Going for the Blue

by Roger A. Caras

  A ring full of smart little terriers is one of the prettiest sights there is. Plucked and trimmed, in sparkling good health and coat, they are alert and snappy. I was watching a class of Lakeland Terriers years ago when all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, a mouse appeared and shot across the ring. You will never see a smarter bunch of dogs. Vermin! The whole class went on full red alert. The mouse really had their attention. I don’t know what eventually happened to the mouse, but that ring was clearly not the healthiest place for it to be. Long after it had vanished, the dogs were still rigidly alert and quivering.

  Chapter 5

  Pick and

  Choose

  Inevitably the question is asked, How much? What do high-quality puppies from really fine breeders cost, especially when they are mature enough to exhibit what appears to be show potential while still puppies? I have seen a Toy Poodle puppy sell for $10,000. Although that is admittedly high, the ten-month-old puppy was ultimately worth the price. The puppies she later produced were awesome, and her own show career proved to be very impressive. I have seen a Bulldog puppy sold for $2,500 and examples of lots of other breeds that went for between $250 and $300. There are a number of factors that are responsible for these widely divergent prices. If you are about to launch your dog-showing career, start with the very best puppy you can possibly afford. Try not to stint any more than your wallet absolutely mandates.

  There are a number of questions that are inevitably going to play a part when you set out to create the budget for your dream dog and its career:

  1. Has the puppy started to show yet? Are there any points on record for it, or is it under six months? Does it appear to have real show potential? Is there a knowledgeable person who will go with you to visit the breeder? What does he think of your possible puppy? Try not to fall in love until the questions are answered and the results are in. There will be time enough to get goofy as the affair progresses.

  2. What is the show record for the puppy’s dam and sire? Are they both champions; how old were they before they finished (became champions)? How many champions have they produced in previous litters? How many Group Winners, how many Best in Shows? It is generally far easier to create a champion from champion stock, obviously. Don’t be afraid of being snobby (just keep it to yourself). You are about to pick a team, cast a play, nominate a contender. There is one big difference: your dog is supposed to eventually be the foundation stock for your kennel name, and that was never so for quarterbacks, infielders, or presidential front-runners. But we do breed our dogs when the future needs their genes.

  3. What is the puppy’s genetic background when you go back further than its parents? Have there been genetic diseases like displastic hips or progressive retinal atrophy? This can be all-important.

  4. What does the puppy look like at this point? Is it already a showstopper? Do people stop and try to engage you in conversation? If they don’t now, they probably won’t later. Do people ask you how much you want for the puppy? All good signs.

  5. How about personality? Is it a reasonably assertive puppy not exhibiting undue shyness or timidity, or untoward aggression? Is it going to take on the show world with the same spirit Snickers has?

  6. If the breed standards call for a specific color range or preferred markings, does the pup exhibit them? This can be a very important point, as with Dalmatians, for example.

  7. How is the puppy’s present health? What kind of health records did its parents have? Is your choice bright-eyed, with a nice wet, cold nose and a healthy coat?

  8. What is its breed? Is it a hard order to fill? Are there many quality puppies of that breed available? Since Bulldogs usually have one or perhaps two puppies, at most, and they are frequently born by Caesarean section, they can be quite expensive. That very large Bulldog head does not come without a price.

  Anywhere between $250 and $10,000, and you should have your show dog to start out with. (In a lifetime of showing, you will probably never approach that higher figure. You will certainly edge up and well away from the lower.) Take extremely popular dogs like the Golden and Labrador Retrievers. They can be had for $300 to $900 ($1,000 to $1,250 for exceptional examples), but although they may be sensational companions, they are probably not going to look like examples of the same breeds that sell for $2,000 to $2,500, at least not prime examples. The difference between the $1,000 and the $2,500 puppies is in their predictable individual approaches to 100 percent of standard and the winning career of their parents and siblings from earlier litters.

  There are additional factors in the price of a puppy.

  1. How much does the breeder have invested in the parents?

  2. What is the size and apparent quality of the rest of the litter?

  3. What does the marketplace look like? How much in demand are puppies of this breed?

  4. How badly does the breeder need money? (You probably won’t ask.)

  5. How badly do you want the puppy you have found? Are you consumed by the prospect of hugging it and later its ribbons and trophies? How daffy will you allow yourself to get?

  6. How does the breeder feel about you? This is not like a normal business dealing. The breeder wants to feel “comfortable” with your having a puppy. The breeder will want to know how much you will love it and how earnestly and therefore successfully you will show it. I have seen dogs go for both more and less than they should have because of this factor—the breeder’s comfort zone. A sale very often launches new and lasting friendships.

  A question often asked: Can a buyer have the puppy “vetted”—that is, examined by a veterinarian? Some breeders would treat such a suggestion with indignation, some would not. You guys will have to work that out between yourselves. One way to do it is to have a contractual return period. That could give you twenty-four to forty-eight hours to take the puppy to your veterinarian and check for discernible problems. Not a bad idea at all.

  It is impossible to know in advance if you are going to be able to buy a puppy from a dam the quality of Snickers. There are just too many variables. Not until close to the end of the sixty-three-day gestation period is the number of puppies known—and then usually without absolute certainty. You don’t know their actual number until they have all been whelped. It is not until months after that that the breeders know for sure how many promising show dogs there are in the litter. When that is known, the breeders have to decide how many, if any, they will keep for themselves and use to win more plaudits for their kennel name and how many they are going to be willing to sell.

  Then comes the matter of who gets first pick. Breeders of fine dogs want their dogs shown well, again to enhance the kennel’s reputation and because they love their breed. Well-known exhibitors who have shown dogs successfully over the years will usually be given first choice. Friends are accommodated, too, but most breeders are so serious about the puppies they produce that friendships are likely to come asunder before a potential champion gets into the wrong hands. Rarely if ever will breeders let any of their puppies, show quality or not, go into an irresponsible or substandard home, and then only by accident or misjudgment. The care that is taken is a combination of the love of their dogs, pride in their breeding, ego, possessiveness, a nurturing instinct, and a few other traits besides. Still, you have to start somewhere, and getting to know the right people at a show is usually the most productive first move.

  Expect to be cross-examined and given both IQ and morality tests. It is best if your police rap sheet is very short and you don’t have too many speeding tickets. It is very hard on the breeders to let their little darlings go. Never even try to get a puppy away from a breeder before it is eight weeks old. Many protectors of their breed prefer to wait longer than that. It can be months. It is always traumatic—but not for the poor benighted mother.

  By the time one or two months of nursing is over, the bitch is ready to give all of her get (litter) away. Whether the litter is small or large, having those greedy little mouths with needlelike emerg
ing teeth and those kneading paws with sharp little nails assaulting your naked abdomen is not fun after a few weeks. It is the pits. Not to mention that the wee critters are busy, when they are not nursing, eating their mother’s tail and ears. By that stage most bitches think being a mother is the worst idea they ever had. You can watch the mother’s patience wearing thin, thin enough so you can read through it. The fact that the puppies survive is a testament to what really nice animals dogs (bitches) really are.

  One fact that seems to surprise most newcomers to the world of dogs is that the honest private breeder is simply trying to keep his losses to a minimum. The novice notes that the hobby exhibitor-breeder’s Irish Setter has had a litter of eight puppies. There wasn’t a stud fee involved, since the same breeder owned the sire as well, yet the breeder is asking a thousand dollars a puppy. In fact, there will be little if any profit. There rarely is. All the costs involved in traveling and showing the parents, creating your interest in their puppy because both of those parents became champions, have to be factored in, as do veterinary costs and all the elements of proper care of the dam, sire, and litter. Breeding fine show-quality puppies is rarely a reliable means of making money unless it is done on a thoroughly professional level with special facilities, kennel help, a groomer, handlers, the whole nine yards, including, in many cases, financial backers and co-owners.

  The Truth about “Papers”

  Although some dealers and pet-shop owners will tell you a different tale, a prospective pet’s “papers” are meant to be free; they should not add to the price of the dog. In one case I was asked to look into, a pet shop sold an innocent first-time purebred dog owner a Bulldog at slightly over twice its fair market value and then offered “all the dog’s papers” for an extra two hundred dollars. The buyer said that he was assured that it was a good deal—by the pet-shop dealer, of course. It was in fact a terrific deal—for the thieving merchant.

  Keep in mind the following considerations regarding a dog’s papers and other information acquired at time of purchase:

  1. A pedigree is simply a list of a dog’s forebears. Blank family trees or pedigree forms are available from dog-food companies, in books and magazines, just about everywhere you look in the dog world. Almost inevitably they are handouts, freebies. Fancy pedigree forms on parchmentlike paper with lots of scrolling are for sale from vendors at dog shows for almost no money at all. A pedigree lists the parents of the dog, grandparents, and great-grandparents at least—sometimes going much further back than that—by each dog’s registered name and its AKC registration number. Computer printouts are generally available today. Do not do business with anyone who suggests a price for the pedigree or who appears reluctant to supply a free copy with the dog he is trying to sell you. It should be available at the time of the sale.

  As a rule, I would suggest that you avoid anyone who is trying to sell you a dog. Fine breeders have to be begged to let go of one of their charges. It is like giving up their children. Be on the lookout for hustlers. There are plenty around. And it is not necessarily a minor backyard business. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigated one puppy-mill operation in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that averages close to a quarter of a million dollars a year supplying poorly bred, substandard dogs to pet shops. Some cottage industry! Some way to treat man’s best friend!

  2. When you buy a dog that is represented by the seller as eligible for AKC registration, you are entitled to receive at the time of sale an AKC application form properly filled out and signed by the seller. When you have completed your part, it is to be submitted to the AKC with a ten-dollar registration fee. When the AKC has processed the paperwork, you will receive a registration certificate. The seller should not profit from this process, despite what some of them will tell you.

  3. DO NOT buy a dog from a seller who is unable to submit to you all identifying information at the time of the sale. DO NOT accept a promise of later identification. Chances are you will never get what is properly yours, and you may never be able to show your dog or study its lineage, should the time and reason come when you want to breed it. Again, unless your purebred dog is of show quality and has what its breed needs, do not breed it. Spay or neuter instead. Never even think of breeding a random-bred or pet-quality purebred dog. Just love it. You will be getting more than your money’s worth. Ribbons and trophies get tacked up in the kennel or tack room; the dogs themselves are for eternal hugging. They know it and if you don’t, you will be missing an awful lot in life.

  4. AKC rules require a seller to provide the buyer with a properly completed registration certificate including the breed, sex, and color of the dog, its date of birth, the registered names of the dog’s sire and dam, and the name of the breeder. Stand firm, get what is yours, and briskly walk away from anyone who tries to put a price on a dog’s papers. He probably sells snake oil, too.

  5. Although not technically a part of registration papers, sellers should be able (and willing) to supply the buyer with a free copy of the dog’s medical history outlining what shots it has had and what shots are due and when. It should contain all of the information the dog’s future veterinarian will need. This can be terribly important. This information should be free; any other suggested arrangement is a hustle. Any true dog lover will be anxious for you to have this paper because it will help you and your veterinarian keep the dog they supposedly love healthy and happy.

  6. The seller should also supply complete information on the dog’s diet. Brand names, quantities, treats, feeding times, should all be included. Shortly after the new puppy (usually) comes home, you should discuss this paper and the medical record with your veterinarian, your dog’s personal doctor.

  It is the responsibility of a dog’s buyer to get all of the paperwork and registration information required, and if it is not made available without cost, pass on the deal. Something is amiss in Denmark and probably elsewhere. That can be difficult to do, but in the long run it is far better for the animal and for your bank account.

  A NAME FOR THOSE PAPERS

  If you are buying a puppy, it probably will not have been individually registered with the AKC before you came along, so part of the information you will be submitting with your ten dollars will be your pet’s official name. You can call your pet whatever you want at home, but Toots and Babe, Spot, Felix, and Phydeaux are not ring names. On the other hand, you might feel a little silly on the street where you live calling loudly, “Here Nightingale’s Salmon Bracket Tester, come!” You need, then, a registered name, although you can forget it if you want, once it has become a part of canine history. If your dog’s originating kennel is renowned for the quality of its puppies and their show performance, you may want to capitalize on that fact and use the kennel’s name as part of your pup’s registered name: Glorious Household’s Shin Plaster Dandy, for example. But hold on, you can’t, unless you have written consent. You must get that consent at the time of the purchase in writing from Glorious Household Kennels. It generally is a good sign if the kennel gives you that permission. It means the kennel feels strongly enough about the potential of the puppy they have bred to want it out there attracting attention to their presumably good name. If a kennel refuses, it may be because they have a policy that mandates that position or they feel your pup is a pet-quality dog or they do not feel you will do a good job of showing the puppy they have sold you. Either way, it is the buyer’s job to ask for permission.

  A word or two about those fingernail-on-the-blackboard poofy names: the whole idea is to come up with something new. After all, the AKC registers more than a million dogs a year, every year, and even with the dog’s abbreviated life span, there are going to be a lot of registered dogs still alive at the same time. Millions! No two can have the same name. Now, go forward and invent. If you can come up with a new name for a Golden Retriever with gold in it not currently occupied you are very inventive indeed. A lot of breeders have a sense of humor, and since the name won’t be
used very much in real life anyway, they like to come up with puns and plays on words. Sometimes it is just quirky. Jill produced a litter of Bloodhounds and called it her J litter; all the puppies had names beginning with that letter—Jasmine, Jeremy, Jethro, and so on. Anyway, show dogs are not generally called Babe or Bo, Mabel, Maud, or Musty, except at home.

  After Your Puppy Comes Home

  So, then, you have at last found your breed, you have located and perhaps befriended your breeder, and you know what you want the incoming member of your family to accomplish. What is more important, you have identified your pick-of-the-litter puppy and you are anxious to get his career under way. It is time to stop dreaming, time to make the dreams come true. What are the next steps?

  Take your puppy, as soon as possible, to your veterinarian, his personal doctor. Tell the seller you are going to do that as soon as you leave and have the understanding that your veterinarian’s word will be the deciding vote. No one should object to that. Have him checked out and establish a schedule for his immunizations. Good health comes first. Don’t try to go anywhere without it. It won’t happen. A dog that is in anything short of perfect health just won’t show well. The judge will spot it immediately.

  Manners comes next. Check into an obedience course as soon as the professional you have decided to confer with says it is time. Learn to work together as a team. Everything will be easier after that. This isn’t a matter of turning your companion into a robot. Rolling over and playing dead is not what it is all about; it is about instilling good manners and encouraging obedience. Come, sit, stay, down, off, no or leave it, give it up, or drop it: these commands are not too much to expect of a bright puppy that is well cared for, encouraged and socialized, and properly rewarded. Many people feel you should not teach a puppy to sit until it is more than a year old and familiar with showing. In the ring, a come is followed by a self-stack, not a sit. Either way he will do much better in the ring with obedience training. Praise him, then praise him again. He will play your game with you—and for you—but he wants to be recognized and rewarded. He may not be exactly certain what it is all about, but he knows it can be exciting, it pleases you, and there are rewards. He knows praise when he hears it and he can never get enough of it. It is addictive.