As Nago recuperates from his neutering, I’ve been asked why I decided to retire my two foundation dogs after only one litter.
I’ve always made it clear that I breed for myself, to provide myself with another dog to compete with. I have Nessie and don’t have time for another puppy anytime soon. I’m currently running 3 agility dogs and 2 rally dogs. That’s a lot of time and money! It would be dangerous to leave Spyro intact indefinitely (pyo risk) so she will be getting spayed soon. With Nago, having an intact male in a house with intact females is always a management challenge and it’s very stressful to him. I’m not going to put him through that unnecessarily.
Additionally, I got exactly what I wanted from the initial Spyro/Nago breeding. The goal was always a puppy with Spyro’s drive, intelligence and athleticism combined with Nago’s stability. Spyro is an amazing working dog, but she has always struggled with over arousal and ring stress. Nago has a lot less raw talent, but he’s never struggled with nerves.
Nessie gave me the best of both of them. She’s smart, high-drive and insanely athletic. She doesn’t ring stress, and she can think even when she’s in a state of high arousal. She does struggle with sociability (surprising, as neither parent has that issue) but it’s manageable and when I breed her, I will pick a mate who offsets that tendency.
I don’t see any reason to repeat the breeding when I already got what I wanted from the pairing. In addition to the above, I wanted a dog that was smaller than Spy (check), lighter of bone than Spy (check), longer of leg than Spy (check) with a prettier head and ears than Spy (check check). I knew Nago could bring all those things to the table, and he didn’t disappoint.
All that good stuff said, I did get the lack of sociability which isn’t something I want to risk repeating. There were 6 pups in that litter. They were raised with puppy culture and all of them went to experienced MAS/herding dog homes with competent trainers. 5 of the 6 are shy. Being reserved is a breed trait, but I feel the level of people-shyness that I got in these pups was more than I was comfortable with. They’re fine in knowledgeable homes but they could never have gone to novice pet homes.
Their shyness is within acceptable parameters for sport dogs (ie they can navigate crowds and the like) but they don’t like being touched by strangers. This limits their potential to compete in obedience and makes it difficult to get them measured for other sports. It’s do-able but it’s not easily done.
So with all of those factors considered, I think it’s time to move on to my next generation and let Spyro and Nago enjoy their retirement from breeding.
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