Page 30 - Chow Life - Spring 2016
P. 30
three of the boys to Best In Shows. our first BIS bitch. She only had
one litter of two puppies and we
Linda: Dreamland. My first couple lost both of them.
of litters had the word DREAM
in the names and they had helped
bring Michael and I together. It felt Q. Looking back at where
like we were living a dream so….. you’ve been, if you were
Dreamland! starting out again today, is
there anything you would do
differently?
Q. What has been your Michael: No. Everything we
biggest highlight? The biggest have done in chows has taught
disappointment? me what I know today both the
Michael : Winning the National successes and the failures.
Specialty breeder, owner, handled. Godzilla.......Ch Dreamland’s Get Over It
There’s always that puppy that you Linda: LOTS!!! But isn’t that
have high hopes for but doesn’t what life is all about? Making
turn out. I don’t think of that as mistakes so that we can learn
a disappointment but a learning from them, grow and improve as
experience as a breeder. we go.
Linda: Biggest highlight would be
AKC’S Non-Sporting Breeder of Q. What qualities or
the Year in 2013. To be nominated philosophies do you employ
by the CCCI and then having AKC when making breeding
present us with that honor was decisions?
very special. I don’t really have a Michael : Health and
huge disappointment. I take life’s temperament are very important
setbacks as a learning experience, to me as even the “show dogs”
each necessary to get me where I are someone’s pet. Having a
am today. dog live a healthy, long and JR....MBIS, MBISS Ch Versaw’s Star of Justin
happy life is what we strive for.
Breeding is part science, part
Q. Is there a breeding that you artist, and part luck, but your
wish you would have done and odds of being lucky are far
why? better when you put the time
Michael: I wish we had the into studying the pedigrees and
opportunity to have used Ch. health data.
Teabear Cheese Whiz. He is behind
most of our dog’s pedigrees and one Linda: I am a pedigree breeder.
of the best chows I have ever seen. We all have to start somewhere
which means breeding two
Linda: I wish we could have gotten different lines together. If you
another litter out of Sunshine (CH continue to breed outcross after
Dreamland’s Sunshine O Winalot) outcross, you will be playing
roulette with no idea of
the outcome. I look at Bashful.....BIS Ch Versaw’s Bashful Dreamer
my pedigrees and what
each of those dogs has an outside dog. That is always the
produced bred to which hard part for me because you have
female. Knowing what your no idea what the two will produce.
line produces will help you I know what my dogs’ faults are and
make an informed decision what I can expect from a breeding.
when planning a breeding. Bringing in an outside line gives
Of course we all get stuck me no idea what faults that will
in a corner sometimes, produce when bred to ours.
when we have bred too
close and we have to go to I also think too many people are
looking at each breeding to produce
