Sling,
Let me confirm with the owner of the yellow squeak... who is actually my partner in all this.
Just want to make sure he wants to go ahead and have another litter this Spring. It might be pushed till Fall.
A lot of considerations, the primary one being that I want one of this litter as well and to keep one I'm going to have to move out to the country for more room. I can't keep any more dogs than I already have in this town.
Something I'd been planning on doing anyway but I don't have this place on the market yet and it might be better to delay till Fall.
As far as getting on the list, when we confirm the breeding we'll start taking $250 Deposits. Pups from this litter will likely be in the $500-$750 range.
The mother is a decent hunting dog but not an excellent hunter. She is out of a show/tracking line. Both of her parents are show champions and the sire is a tracking/human rescue trained dog so the nose is there. This female has a very good nose but is not quite as self-motivating in the field as we'd like. She tends to stay too close and has to be constantly reminded to hunt on. Retrieves well though.
The sire, my yellow male, is a super hunting dog. Incredible nose, enough drive for 10 dogs... in fact, we work most on staying within gun range with him. I think we have that down now, but it's taken all of three years to steady him up.
This is mainly because he's my son's dog actually and spent 3 years at college hanging with the guys. As a result, he was a bit wild. They taught him to open the 'frig door and bring a beer to the TV room and all that real important stuff but I've had to unmake a lot of bad hunting/retrieving habits that resulted from 10,000 uncontrolled tennis ball retrieves in the house.
But he is a bird finding fool. Absolutely incredible nose, points the birds if they don't run (otherwise it's a flush) and marks and retrieves well.
We think the combo of this female and my young male is going to turn out a very good all round dog with outstanding looks, a great nose, fine temperament and an eager attitude.
I wouldn't be keeping one myself if I didn't think it was a prime opportunity. It's not like I'm short of Labs!
