Page 140 - ShowSight - November 2019

MICHELLE SCOTT continued THE “I DON’T NEED TO KEEP A BOY” EPIDEMIC.
Christian Rutten
THE COMPLETE AND UTTER
LACK OF FUTURE STUD DOGS.
s I look upon entries for our upcoming specialty we have a total entry of 57 in the classes, 18 class dogs and 39 class bitches. Surprisingly the ratio of
less then 2:1 is actually greater than I had predicted with dog numbers locally being down the waste basket. The popular sire effect as well as individuals only wanting to breed to proven dogs compiled with the fact of breeders not wanting to keep boys immediately starts impacting options for future generations. When breeding, breeders have every intention of keeping a girl and only keeping a “special boy” often saying, “I don’t need a boy.” The problem is, the options for where to take these bitches gets slimmer and slimmer, decreasing genetic diversity and running into rabbit holes for potential upcoming issues. I’ve seen the
bitch-heavy trend
becoming more and
more prevalent lo-
cally with mainly
single digit entries in
boys with often less
than five any given
weekend. As I
glance at numbers
for Sweepstakes at
our upcoming spe-
cialty, the future
doesn’t look any
better. A total entry
of 21 in sweep-
stakes, with a mere
6 boys... While four,
yes FOUR of those
boys are sitting on our truck... How scary to think if we wouldn’t have come there would have been two boys, two boys to locally hold the future of our breed.
Am I the only one seeing and quite frankly scared of this trend? Why are breeders so hesitant to hold back a boy? For the hobby breeder I understand you can’t keep them all, but if the concern is not perpetuating forward, a stud puppy back could lead to the same place landing you another generation forward while giv- ing others an opportunity to incorporate your stuff into theirs. At some point every- one has to go out and while there may be a spectacular bitch in every litter, she needs a spectacular dog to match. My long rant concluded, next time you put the stunning 8 week old boy on the table and say to yourself “I don’t need a boy” remember: everyone else will.
ANOTHER IN OUR SERIES OF PUPPY TO ADULT PHO- TOS. I’M AMAZED AT THE RESPONSE! We will try to keep them coming.
138 • ShowSight Magazine, noveMber 2019
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Bedlington Terrier at 6 weeks, 19 months, 27 months, 2.5 years and 3.5 years. Thank you Lydia Frey for sharing these great photos.