Page 244 - ShowSight - February 2020

Scott & Kathy Shifflett continued
As the CCR Breed standard states, the Curly is wickedly smart. In my opinion, the Curly is confident and loyal. These are two great qualities to have in the field as well as in a family environment.
The Curly makes a great companion dog because they want to be with you and they want to please their owner. However, one needs to realize that this is a fairly good size dog and some often take a little longer to mature mentally. This may not make a Curly the dog for everyone.
Several misconceptions for our breed are that they don’t shed and are hypoallergenic. However, a CCR may be a perfect fit for someone that is allergic to dogs. They just have to give it a try. They do shed, however, their shedding basically becomes tumble weeds and are very easy to clean up. Another big misconception is that they are a “Doodle or a mutt” when in fact they are a pure bred dog.
The CCR has a small gene pool so I believe as breeders we are challenged to make good breeding decisions. A breeding should not be done out of convenience. We look at the pedigrees of the poten- tial breeding pair to look at the parentage and offspring for any potential issues. As a breeder, when we breed a litter, we are looking to keep a puppy or two to add to our breeding program and possibly our next Special. Sadly, this doesn’t always work out.
It is a little more difficult to find show homes for CCRs. As most of us realize, showing dogs isn’t for everyone. Of course, we would love to see all our puppies shown, however, a pet home where they are the only one is often times the best home. We evaluate our pup- pies throughout their. Eight weeks with us for show potential. We look at structure, enthusiasm and their desire to hunt. We also look for that charismatic one as well. However, that puppy must possess true breed qualities/type.
With today’s internet accessibility, it is much easier to reach potential CCR perspective puppy owners. If a perspective puppy owner has never met a CCR, we encourage them to reach out to someone that may be local and visit with a CCR before making that final decision. A good website and word of mouth are key to our success.
As stated in our breed standard, the tight, crisp curl is the hall- mark of our breed. A dog that exhibits patterning (mainly found on the throat and down the rear legs) should be penalized. The dog should be upstanding and cover ground effortlessly. Remem- ber, these dogs were meant to hunt and retrieve birds all day either on land or in water.
The Curly-Coated Retriever Club of America (CCRCA) has been very active in recent years attending various Meet The Breeds activities. This is an invaluable way to reach out to the general pub- lic and bring knowledge of the breed to the general public. It is also very important when a CCR Owner is approached by a new comer that we make them feel welcome and answer questions they may have about the breed.
Our ultimate goals for the breed is to produce puppies that are healthy, possess breed type and good temperament.
Education is very important for the general public to get to know this wonderful, loving breed. A CCR isn’t for everyone so a newcomer needs to be honest with the breeder about their inter- est in the breed and what they are looking for in their companion.
A breeder needs to make sure that a home for their puppy is the right home and to continue to mentor owners and their puppy throughout the life of their dog.
Our most memorable show memories is seeing the second dog we bred, GCHG. Kurly Kreek Hudson’s Mahem, winning Best in Show in 2016 after our National and Hudson winning the CCRCA National Specialty from the Veterans class at the age of eleven in 2018. A true testament to our breeding program.
The CCR is an awesome breed and doesn’t receive the true rec- ognition in the show ring it deserves. We plan to continue to breed the CCR into the future. This is the only breed of dog that we have bred and the only one we will breed. We would like to thank our mentors throughout the years for their support in our breeding pro- gram and sharing their knowledge with us.
KARLEEN SWARZTRAUBER, MD, MPH
I live in Washing- ton along the Columbia River. I own and run a small organic farm spe- cializing in Curly haired pigs: the Mangalista. So there are a lot of curly hairdos on my property! I am also a neurologist and continue to practice part time.
The Curly is cur- rently ranked #162 in AKC, do I hope this will change? There is no reason why the Curly- Coated Retriever should be so low in popularity.
The breed is very special and people who get their first Curly are amazed at their loyalty, easy-going attitude, intelligence and beau- ty. I think it’s mainly because folks don’t know about our breed. Having so few dogs is concerning for maintaining enough genetic diversity to continue the breed into the future.We definitely would benefit from more public recognition.
Does the average person recognize my breed? Definitely not Curlies are frequently mistaken for a Labradoodle but the Curly has a more regal look and a calmer demeanor amongst many other differences.
What qualities in the field also come in handy around the house? Well my “house” is a farm and I rely on these dogs a great deal. They clear the farm of predators. All my farm animals are safe and sound because my Curlies are fairly brave and they don’t hesitate to chase off coyotes, bears and raccoons. They are also reasonably good at digging up mouse nests and chasing and killing rabbits and gophers. They definitely help keep the rodent population down. They are very eager Retrievers. I taught one of my Curlies to retrieve
Curly-Coated Retriever Q & A
“They can go all day hunting or hiking if they are in decent shape. They are quite keen to be a part of a family. They do not do well in kennels or crated a lot. They prefer to be freely interacting with their family.”
242 • ShowSight Magazine, February 2020