very highly of both - Paika and Moose. They both represent our selection over several generations. When you import a dog, it takes several years and litters to learn what weaknesses and strengths that dog has as a producer. We are still learning about Tommy.
Thank you for your promp answer, this is why I chose your kennel when I bought my pup, because of the extra mile you and John go!!!
ReplyDelete