"....this sort of profiteering, or whatever you choose to call it, has been going on in one breed or another for decades, perhaps centuries. In the 1930s ,when Rin-Tin-Tin movies were popular, the German Shepherd went  through a surge in popularity and back yard breeding damaged the breed extensively. The next victim breed was the Cocker Spaniel through the 40s and was totally destroyed as hunting dogs. Of course the most famous exploitation was that of the Weimaraner in the 50s. Irish Setters in the 60s. For the past thirty years, both the Labrador and Golden Retriever have been victims...and continue to be.
Happily, after the fast buck breeders move on the conscientious restore the damaged breed. Happily, also, during the frenzy of fast buck breeding in each of these breeds, anyone who wants a decent representative of the breed has always been able to find one.
I am sorry that it is the German Shorthaired Pointer that is going through it now. It is a wonderful breed that has been kept quite clean from the start.
I have written extensively about how to select a good puppy in books and countless magazine articles, as have many other dog writers over the years. We hope to do some good but, we can't help anyone who doesn't want to be helped...."
James B.(Jim) Spencer


I agree with Jim Spencer....
There are a whole lot of people out here wanting to profit from the popularity of the German Shorthair Pointer today.... Twenty five years ago who would  have ever thought there would be this many German Shorthair Pointers! In those days people said... "what kind of dog is that" or "I've heard of them but I've never seen one". Back then there were just a few Kennels around the country to even get a Shorthair from.

Now that we have all these people selling German Shorthair Pointers there seems to have evolved this idea that the popularity of the German Shorthair today means that they are all "good ones".   Just because it is a German Shorthair Pointer and someone is selling them does not mean that they are all "good ones".... they aren't. If that were true then everyone would own nothing but "good" ones....  they don't.

One time a few years ago this preserve owner and his dog man came to pick up this dog that I had sold them. I threw down this bird and the dog ran by and pointed it at around ninety feet or so. Head high. I thought "boy these guys will be impressed". But when I had shot the bird and went over to them they were scowly looking. The guy says" why did he point way over there like that"... and I said "well, we teach dogs to point when they smell the bird and we don't allow them to crowd in" he then said "I have never seen a dog point like that". All of a sudden it dawned on me what it was that he had never seen.... and I said "well, you have never seen a dog that can smell like that either"...  There are a whole lot of "breeders" out here selling dogs and puppies that have never seen a dog that can smell like that  either... The internet has opened the door for every Tom, Dick and Harriette that wants to cash in on the popularity of the  German Shorthair Pointer today and a lot of those "breeders" have never even seen a truly good bird dog.... People that don't even bird hunt are selling  German Shorthair Pointers. There are even German Shorthair Pointer puppies for sale in pet stores at the Mall these days.... Puppy mill "breeders"sell whole litters to places like HunteCorporation  if they can't find anyone else to buy them. Three or four years ago a German Shorthair Pointer was the "best of show" at the Westminster Dog Show. Now they are on all the dog food sacks and have become the poster child for bird dogs. Last year German Shorthair Pointers earned more winning placement points in NSTRA then any other breed. They were ahead of the Pointers, Setters and Brittanys. Now that really does mean something. But.... between the show dog people who breed German Shorthair Pointers that don't hunt... and the puppy mill people who are out to turn the  German Shorthair Pointer into a "pet" breed that don't hunt either.... the German Shorthair has got it's work cut out to stay ahead.

Jim Spencer said... we can't help anyone who doesn't want to be helped. There has been many,many books and magazine articles written on "how to pick a pup". I am seeing the "how to pick a pup" process going by the way side as more and more peddlers come along....There are a whole lot of these "breeders" who do not even have facilities or game birds and can not even show the quality of the  dogs/puppies they are selling.

They used to be called "back yard breeders". The oldest sales pitch there is for someone selling puppies is ..."both the parents are really good hunters". Can you imagine anyone saying ... "the parents of these puppies have never been trained or proven as hunting dogs"?

I have raised and trained German Shorthairs for going on twenty years professionally and I can say that unless the litter of pups is a repeat breeding and there are proven dogs that have been trained from a prior breeding there is no guarantee that the pups will be good ones. I don't care what anyone says ....you breed good ones to good ones hoping for good ones and if they turn out to be good ones you breed them again. If not you don't. I can't see where these many "breeders" that raise puppies out in their back yard can even know anything about how good of bird dogs they are.

We were around long before the internet. We were raising and hunting with "good" bird dogs long before we were Muddy Creek Kennels. Raising "good" bird dogs to hunt with is still what we do. I'm not against the internet but in the case of "bird dog" breeders, kennels, trainers it has sure muddied the water for everyone that is trying to get a "good" German Shorthair Pointer bought or trained. We sell the same puppy to a customer that we would train ourselves and sell as a trained dog. We are happy to take all the time it takes to look at dogs/pups and help pick a good one. We are not "moonlighting" and selling bird dogs is our family business so we want our customers to get the best dog they have ever had from us....  

                                                 
                                                   MUDDY CREEK KENNELS
                                             Craig,Elizabeth and Daniel Burns
                                                         Jasper, Missouri
                                                           1-800-777-8254
                                                            e-mail muddycreekgsp@aol.com