Seeing Red

Everyone wants to buy field trial champion offspring, even if they have no idea what it is. Ellena Swift looks at what is important

My five-year-old black Labrador bitch, Pumba, is in the very final stages of gestation. As I monitor her, I began thinking about the thousands of puppies born in the UK every year, with the Labrador still the UK’s most popular breed as of 2017. Among the vast number of litters advertised, many mention a “nice pedigree” with “many field trial champions” in their lineage.

I have spoken to various Labrador owners and it is glaringly obvious that the vast majority do not have a clue what it really means if puppies have a lot of red in their parents’ pedigree. Of the 16 puppies from two litters I have bred, two have gone to nonworking homes and 14 went to families where they will work anything from a handful of days a season to pretty much on a daily basis. So did the field trial champion in my bitch’s pedigree help to sell any of them? No.

She has several of the breed appropriate health tests, a sound temperament and an extremely biddable and hard-working attitude. The majority of the puppies were sold following people either seeing her work or through a mutual acquaintance who recommended her.

Sadly, the majority of people asked about the health tests last (if at all), which perhaps explains why so many puppies are still being bred from parents with unknown hereditary health conditions. But that is another story. It became clear when talking to potential owners that, unless they wanted to trial the dog themselves, the red names which cover a vast majority of her pedigree meant very little.

When it comes to pedigrees, I’m starting to recognise kennel names, notice particular traits in certain lines and understand much more of what to look for in a suitable sire for my bitch.

Suitable match