Q&A Australian Cattle Dogs
“BREEDING TAKES TIME, there Are no shortCuts. be your own worst CritiC And don’t breed with your heArt, breed with your heAd.”
11. Do you have anything else to share? The term “moderate” throughout the standard does not refer to angulation it refers to the dog having no anatomical extremes and therefore being a moderate breed. The ACD is a well-angulated dog, the shoulders are well-laid and the stifle is well turned. These angles how- ever should be in balance. A dog with balanced moderate angles is preferred to a dog that has well-laid shoulders but straight stifles or vice versa. In our personal experience, success for us has come from linebreeding and knowing our lines well. Too many neophyte breeders make the mistake of getting dogs from here, there and everywhere and hope or expect the lines to gel. This does not happen and if you are lucky enough to fluke one good dog then the chances are that, that dog will not go on to reproduce consistently. Breeding takes time, there are no shortcuts. Be your own worst critic and don’t breed with your heart, breed with your head. If the litter does not measure up then don’t keep anything. Our philosophy has always been that if there is nothing better than or at least equal to the parents then don’t retain anything or you will not move forward. We were critical and did not keep a puppy until our fifth litter. This dog then went on to be a specialty and in show winner. Judges can’t be experts on every breed they judge. Some are more knowledgeable and more experienced than oth- er. So don’t expect all judges to know the finer points of the ACD standard. Judges are looking for the big picture. So a dog that is presented well, shows good breed type and who moves correctly will always be given a look. JIM BUZZARD 1. Please tell us about your background in ACDs. Jim Buzzard has been breeding ACDs for over 50 years. Having come to know this breed in the early 60s as a young ranch hand working the cattle farms of Missouri where having a good Cattle dog to help you meant you got more work done with less effort, a good thing when it was a 100 degree summer day or the temps were in single digits with snow on the ground.
Moving to Oklahoma in the mid 70s, Jim Buzzard figured out early on that the more purebred his dogs were, the better they could accomplish the task as the Australian Cattle Ranchers first developed them for. He quickly became committed to keeping bloodlines clean and watching breeding pairs as they matured for defects in structure or temperament. While at this time health testing as we know it was non-existent, Jim Buzzard developed and eye and a hand for what the Australian Cattle Dog should be. Early on, Jim saw the benefit of having a strong breed club as he was the 40th member of the Australian Cattle Dog Club of America, and was a member for over 30 years holding many offices within the club. He also host- ed the Cattle Dog National Specialty in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1988. When the AKC was developing the breed video for the Australian Cattle dog, it was Jim Buzzard who was called upon to go to New York to assist; as his desire was that the video represent the Cattle dog for its correct type in both body and mind. Jim always felt that educa- tion was paramount in keeping the ACD true to what the
three generations of buzzard Cattle dog breeders.
4 )08 4 *()5 . "(";*/& 0 $50#&3 t
Powered by FlippingBook