MUDDY CREEK KENNEL

Craig, Elizabeth and Daniel Burns

620 SW 90Th. Road

Jasper, Missouri 64755

email muddycreekgsp@aol.com

"....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 would say... "what kind of dog is that" or "I've heard of them but I've never seen one". Back then a bird dog was a English Pointer, English Setter or a Brittany and not that many years ago there were just a few German Shorthair Pointer people around the country to even get a German Shorthair Pointer from. Now that the German Shorthair Pointer has gotten to be so popular the idea seems to be that the popularity of the German Shorthair Pointer must mean they are all the same and just because it is a German Shorthair it will be a nice dog. Just because it is a German Shorthaired Pointer and someone is selling them doesn't mean that they are all "nice dogs"...they aren't. A nice dog should have good temperament. Animated. Not cowardly, timid or aggressive. Flat back, strait legs, dark eyes, good feet and high tail. Not sway backed, cow hocked, hump backed, yellow eyed, flat footed with a bad tail. Intelligent and biddable, not idiotic and uncontrollable. Full of point ,hunt all day,strong natural retrieve,excellent nose and bird dog through and through. Athletic, not lazy and boring. One time a few years ago a preserve owner and his dog man came to pick up a dog they had ordered. I planted a bird and the dog pointed the bird at around ninety feet or so and I thought "boythese guys will be impressed"! But when I had shot the bird and went over to them they were scowly looking and 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" then he said... "I have never seen a dog point like that". I knew what it was he had never seen so I said..."maybe you have never seen a dog that has a nose like that one has either"... Most German Shorthair Pointer "breeders" selling dogs and puppies today have never seen a dog with an excellent nose either. Most of these"breeders" don't even have a clue whether the dogs they are breeding have a good nose or not... The internet has opened the door for every Tom, Dick and Harriette that wants to cash in on the popularity of the German Shorthaired Pointer today. Most of these German Shorthair Pointer "breeders" have never even seen or know what a good bird dog is... People that don't go bird hunting are "breeding" and selling German Shorthair Pointers.There are even German Shorthaired Pointer puppies for sale in pet stores at the Mall these days... and the puppy peddler type German Shorthair Pointer "breeders" are selling whole litters at a time to places like HunteCorporation. Three or four years ago a German Shorthair Pointer was the "best of show" at the Westminster Dog Show. Now there are pictures of German Shorthair Pointers on all the dog food sacks and the German Shorthairs 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 doesn'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", but I am seeing more and more the "how to pick a pup" process going by the wayside as more and more peddlers come along... more and more of these "breeders" do not even have facilities or game birds to show a bird dog and are not even able to demonstrate the abilities of the dogs/puppies they are wanting to sell... They used to be called "back yard breeders" and the oldest sales pitch there is for someone selling puppies is to claim... "both the parents are really good hunters". Imagine anyone saying..."the parents of these puppies have never been trained or proven as hunting dogs".

We have raised and trained German Shorthair Pointers for going on twenty five 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 claims....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 the dogs are that they are raising the puppies out of if they are not training the dogs they are raising the puppies from. They have no training facilities, they have no birds to train with and they have no program for developing bird dogs. 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 are happy to take all the time it takes to look at dogs/pups and help pick a good one. We sell the same puppy that we would train and sell as a trained dog. Selling bird dogs is our family business and we want our customers to get the best dog they will ever have from us....