#i do not trust a breeder that sends their dogs away to be work titled to choose a puppy with working drive or to recognize working drive

[darkwood-sleddog]

While I am glad the dogs are being put to work and have drive to do so I do feel a certain ~way~ about confo breeders sending their dogs off to mushers to get titled in work instead of doing the work themselves because as a breeder this teaches YOU nothing about why a working title is important. It is just throwing the responsibility that is yours as a breeder onto somebody else so your dog can get another title to add to its name. It teaches you NOTHING.

Preserving the working drive in this dog is not just about setting your dog up for success with an experienced musher and their trained dogs. You must ALSO be able to understand what varying working drives act like in puppyhood and be able to pick that out prior to the 8 week mark in addition to the puppy’s potential size and conformation. You must understand YOURSELF what physical attributes like size, leg length, hock and pastern type, coat type & length, flews, ear leather thickness, foot shape & size have to do with the dog’s ability to work in harness AND their longevity in harness. That is not something you can just be told to look for, it is something you need to experience for yourself out on the trail, preferably over longer expedition style runs because 1.) this is what this dog is bred for and 2.) the shape of all those attributes both as separate parts and as a whole in the dog have a huge effect over repeated long distance freight hauling they may not have over relatively short training & title runs.

It is not second hand knowledge you can check off like a checklist like “oh my dog has a guard hair that is X inches long so therefore it is a good working coat” literally no. that’s not how it works. If you’re not out there yourself it is neigh impossible to understand the nuance of how the individual dog’s coat affects them in arctic temperatures, or how their feet are affected etc. You need to understand and feel the differences within your dogs yourself. There are people running recreational teams of non-sled breeds that probably have a much better sense of what works and what doesn’t for joring/pull sports than the breeder of a sled breed that has a working title but has little involvement in the sport/achievement of that title themselves. Get off your butts and get on the runners goddammit. 

#dogblr #alaskan malamute #dog breeding #like this type of breeder to me is the highest form of lazy #you're willing to take your dog into the ring but you're not willing to put in the work for a breed specific title #instead you send them away to somebody else and get that title to brag about the working drive in your lines #but have ZERO understanding of how or why and how much of the drive is important at all #anyways this is why you always go for the breeder that works the dog THEMSELVES. #i do not trust a breeder that sends their dogs away to be work titled to choose a puppy with working drive or to recognize working drive #the way a person that actually works their dogs themselves does #idk is that snobby of me? guess what even if it is i don't care #anyways even though the iditarod malamutes were trained by another musher nancy russel was deeply involved in the dog's development #she talks A LOT about choosing keeper puppies for the confo ring by watching HOW they pull into harness #not about what they looked liked stacked on the table #like the dogs can be perfectly good but idk it def comes across as working title is afterthought when it is treated like this #and not to be slightly kennel blind or whatever but nobody in the north american sector of malamutes to me compares to my breeder #in the aspect of correctly choosing AND understanding drive in malamutes #people ask me why i dont' breed all the time #and its because i hold myself AND the breeders i consider purchasing from to a very high standard #like either you go all in or don't breed?? #anyways like i would want to have been consistenly producing working titles every season #like the advanced and excellent versions #like the 'work' my dogs do is not work quality enough to give me the experience needed to breed them and understand that nuance for work