elcourtbayspringers wrote:Back in the day I used to always use the sire of a 'fresh' FTCH rather than that dog as it gives you a good heads up of what kind of prodegy it throws.
There is always a mad rush to use this years top dog and it ain't cheap, but I always think thats a bit of a gamble as until its proved you don't know what you may get, you know what dad throws!! just a tip from an old fart!!
"You cant beat the old dog for the hard road......."
And I said this on another thread - go for the proven sire(FTCH) not his FTCH progeny until they have something equivalent to show - and got a negative view (being circumspect there!)
what confuses me about that idea is, is it not assuming the dog youre admiring gets the predominance of what you like from its sire...surely its dam has a bearing on the dog too? so you could then mate your bitch with the father of the sire you like and end up with something quite different i.e. missing some of its dams traits you may have liked?
http://www.facebook.com/arwesa
As a handler, its impossible to make your dog perform better than it is, but very easy to make it perform far worse.
The great John Nash ( Moanruad Irish setters ) alway said : Why use the son if the father is still around. On the other hand, I also, put most importance in a strong bitch line.
I have bitches which are/were FTCH's over 5 generations from mother to daughter, both in Ireland and on the continent. I jus have two 5 month old pups from one of these bitches and they look promising again.
There is a saying in Scotland which goes something like, " Dinnae go tae a guid dug , go tae a guid dug's faither."
Wish I'd had the nerve to mention this to a couple of my son's girlfriends !
Wullie
If at first you don't succeed .....find out if there is a booby prize !
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Don't do what doesn't work - do what does.
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