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DesO'Neile · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:40 am Post subject:

There is no doubt that in some quarters there is a lot of unjustified critisism levelled at imported dogs. There was certainly a very large band of the show fraternity that though that imported dogs would never amount to much but close reading of the major winners at Crufts last year suggests otherwise.
I was fairly lucky myself with my first Italian import producing a F.T.Ch. from each of her two litters and another F.T.Ch from the next generation and several open stake winners.
If the current two Danish dogs do any good still remains to be seen but if you consider that already the dog who was five years old when he arrived has, in a few outings, been retrained to operate in a way more useful in my circumstances then they should do OK.
What I did find very illuminating was a trial I won in 2007. A van load of Irish Setters came over from France for a week to run in IKC licenced events. The trial Roxy won was their first attempt and none of the gained an award however by the end of the week when the handlers had sussed what was required one of them won one of the events, an Open Stake I believe.
Now just because a dog is imported doesn't of itself make it a world beater but there is evidence, in Pointers at any rate , that suggests that when top quality blood is introduced to our more traditional British lines there seems to be a marked improvement in the progeny for at least a couple of generations.
I find in dogs that people put least value in what they haven't got. Owners of slow dogs will tell you speed isn't everything, big dog owners will tell you the breed is getting too small etc. In a similar way people without the resources to import will tell you we don't need foreign blood and there can be a tendency for those who import heavily to tell you there are no good dogs at home. Somewhere in the middle of this is the fact that with the introduction of the PETS Passport Scheme we have access to a much wider gene pool and it is up to us to use it to our best advantage.
What I would like to see is an more user friendly attitude from the Kennel Club to the importation of semen and an even more user friendly system for the control of the actual stuff. Then the world really would be our oyster.

Bareve · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:41 am Post subject:

langhaar · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:25 am Post subject:

Interestingly German lines thro Ft Ch Gero v Hohenstaufen produced Ft Ch/Sh Ch Fowington Slezak, the only UK Dual Champion in pointers. But am I right in thinking he came from Italian lines?