Labs today vs labs of yesteryear/

[jd6400]

jd - i've erased the quote for ease of answering -

Heres a few things I`ve noticed about what has been going on in the last 30 yrs.

An influx of cruciate ligament tears. Somewhat bigger dogs, longer tests, more training - I have always been partial to smaller dogs - Code Blue, Watergator Sam, Paha Sapa Chief size - they hold up well over their lifetimes.

Cancer is more prevalent - When it strikes a high profile dog we notice it more - I would say because of a lot of use of a limited gene pool we are seeing more conditions - food allergy, skeletal, CNM - in the old days the best local stud was bred to the best local bitch, pups went to the good trainers, sometimes that worked, but we actually saw the dogs so knew their issues.

Markin ability is better - I started in '63, the guy that taught me a lot of what I know was a guy named Bob Sparks who owned at the time a pup named Moon - In my days of watching dogs I have never seen a dog that could consistently mark better - on occasion dogs like Ray's Rascal & Corky could come close or equal, but none better. 9 Derbies, 30 points, 5 wins, 1 second, 1 third, 2 greenies against some very high powered Derby dogs - I've ran against Lean Mac, trained with & ran against Charmain -

Trainability is better - training tools & techniques are better - help is more available - people who know are willing to share what they know - people have more leisure time to devote to this pursuit

Ability to get in water has greatly diminished! (this has me concerned) - Don't agree, water for training is at a premium - unless you have the knack of reading dogs it is an easy part of the process to screw up - I have seen some great water dogs all through my trialing experience.

now realize this is a generalized statement and I don`t get a ton of super well bred FT bred dogs through here to work with also.

Good stuff right there Marvin,thanks for your insight!!!Hopin a lot of the younger crowd is takin this in.....Jim

[Shawn White]

^^^^^yep^^^^

[BonMallari]

I saw Ray's Rascal on more than one occasion, even watched him win the National Am in '74, he WAS the finest marking dog I have ever seen...threw great marking dogs too..we had one in a dog named Rex (John Rex Rascal) who was named for John Luther my brother's first teacher/mentor of dog training and as a tribute to Rex Carr..Rex could mark with radar like precision, he would appear to run straight at the guns and then peel off and pin the birds...

another great marking dog was one owned by a then young man from Oregon named TJ Lindbloom, and that dog was named McGuffy...he won the National in 79..his sire was also Ray's Rascal

[Marvin S]

I saw Ray's Rascal on more than one occasion, even watched him win the National Am in '74, he WAS the finest marking dog I have ever seen...threw great marking dogs too..we had one in a dog named Rex (John Rex Rascal) who was named for John Luther my brother's first teacher/mentor of dog training and as a tribute to Rex Carr..Rex could mark with radar like precision, he would appear to run straight at the guns and then peel off and pin the birds...

another great marking dog was one owned by a then young man from Oregon named TJ Lindbloom, and that dog was named McGuffy...he won the National in 79..his sire was also Ray's Rascal

Having judged & run against Rascal I won't disagree with your assessment except to say he could be beat in certain situations . McGuffy was injured & never returned to his old form (I think I may have judged him as a Derby dog) as did not Cougar's Rocket after his injury.

[huntinman]

Having judged & run against Rascal I won't disagree with your assessment except to say he could be beat in certain situations . McGuffy was injured & never returned to his old form (I think I may have judged him as a Derby dog) as did not Cougar's Rocket after his injury.

As they all could/can be... That's part of what's great about the sport. You win against some of the big names and those memories stay with you forever.

[John Robinson]

And this is what needs to be done in Hunt Tests as well,

I don't see how raising the standards for hunt test will improve the breed. I strongly believe a dog that earned a MH title in the early ninties would still be considered an excellent dog to hunt over today. If you want tougher test run field trials, I think the hunt test program works just fine as is.

John

[Marvin S]

I don't see how raising the standards for hunt test will improve the breed. I strongly believe a dog that earned a MH title in the early ninties would still be considered an excellent dog to hunt over today. If you want tougher test run field trials, I think the hunt test program works just fine as is.

John

Agree heartily .

[Breck]

As far as dogs from the past, if Sweet Pea by some sort of magic had any Charlemagne juice in storage I would buy every bit of it. Same for Itch.

[2tall]

Did Sweet Pea own Itchin' to Go???? (I'm guessing that is the dog you refer to?)

[Breck]

No, it was someone else. Probably as hot as sp in her day.