Becoming JACQUELYNFOGEL Our Great Expectations
I tell the following story often, usually to illustrate how fickle genetics can be and why breeding is such a challenge. Sometimes I tell it to encourage breeders with a “disaster” litter to try again, and not give up. Sometimes I tell it just to illustrate the level of humility we all need to develop as we continue in this sport.
That brings me to another, seemingly unrelated topic. Humility. I love hanging out with Basset people because most of them have been sufficiently humbled by the realities of breeding this difficult breed. Most of us have stories like the one I just wrote and all of us talk about the round-the-clock feedings we have had to do with weak puppies. We have found soul-mates in Collie breeders – both of us breed puppies that want to die. Unlike my terrier puppies that are born with unbeliev- able vigor and will to live, Basset babies need to be taught how to nurse and must work very hard at not getting squished by their mother. They require 24/7 monitoring and even then will die for what seems to be no reason. People look at Bassets in the show ring and think of them as an easy, no-groom, hearty breed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every Basset breeder has earned their stripes. Yes, the puppies are to die for – there is no cuter baby. But they are not easy. They are hard to get pregnant, hard to keep pregnant, diffi- cult whelpers, and challenging mothers. Promising show dogs fall apart at older ages and some pets that are placed and neutered turn out to be beautiful. Perhaps that is why Basset breeders are not so quick to reach that stage in our sport – usually around the five year mark – where they arrogantly believe they know it all. Basset breeders seem to know that day never comes. We are not lone rangers. We have learned to value the experience and the offers of help from the breeders who have come before us. Like our breed, we are independent thinkers who have learned to work in a pack and look to each other for support and guidance. While we often have disagreements, we have no desire to kill. In short, we respect each other, even if we do not always like each other. Recently I have had the good fortune to travel with new exhibitors in another breed. I love their enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Right now they are focusing on their chosen breed and are trying to learn how to present it, how to groom it, and how to evaluate what the judges are looking for. I love learning about other breeds, so this part of the relationship has been fun. However, they are also learning to get discouraged when they do not win at every show and do not yet understand that losing is a big part of showing, espe- cially at the beginning. They do not understand why
I had worked years at a Basset breeding program to get to a point where I had what I considered the best dog I had ever bred and the best bitch I had ever bred. The dog was a beautiful top- winning special and the bitch was getting rave reviews from all of the breeders I most respected. She placed well in the puppy classes at the Basset nation- al, and I was sure she would
be a top-winner and a top producer. As luck would have it, they were at ages where they could be bred together. So I did. I bred my best ever dog to my best ever bitch and I had great expectations! I got five pets – all placed in pet homes, none used in a future breed- ing program. My great expectations were dashed on the shores of reality – nothing is a sure thing. Unfortunately I had to discontinue breeding both of these great dogs – the male died young after surgery to remove a swallowed object. I stopped breeding the bitch because she was the fourth generation of bad mothers, and I could no longer fool myself that this characteristic was not being passed on genetically. The mothers were all beautiful, elegant dogs, but all of their puppies needed to be hand-raised from birth. This was not a characteristic I wanted to continue in this breed. One of the lessons I took away from this breeding was how difficult it is to envision and plan breedings with an achondroplastic breed. Bassets do not breed true. Every litter is a crap shoot surrounded by a lot of edu- cated guessing and intense praying. I have since learned that other breeds do breed true; my Bedlingtons are far easier to predict given a basic knowledge of genetics and pedigrees. Puppy selection is far easier with Bedlingtons than it is with Bassets. While everyone else talks wisely about choosing their puppies at eight weeks because they are proportionate- ly correct at that age, you will find Basset breeders nod- ding and smiling while mumbling to the Basset breed- er next to them, “Yeah, right. With my breed it is not over until it is over, and who can afford to keep whole litters of these dogs until they are TWO.”
98 • S how S ight M agazine , A ugust 2017
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