by Kerry Webster » Wed 31 Oct 2012 2:32 pm
Hello Brian and welcome to AWRC,
It was interesting to read in your post that field trial participants in the USA don't care about the look of their Labrador, desiring a great performance dog with exceptional marking ability, instead. I suppose you could say the same about the top end competitors in Australia in regards to their dogs too, regardless of the breed. We want a dog that performs in the field, but also a dog that is sound, has a great temperament, and hopefully resembles the type of breed it is. Achieving that desire to please and the drive required in the field, and still having a biddable, responsive dog, is the aim of all of us I believe, and most of us will continue to keep aiming for the "perfect" dog.
I have three Labradors, two of which are still trialing in Australia. These two are of pure American lines, going back to FT Ch & AFCH Trumarcs Zip Code, FT Ch & AFCH Volwoods Ruff and Reddy, and right back to NAFC-FC River Oaks Rascal, NFC-FC San Joaquin Honcho, FC-AFC Water Gator Will and other great dogs, in their pedigrees. These two working dogs are not oversized, but certainly nothing like the show Labradors in our country. They have huge drive, but are controllable the majority of the time, and, are couch potatoes at home. I bred my female last year using a Show Champion sire, who had a great retrieving desire and also wonderful water attitude. I chose him for both these attributes and also to try and put more substance into the puppies. I think I achieved that with the resulting 7 pups. They are almost one year old now and it will be interesting to see how they develop. The third Labrador I own and have now retired, is by an American bred sire out of an Australian bred bitch. Interestingly, he has thrown to the larger, taller, type of Lab, but has a nice head and reasonable body shape.
I also have working Golden Retrievers, and as Dianne said in her post, the gene pool for this type of Golden is very limited here, therefore, use of UK and US semen has been necessary at times.
In regard to hunting in Australia, where I live in the West, hunting is not allowed at all, so we are probably in more of a dire situation in trying to keep our sport active than Victorians. Less people are coming into retrieving and sticking at it, so, regardless of how well we endeavour to improve the field type dog here, there is still only a limited market for pups that will be used for this purpose. Luckily, the majority of them are great pets too, so often they will go to family homes.
In regard to exporting from Australia, yes there have been exports to the US, but these have been show bred Labradors (to the best of my knowledge). With so many Labs available for the field in your own country, why would anyone go to the expense of buying and shipping a pup over from here ? I think the US people are missing out on some great lines from Australia, with very little health issues.
Regards,
Kerry
My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am.