Viewing Mother of your potential puppy! (GSP)

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DBrasnett

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 August 2007
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497
Location
Gloucestershire
www.brasnett-pratt.co.uk
We have been looking to get a GSP for a while and are pleased to have found a local breeder with a bitch who is being put to a dog soon. The bitches hip score is 4/3 and she has an up to date eye cert. The dog is similar, but his hips are being re scored at the moment.

We have got the opportunity to go see and spend some time with the bitch. What should be be looking for? We want the Puppy as a pet first, the to dabble in agility and gundog stuff!

Any GSP owner/breeders out there who can advise on anything beyond hip and eye tests?

Any advice welcome.

(yes we do know what we are letting ourselves in for regarding energy levels etc!!)
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If you want a pet first and foremost - temperament, temperament, temperament!

We met our old lab's mum, and my little sister (who was only about 4 at the time) sort of stumbled backwards and fell over her head - she didn't turn a hair, bless her
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My parents knew she was the one then and there
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Is she friendly, is she gentle, does she allow strangers to stroke her, does she want to play? Does she enjoy being fussed? Any signs of nervousness? That's what I would be asking myself for any dog I wanted as a pet.
 
Clean, bright eyes, confident - I know others will disagree but I would never go for one cowering at the back, however adorable it looks.
One that is hanging off your ankles the minute you walk in is going to be a mission too
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Mum should be of sound mind, not aggressive or ducking and diving. They learn a lot from mum.

Bitch's score is good, I would hang fire until I hear the sire's.
 
totally agree with CC my best friend and I both picked puppies from the same litter, mine wasn't the boldest but was very inetersted in me and didn't shy away but didn't bounce all over me, my friend fell in love with a quiet timid one that hung back.

Mine is as well adjusted as she can be living in our house, however my friend's has an issue with new situations and not totally brilliant with other dogs.
 
To use my two late Norwegian Buhunds as an example, my first Buhund, Nessie, had a wonderful temperament but she was not the type that went 'LOVE to say HELLO to anybody AT ANY TIME!' She was a lady that walked through life with an aura of dignity surrounding her, she would be interested in going up and say 'Hello! Nice to met you' but unless she took a special liking of you, she was fully content with that.
Though she did find it completely natural if people would be more interested in saying 'Hello!' to her, than she was in saying 'Hello!' to them and would graciously accept this burden of being popular to a certain point and when having had enough, she would simply walk away if possible or stoically accept her fate.



My second Buhund, Humla, also had a wonderful temperament but she was the type that went 'LOVE to say HELLO to anybody AT ANY TIME!' She had the attitude of that she loved everyone in the whole world! She had endless of kisses for anybody that asked her for them.




So a dog can be less interested in saying 'Hello!' and still have a good temperament, my advice is to look for details.

E.g. look for dominant/submissive signs or if the dogs is just simply friendly and used to being allowed to say 'Hello!' to various people.

Are the dogs interested in you and what you do, when you're there?

Look on how the breeder interacts with their dogs, think about if you enjoy interacting with the breeder, I think that says a lot about what sort of dogs they breed.

A breeder should be informative and have questions for/about you too, you shouldn't be the only one there trying to see if they may suit your requirements, it should be the other way around too.




The only thing that I really don't like about what you say, is that you say that the potential stud dog are being HD re scored at the moment, though either I maybe misunderstood what you mean or it could be due to me being used to different routines. With SKK, once a dog has received their SKK HD score it is, if not written in stone, it comes pretty close to that, so basically if I heard that somebody wanted to HD re score a potential Swedish stud dog, I would presume there was something wrong.

Good luck.
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I spotted that about the dog being re scored Finny. I think over here you can resubmit if you are not happy with a score (or used to be able to), but don't really think it would lead to a hugely changed score. I would hope the breeders won't mate the bitch until the dogs score has come through, and being a cynic would ask to see both scoring sheets.
Otherwise as has already been said for a pet temperament is the main thing, it is really good that the breeders are giving you a chance to get to know the bitch, hopefully means they are confident with her temperament
 
Yep I'm concerned about this re scoring thing too! Once a dog has been scored they cannot be rescored although their is an appeals procedure I believe within a certain amount of time.
Are you sure its not his eye certificate being re done? These are done annually.
The only other (good) possibility I can think is that he hasnt been scored at all yet as the xrays werent up to scratch and they need to get him re xrayed and the plates sent off again, in which case hang fire until the scores come back.
OP, double check this, don't get fobbed off!
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Thank you for the clarifications MurphysMinder and Temsik about the HD. As I said, over here it is almost written in stone, so you need to make sure you go to a vet that is good at HD x-raying.
But Temsik has a good point, the eye tests a vet does, is done annually and also there is the possibility that the HD x-ray plates was bad.



As suggested, <u>ask to see the certificates</u> yourself Moody_Mare.

I've had a look at the German Shorthaired Pointers UK breed club's homepage and it seems that the only mandatory requirement is HD scoring, but the German Shorthaired Pointer club have or will suggest/ask your KC to also make eye- and heart test mandatory.
If you want to check what health info the KC have on the dog and bitch in question, get their exact Registered Name or Registration/Studbook Number and then do a search here http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/services/public/health/search/Default.aspx


I haven't been able to find what specific eye- or heart disease the German Shorthaired Pointer club are testing for in the UK but on Optigen's homepage (a company that does gene tests on various diseases for e.g. dogs) I found some very understandable and good information about the eye disease Cone Degeneration Disease, but read with reservation because I don't know if it is relevant to German Shorthaired Pointers in UK. http://www.optigen.com/opt9_test_cd.html

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Oh and I forgot to say that no matter how good their dog(s) and bitch(es) temperament might be, though that I usually say that I believe that temperament matters more than health and looks, if you don't feel that the breeder handles e.g. the health questions on a responsible way, what else might they not be so responsible with?

Personally I have one basic, simple rule when meeting the brood bitch, if you don't feel that you would like to take the brood bitch with you home, you should not want to take one of her puppies with you home either! But never forget that there is lots of dogs and bitches out there with a good temperament for you to fall in love with, if this breeder doesn't feel 100% or close to 100% correct for you, look elsewhere for your new puppy.

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Ah good news! Thats no problem then, but just hang fire on commiting to a pup until you know the result (everything else you say about the breeder suggests they wouldn't mate until they knew he was fine anyway) but just make sure.
 
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