First off …

Happy Birthday to Smokey, Radar, Beau and the rest of the 12!

Hard to believe that it has been three years already, but Thunder was daddy to this beautiful litter of 12…

Not Quite a Month Old
Cute!

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So why did we decide to get a pup from the Smokey/Cutter litter?

We find that we really enjoy training and running hunt tests with our dogs.  It is something we can get out and do together.  My husband runs the dogs and if I’m not taking pictures, then I am usually out in the field throwing marks.  We had been kicking around the idea of maybe getting a pup out of strictly a field line.  Our dogs are doing great with their training and have come a long way since we found the right trainer to help us with their training; however, we made a lot of mistakes and they are a bit set in some bad habits which will hamper them at the higher level tests.  We plan to keep training them toward Masters and hopefully we can clean up some of those bad habits, but Masters demands some precision in their work.  We would like to see what we can do with a pup that we can start out right according to a program and with the help of a great trainer.  Plus Thunder will be 6 in March, so by the time the pup is 2, he should be ready to help out his 8-year-old Grand-dad during hunting season.  🙂

Thunder's First Swim (not quite three months old)

Aside from being Thunder’s daughter 🙂 Smokey is just a great dog.  Three years old today and she already has her bench Championship, her Rally Advanced title, her Junior Hunter Title, (which she earned before the age of two), and her Working Dog certification.  Quite a nice list of accomplishments.  We watched her run both a Junior Hunter test and the WD and her marking was quite nice.  The ability to mark is important for hunt testing, but the dog also needs to be able sit still and watch the marks go off.  Smokey did a great job of waiting and watching even though she was still quite young.  She also has the sweetest temperament which is important to us.

2006 One Of Thunder's Littermates

We first heard about Smokey possibly being bred to Cutter last January.  Really?  We had been hearing nice things about Cutter while out and about at hunt tests.  While he is not what I would call a dog from a field line, he has a very nice blend of dogs with field trial placements, hunt test and obedience titles and show champions in his pedigree.  He is a Master Hunter and a bench Champion.  Hmm….well this type of breeding is something to think about.

Some Of The Pups From Thunder's Litter In 2006

The draw back for us getting a pup out of strictly field lines is that we don’t really know any of those dogs or any of those breeders.  We wouldn’t know the parents’ temperaments.  (Some field dogs can be surly.  Not all, just some.) Field Chessies can also be very high-powered and driven.  We live in a neighborhood where we can’t have fences and there are kids.  It isn’t really practical for us to have a dog that is surly or too high-powered.  We need a dog with a nice temperament that can do the work without being crazy driven.

Thunder Almost 4 Months Old

Unfortunately it never worked out for us to actually see Cutter run a test or a trial so we asked around.  We spoke to a hunt test judge who used him as a stud and just raved about him and was very happy with the litter he sired.  We also spoke to someone who saw him run at the Chessie Field Trial and she raved about his work.  Cindy (the pup’s breeder), just loved Cutter’s temperament when she spent time with him.  He sounds like a great all around dog.

Storm's First Swim (Almost 3 Months Old)

Finally we looked at health clearances.  The important things for us are hips and elbows (because we want to work the dog), and eyes.  Of course you are breeding animals and with genetics, nothing is a given.  You can have generations of clear hips and elbows and still produce a dog with hip or elbow dysplasia, (I won’t go into why that is :)).  However having those clearances helps.  We like to see at least parents and grandparents with hip clearances.  Further back in the pedigree is not as big a problem for us, but if a dog doesn’t have a clearance, then we look to see what kinds of pups the dog has produced (do they have mostly clear hips or are there a lot that don’t clear?).  As I say, that is just how we approach it as puppy buyers.  Smokey and Cutter have hip, elbow, eye and DM clearances, (all things that we think are important to consider when getting a Chessie pup).

Storm

So there you have it.  This breeding sounds like just what we are looking for in a pup.  The pups should have nice conformation (also important in a working dog), nice temperaments, and great working and trainability.  The hope is that they will get the best of each of their parents.  We look forward to finding out.

Tomorrow some follow-up and a couple new puppy pictures.  🙂

43 thoughts on “A New Pup (or do you need your heads examined?)”

  1. You have put a lot of thought into this puppy and are approaching it armed with lots of valuable information and experience. This looks to me like it will be an excellent adventure, one I look forward to sharing with you through your blog. 🙂

  2. Oh my gosh, all these adorable puppy pics – cuteness overload!! I don’t blame you for sticking with a breeder and parents you know, it makes the most sense. It’s also wonderful that you and your husband find a common activity in training these pups. How exciting to have a new furry face in the family! 😀

    1. Chessie puppies are adorable aren’t they with those blue eyes and curly heads. Then they grow up and the fun starts. 😆 (A little Chessie humor as they can be a challenge in the teenage stage.)

  3. Wow – you guys’ decision process is great – you really go through everything to make sure your pup will have the best chances at being able to enjoy the same things as you! If everyone paid such attention to detail in their dog-picking, there wouldn’t be any xmas gift puppies, and dog rescue groups would be few and far between!
    i’m so excited to watch as you guys take your future-new-pup through all his training 🙂
    Not to mention even more adorable puppy pics!

    1. We can tend to over think things…lol. Hopefully the pup will be good at tests, but if not there is always obedience or agility. 🙂

  5. Oh wow! How exciting (and probably a little scary) for you! 🙂 Such adorable photos, too – all of them!

    Substitute herding/droving for hunting, and much of your well-written thought process on selecting a puppy applies to Cardigans, too. So much (including health testing, whether the dog will be used for farm work or not, parents’ temperaments, etc.) go into the breeding decisions. We are fortunate to have found the programs that produced JF and Dewi – as different as they are. 🙂

    Good for you for putting so much thought into this! Can’t wait to see which little brown sheep you get!

    1. It is amazing how much goes into breeding decisions, the thought and the care. We are both lucky to have found breeders who work hard to better our respective breeds. 🙂

  6. I’m not sure how you can just take ONE. MY MOM is oweing and aweing over them and would take them all. Soooooo cute.
    Goose

  7. Hi Linda! Thank you for sharing your wise thoughts! I’m happy that you get a new puppy to your family and also that you have a wonderful lifestyle with your beautiful dogs! Here things are still so different … but that’s an other story. Have fun with your great dogs!
    We wish you and your family Happy December! xxx Teje & Nero

  8. Can’t wait to see the new pup!

    Years before I arrived and the human children my folks had a black lab that they hunted and ran trials with! Her name was Sable and her good furiend was Chessie! They hunted birds together!

    1. Very cool that your folks ran trials. Of course everyone knows that black dogs are excellent at trials. 🙂 Very cool that Sable had a Chessie friend too. I bet Sable and the Chessie had great fun hunting those birds.

  9. Really enjoyed this blog today! Such beautiful puppy pictures! Looking forward to more!

  10. Wow. Thunder’s pups are just to die for! Happy birthday all you 12!! What a number, I feel for mom lol.

    Congrats on the new pup! I’m looking forward to lots of baby photos. Seeing pics of puppies always makes my day XD

  12. My Vickie is beside herself with WANT as she looks at those cute cute pups. I keep trying to remind her that she has me and that shoudl be enough.

    We cant wait to see the baby pictures as you guys go through this cool new adventure.

  13. I totally understand. We have done the same thing but in Newfie style. Made mistakes in certain areas, learned by them, and then kept moving forward. We have been in the search for a foundation bitch for almost a year now, but have not found what we are looking for in the lines, etc. It will all come together one day!

  14. Don’t worry – I have examined your head and it seems just fine to me! Great checklist of things to look for in a puppy. Everything has to be just right! I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s new puppies pictures.

  15. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! i love their precious little wavy coats! completely adorable.
    as for beta, yeah i TOTALLY remember that! my husband’s best friend’s family had beta and both my hubby & i were SOOOOO jealous growing up! something so amazing about beta…. kinda like an 8-track & a laser disc had a baby. 🙂 good solid chunky build that’s substantial & easy to hold on to, with state-of-the-art-graphics-for-its-time! who could want more? other than an atari, beta would’ve made. my. world. 😀
    good luck on the puppy adventure!
    ::hugs::

    1. My brother kept his beta machine for years….he refused to part with it. AFAIK he may still have it tucked away somewhere. 😉

  16. Sounds like you will be in for a lot of fun. It will be a treat to have a baby in the house again. BTW….what kind of neighborhood do you live in that they don’t allow fences? Chester and Gretel wouldn’t get half of the exercise they do if they didn’t have a fenced back yard to run in.

    1. Yep, no fences, but we can have dog runs. It is a stupid land restriction they put in when they developed the land about 20 years ago. They wanted a park-like feel to the neighborhood. We do have invisible fence and the dogs still can run the yard (but we supervise them).

  19. Ohmigosh, that photo of Thunder at 4 months is ridiculously adorable!

    It sounds like you guys have really thought through your decision and are as prepared and thorough as people can be. I’m optimistic that you’ll get a great pup with a good temperament who will rock the training and fit right in!

    1. We used to be members of a private campground and that was where that picture of Thunder was taken, (that is why he is on a tie-out…it was required). It was a great place to socialize a pup and there was a beautiful spring fed lake. That is where both Thunder and Storm did their first swimming, (in the pictures I posted). We miss that lake!

  20. I enjoyed the photos and learning a little about Storm and Thunder. Those are some great looking pups.

    1. Yikes! I didn’t mean your blog (which I love)…it was more of a general statement…just bouncing off your post. 🙂

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