Terms

"Aria"

Lots of dogs and puppies are sold within the show world with breeding terms, showing rights and joint ownership. Kai was in joint ownership with Sharon, he lived with us and we had no problems at all with the set up. We shared the costs and the glory. But my first experience of "terms" has left me wary of doing it again!
In 1996 just weeks after the break up of my first marriage Blanik's "A" litter was born. It's been well documented that the 4th puppy born, a little bitch was less than half the size of the others. "Aria" was only 7oz at birth and lifeless. With "Book Of The bitch" clearly in my mind theoretically I knew what to do, but putting it into practice for the first time ever was scary! That first breath was a godsend but the next few weeks were not without their trials for little Aria and she needed extra TLC and secret feeds to get her through, but we made it and I fell totally in love with her.
Nikki the mother of the litter was on "Breeding Terms," which meant that her breeder had the right to one free puppy or the price of one puppy from Nikki's first litter. There was nothing on paper, it was a verbal contract between friends but I was devastated when he decided he was having his "Pick of litter" and that was Aria. I can't tell you how much I cried, how heartbroken I was. Due to my personal circumstances I was still in such a vulnerable state and this left me devastated. But there was worse to come ... within a few weeks he had sold Aria to the kennel that had her father. Again a huge slap in the face for me and a friendship that was then irrevocably damaged.

 

I did see Aria around the shows .. by then her pet name was "Eira," Welsh for snow. I hated it, why call a black and tan bitch bloody Snow? Her show career was incredible, she won 2 CC 1 RCC She was Top youth 1997,  Top Dam 2003 & 2004 TOP BROOD BITCH 2005 & 2006, she was the dam of  "CH Lararth Houdini, " the top winner of his time. (Google him!) But for me it was never about her wins or progeny I simply fell in love with her. Seffe and Dexi kept me sane and Seffe became my best friend. She was not a top winner like Aria and Dexi but she was my soul mate and I have to think that had I kept Aria then Seffe would have been sold, and without Seffe the Blanik family I have now would sure be a different lot. I may have forgiven, but I can't forget and I still feel a bitterness towards Nikki's breeder that I can no shift. It's not normal for me to hold a grudge, but hurt as badly as I was I can't seem to completely move on from it, so I guess I haven't forgiven!
So what is the point of the post? Well the best of the two little guys could be mine but they will be sold with terms. If it all works out then the breeder would like one litter to one of her bitches with him. That is absolutely fine by me, actually I think it's a great idea, get him proven, get him used! It's the next bit that makes me uncomfortable, and this is no disrespect to this breeder at all, but I don't really know her that well.  She would like to keep her name on the pup "For Showing Purposes." So on paper the puppy would be owned by "Stanley and ****" She says that it would be for showing purposes only and that she would have no hold on him, but I never expected Nikki's breeder to be so heartless as to take the puppy I had fallen in love with either.
What if I wanted to use him at stud on a bitch she didn't like? Or Vice Versa .. what if I wanted to enter a show and she didn't like the judge, what if she wanted him entered somewhere I didn't want to travel too?  So many questions to ask and discuss. One thing that does give me comfort is that she has already said she would be willing to put everything down on paper for us to agree upon and obviously she would not want her name on a puppy that was not good enough so I trust her to only hang on to the best one for me. So yeah that is definitely a plus to the situation.
My plan of action now is to wait till Thursday, though sadly I fear that is now a no go, after that I will think carefully and talk to a mutual friend about these "Terms" and then I'll consider my way forward.
Bear in mind when looking at these photo in comparison to Sable 2 that not everyone is a great photographer. The best photo is not always the best puppy and though the second photo of these is poor the little guys does look pretty red and has a lovely stop. Anyway, yet again it's all an emotional waiting game!