Selecting a Breed
 Here are three important considerations when deciding which breed
of retriever to purchase:
•
Good dogs come in all breeds and all colors. Study retriever history
and you’ll learn that great Labradors, great goldens, great
Chesapeakes and great flat coats have existed over time.
• Many people have breed biases. People who grow up with
golden retrievers, for example, are likely to own goldens as
adults.
• Absent a breed bias, a prospective retriever owner
should consider a wide range of information when making a breed
selection. Keeping an open mind
Let’s assume our prospective owner has
no bias and is beginning the breed selection process with an open
mind. Start with a few generalizations.
Labradors are the most popular.
This means there is a greater selection of Labradors available
than other retrievers, which can be an advantage.
But it’s
also true that a reasonably high degree of indiscriminate breeding
occurs among Labradors — which is a disadvantage.
That said,
Labs possess some important qualities. One is they have short hair,
meaning they don’t collect burs and other debris
while hunting the uplands.
Another is that, generally speaking,
they hunt well and make good family dogs.
These qualities also
can be ascribed to goldens, Chesapeakes
and flat coats — with some exceptions.
Goldens, for example,
have long hair that can require grooming after hunting. Flat coats
also have long hair.
And fewer of these dogs — including
Chesapeakes — are
bred each year, meaning prospective owners have fewer breeders,
and puppies, to choose from.
Beyond the numbers
But buyers should consider far more than relative
abundance when choosing a breed, and when selecting a puppy within
that breed.
Basic information about each breed should be studied — information
that is readily available in books, on the AKC web site or elsewhere
online at any number of locations.
But most of that information
is either too general or too biased to be of significant help.
A
Chesapeake breeder, for instance, will naturally extol the virtues
of Chesapeakes, probably without mentioning that — generally
speaking — these dogs can be somewhat more difficult to train
than most Labradors or goldens.
Again, good dogs, even great dogs,
come in all breeds and colors. But generally speaking, Chessies
are slower to develop than Labs
or goldens.
Still, some people love Chesapeakes and would own no
other retriever. And there are, in fact, many good lines of Chessies
cultivated
by discriminating breeders.
For good reason: Chessies boast some
advantages. People who hunt late season alongside freezing rivers
that carry a lot of current
might find, for example, that a big strong Chesapeake, with its
heavy coat, is the ideal dog to own.
Golden retrievers also possess
many admirable qualities.
Goldens make excellent family dogs. Many
goldens also have drive and desire enough to succeed in the field
and in field trials and
hunt tests.
But goldens’ coats are not as heavy as those
of Labradors or Chesapeakes. And, as a whole, most goldens don’t
retrieve with as much gusto and drive as Labs.
Flat coats, meanwhile,
while attractive dogs, also, generally speaking, have less drive
than Labs and also have coats that are not as protective
in cold water.
Flat coats also tend to learn a little more slowly
than Labs.
This does not mean our prospective retriever owner can’t
choose a Chessie, flat coat or golden and achieve his goal of owning
a healthy, intelligent, biddable animal.
It does mean our buyer,
should he choose a Chesapeake, golden or flat coat, will have to
work somewhat harder to find a good breeder
and a good line of dogs than he would if he were looking for a
Lab — again, because there are fewer Chesapeakes, goldens
and flat coats to choose from.
Conversely, if our buyer decides
to purchase a Labrador, he is by no means assured of acquiring
the dog he seeks.
For while there are many Labrador breeders in
the U.S., relatively few have sufficient resources available to
them — whether
measured by money, dogs available or accurate information upon
which to make decisions — to consistently produce good dogs.
The dogs they breed may indeed be Labradors.
Or at least the American
Kennel Club says they’re Labradors.
But they’re still,
many of them, bad dogs.
The bottom line
In the end, to purchase a healthy, intelligent,
biddable retriever puppy, buyers should give careful consideration
to breed selection.
But more important for buyers is making a
critical assessment of breeders and their dogs within the breed
chosen.
Next up: Part 3: British vs. U.S. |
