Morality of moving a dog on Discussions

Yup!
A woman at the local WT club was notorious, She was on to her 5th dog. The rest lasted a season before getting moved on as they were `no good`. You`d have thought someone would have told her...

I know a few people who have show dogs but aren't good handlers for whatever reason. They take the dog to a show and ask a friend to run it. Totally different to buying a dog for trials etc. You can still have a great day out at a show with your dog and have someone else run it. I guess if you bought a dog for trials it would have to be you that handled it, so a different kettle of fish really.

I have a bit of a problem with discarding a dog this way (because that what he is doing) particularly a young dog and I agree that for the dog's sake it is better that a "better" owner for him/her is found.
However, I would like to the person to answer the following :-
If the sole intention was field trialing and nothing else -
a) can he be confident of the success he desires if he can only keep one dog at a time
and
b) if he is only able to have one dog and it is important to get the right dog to be successful, then why did he not buy a dog at say 20 weeks, when it's potential might have been more obvious.
c) do people always buy one young puppy of unknown quantity for field trials and nothing else and then hope for the best if they are seriously trying to reach the higher levels.

When you buy a horse for a specific purpose like show jumping or eventing and if you know you can only have one horse at a time, you don't buy a foal do you then hope for the best. Surely you buy a horse who is older, which has observed potential that can be worked with.

It maybe that the answer is lack of money and he will keep buying and discarding young pups hoping he will be lucky next time.
Just a thought!!!

Most breeders of working dogs will not run dogs on.

Most people who want to compete seriously in any discipline DO buy a puppy rather than a young adult so that they do not have to cure the faults put in by others!

If a person has done their research properly, they will have hopefully gone to the right breeder for the right stock.

However, as we all know, not ALL littermates are the same, so he could have been very unlucky.

This does not mean he is TRUSTING to luck, that is an entirely different thing.

or a cr*p handler with no patience!

I wonder how many breeders are happy to home a pup with someone who will pass the dog on if it does not make the grade?

We cannot take being a poor handler out of the realms of possibility, but taking that out of the equation, sometimes dogs do not make the grade.

Well most will have the dogs back IME (good ones that is). But that is another issue.

I was not aware that most breeders of working trial dogs did not keep likely puppies to run on. I would have thought there was quite a market for such pups/dogs. I don't know much about field trials, but it would seem a logical thing for breeders within the trialing circles to do. I wonder if this man and his pup were not a good match anyway. Perhaps it could blossom with another owner!!!

Triallers who own kennels will often sell older dogs on which they have part trained or whatever. Maybe the guy should look along these lines. Or, he could send it for residential training with a top trainer and they'll know better than him whether the dog is up to the job or not.

If he has enough disposable income to do this................... or is it a case of throwing good money after bad!?

OK it happens that you and a pup do not get on.
Moving one dog on for the right reasons, and making sure that there is a better home, yes I can live with that. I bought a dog on that basis and the Field Trialler was wrong (now admits she missed him). Dog has a good life with me.

But if you only can have one dog and want to Field Trial, then in my opinion, you need to research the pedigree lines very closely and only buy the best - that's assuming the best will sell to you and with Springers, generally they won't.

Sgurr

I think he jumped in a bit.
Did all his research on Cockers and had his pup picked out.
when he was due to pick it up the breeder tried to bump the price.
He was then so keen to have dog that he jumped at the next dog available which was a springer and i assume it was the timid dog of the litter.
Have not seen him to talk to for a while but he still has the dog.