Where Your Dogs Come From……

Have you ever stopped and wondered why most ‘performance’ people don’t get their next dog from the ‘breeder next door’.  It’s ‘almost’ like, the local dogs aren’t ‘good enough’.  If you didn’t go out East, West, North, South, or even out of the country, you didn’t find a quality dog. 

This is not meant to be a post about ‘finding a local dog’, 

just an interesting observation.   

Take a look at your own dogs, where did they come from?  

 Don’t you wonder if anyone out west, east, 

or in other countries come to Iowa for their next dog?   

Or 'local' for your location?

If not, why?   

 It’s just interesting.

Our dogs, growing up, came from within my hometown.   

There wasn’t any thought of going anywhere else to get a dog. 

I can’t imagine my parents would have traveled across state lines,

to get the ‘perfect’ dog, let alone out of the country. 

Molly, our Bichon was the first dog we actually ‘traveled to pick up’.  Yes, a whole 2 hours away!  She was still in Iowa, and she is our only Iowa dog thus far.  She came from a back yard breeder, without any performance background.  (That’s a topic for another blog!)  She had a lovely temperament, and was fantastic with kids, maybe because she was raised with them?  Or, it could be that I had so many young nieces at the time, and  she had a lot of exposure.   

Regardless, she was a great little dog. 

Molly was our first ‘performance dog’.  When you begin participating in dog sports, you soon learn that the majority of dogs ‘come from somewhere else’.  I would guess that most people’s ‘first dogs’ come locally.  It just makes you wonder, doesn’t it? 

All the rest of our dogs came from other states, 

outside of IA; IL, WA, and MN.   

With the expectation of one, all were within 5 hours of our home.   

Not an extreme trip at all. 

Our first Border Collie, Kruz, came from IL.   

His breeder was recommended by a friend, 

she also picked out a puppy from this litter.   

Kruz has a great work ethic, 

a wonderful temperament, and is just an all around good boy. 

 

Our second Portuguese Water Dog came from MN.  The breeders were people we’d met at agility trials up in that area.  Nina was a puppy from their first "A" litter.  Mad also came to us from them as a 2 year old. 

Seeker is from MN as well, starting to see a pattern here!  Seeker is actually Kruz’s nephew.  His breeder is the friend that picked out a litter mate of Kruz.  If you find something you like, stay within the line.  That was the plan.  Seeker is a great dog too, but in a different way than Kruz.  The plan down the road, in 4-5 years, is to get a Seeker 'nephew/niece'.  From a photography standpoint, another white faced one would be great!

 Nettle is also from MN, the same breeder that Nina and Mad came from.  Again, if you find something that works for you, stay with it.  I love their temperaments, and willingness to work.  Nettle is a combination of both Nina and Mad, I guess I love that part too.  I love my BLACK DOGS!!  Hate the ‘black blob syndrome’ in the pictures, it makes photography challenging.  I guess I’ll just have to become a better photographer because of it.

The nice thing about having dogs from breeders near-by is that you get to see them more often. With the internet, it doesn’t really matter anymore.  You can send pictures, videos, talk on your cell phone, it’s almost like ‘being there’.  Isn’t technology wonderful!! 

Will I ever get another dog from Iowa?   

It’s hard to say what the future might bring. 

Now you can sit back and think about where your own 

dogs came from, and why.  

It’s kind of fun!  

**Can you tell we've been playing

in the water a lot this summer?? **