By Eilzabeth M. Jarrell

A few years ago, I had the honor and privilege of receiving a phone call from the late, great Mrs. Anne Rogers Clark thanking me for having written a story about her. I mustered enough courage to take the opportunity to ask her one question. I asked her what she thought, in general, about the quality of dogs that many breeders sell as performance, including obedience and agility, prospects.

The short answer was, “Not much.” She said that if anything, breeders should sell some of their better dogs as performance dogs since they need good structure to hold up over time.

The question of whether or not breeders should sell their better-structured, and -tempered, dogs to performance homes cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. There are multiple considerations from both the breeder’s and the trainer’s viewpoints which are often diametrically opposed to one another. However, a compelling reason why a breeder might become interested in perhaps selling a puppy to a performance home is because some National breed clubs require performance titles for a kennel to become a Hall of Fame kennel. Moreover, a highly decorated performance dog demonstrates that the breeder produced an intelligent, biddable, good-tempered, and extremely physically sound dog.

An examination from the breeder’s viewpoint reveals numerous issues. As one highly-respected breeder once said, conformation is his primary consideration followed by temperament and then cosmetics. When a breeder produces a superior specimen, he wants two things to happen. First, the breeder wants his puppy to be shown in the conformation ring, become a breed Champion, and hopefully then be specialed around the country. Second, in due time, the breeder wants to breed his specials dog. It is the breeder’s inherent nature to try to figure out that magic cross whereby his specials dog will outproduce himself.

On the other hand, a die hard performance trainer wants a dog who is sound physically and mentally sufficient to hold up over a lifetime of training and trialing. That said, temperament is usually their primary consideration, followed by conformation. Most trainers do not much care about cosmetics. The majority of trainers spay or neuter their pups before they reach a year so as not to take time away from training and trialing. As such, most trainers never even show in the conformation ring, much less special a dog there. Time is of the essence for these top trainers. It takes years to train a dog sufficient to campaign. That leaves precious little time during which to actually campaign. A dog’s physical health or, rather, degradation thereof, is the main reason why performance dogs must be retired.

In view of the above, why would a breeder sell one of their better pups to a performance home? Yet such is exactly what a performance trainer needs in a pup.

There are two additional scenarios which contribute to this dilemma. A fairly common scenario involves an extremely high energy puppy with adequate but not outstanding physical structure. Indeed, of those breeders even willing to sell to performance homes, the biggest mistake these breeders make is confusing energy level with reactivity level. More than a few trainers make this same mistake.

The opposite of a high energy dog is a low energy dog. The opposite of a reactive dog is a thoughtful or, if you will, a confident dog. Yet breeders and trainers alike all too often mistakenly believe that all high energy dogs are excellent performance prospects. Such could not be farther from the truth if the high energy dog is also reactive.

Energy level is a consideration for most trainers, the majority of whom tend to prefer high energy dogs. However, a high energy dog is all too often also a reactive, as opposed to thoughtful, dog. A reactive dog is one who alerts or even startles at every new thing in his environment. Reactive dogs are by far the last sort of dog any trainer wishes to train. While their reactivity can be tempered, their first impulse will always be to react. And a dog who is reacting cannot, at the same time, be doing whatever exercise he is supposed to be doing. These dogs tend to begin a fantastic run only to have a vision from God and disqualify. A high energy, reactive dog is a trainer’s nightmare. Further, a high energy, reactive dog with a poor front, rear, or both, is even more likely to become unsound through injuring himself during one of his visions.

A second, and not uncommon, scenario involves a puppy with fairly good structure which the breeder kept to grow out to see how he matured. At around six months to a year, the breeder then decides that the puppy is simply not good enough for him to keep. The breeder then decides to sell the puppy as a performance dog. Most breeders do a good job of socializing their dogs. However, a great performance dog is super-socialized from the age of eight weeks. So these yearlings are not what most top performance trainers want.

Despite these competing desires between a good breeder and a good trainer, there may perhaps be a middle ground. Assume a breeder has a physically sound, although not potentially special, puppy with a good, nonreactive temperament. Such a breeder might be inclined to sell this puppy to a performance home if the trainer agrees to eventually put a Championship on the puppy. In addition, if a bitch, the trainer could agree to produce two litters before spaying her. Similarly, if a male, the trainer could agree to collect the dog before neutering him. This compromise will only work, however, if the trainer is willing to keep the puppy intact, show, and then breed it. As mentioned earlier, most trainers do not keep their dogs intact, much less take time away from performance training to show them in the conformation ring and then breed them.

However, if the trainer agreed to this compromise, the breeder would then sell the trainer a much sounder puppy. If the breeder agreed, the breeder would then, in due time, have performance titles toward a Hall of Fame designation. Each side would have to give and take, but then each side could benefit.

Even so, not every breeder or trainer may be willing to agree to this proposal. In the words of the King in Anna and the King of Siam, “It’s a puzzlement.”