About a year ago I had a call from a local gentleman who wanted to use one of our males at stud. He'd never bred a litter before and on enquiring further I discovered the bitch was far too young and not health tested. I explained this to the owner and told him that no responsible stud dog owner would allow him to use their dog on such a young female that wasn't even health tested. I was hoping he'd taken it on board and told him should he choose to health test and breed from his bitch to contact me in a year or so. Well what a pleasant surprise it was when he called back a couple of weeks ago, the bitch now of an acceptable age was health tested too! It does restore your faith when for the good of the animals and the breed in general that people are willing to listen. Last week the owners popped up to meet Nico with "Tasha" and all her paperwork. Tasha is a big girl and has an interesting pedigree of mainly working lines, with only her paternal grandfather being of familiar show lines. Her character was super and she lives with cats and children...a great start I think. Due to Nico having a little more "experience" than Mikey I felt he was the obvious choice for Tasha.
This morning I received and e.mail from a lady with a 14 month old GSD. She wants to breed from her in Jan/Feb, but she is neither health tested nor registered. She asked if I would allow her to use Nico? I'm sorry that goes against the grain for me and I have replied explaining that "Nico is only available at stud to health tested bitches with K.C registration." And that "I'm sure you know your bitch is still too young to carry a litter and as recommended by the K.C needs to be at least 2 years of age." I don't think I'm being out of line, but it goes against my principals. The bitch may be lovely, but no registration, no health tests and at that age, my she's just a baby herself! Here's hoping this lady will be as sensible and not use the unregistered, "un-health" checked dog down the road just so she can make a quick buck selling puppies! Anyway, I'd been home from work a short time when I had another call. A lady has a bitch in season, the breeder had told her to look at my website and then contact me. I explained that Nico already has a bitch booked in the same days, and though her pedigree was more to my taste I could not go back on my word to the first people ... Anyway I was wrong to presume, she explained that it was Mikey she was interested in! I have been honest, I've told her that Mikey is unproven but that did not worry her and she's coming to meet him next week!
If both bitches were to conceive then obviously I would love to see the puppies ... and yeah, my God I'd be tempted to have a Mikey Mikey baby!
