Woferlow Basset Hounds

Woferlow Basset Hounds Promoting good breeding and healthy bassets fit for purpose.

30/01/2024

New kids on the block.

08/12/2023

Storm snoozing.

03/12/2023

We are expecting babies in the New Year 2024
Ch Woferlow Voyager at Harvidene x Bessalin Storm Maiden.

George still thinks he can get his fat bum in the dachshunds chair.  Eventually he did manage to curl up and go to sleep...
04/09/2023

George still thinks he can get his fat bum in the dachshunds chair. Eventually he did manage to curl up and go to sleep. Big good.

01/08/2023

Food for thought...

Mrs. Florence Nagle
On Breeding, Exercising, And Handling (1971)

Florence Nagle, 1894 - 1988, was one of those remarkable dog people. She bred superb Irish Wolfhounds, judged all the hound breeds including Afghan hounds, she challenged the English Jockey Club and beat them, forcing them to allow female trainers, she challenged the English Kennel Club and forced them to allow female members. She has written on breeding, exercising, handling etc. She bred IW's for 65 years at her Sulhamstead kennels. Below is a transcript of her comments at a IW breed seminar from 1971.

The following notes were transcribed from A 1971 tape recordings with Florence Nagle (Sulhamstead IW's, UK) during a breed seminar. Mrs Nagle had bred Irish Wolfhounds since 1913 and judged all the hounds breeds including Afghan Hounds many times..

I try to breed a dog that could still do the job he was meant to do. Quality, not quantity. I've only bred in all of my life from about eight or nine or ten bi***es and never more than three times to the same bitch.

I only have about fourteen dogs; I never have more, and I keep my old ones. But you mustn't be sentimental about it. The thing is to look at your puppies and see if you've got one that's special. Keep that one, and then let the others go at fourteen weeks of age or so.

I've had to start over three times - we couldn't feed dogs during the wars - and I've always started from the back end, the rear end is more important than the front end, of course -- its the engine. A dog can propel himself with good hindquarters and a bad front but he can't drag himself along with bad hind legs.

Every dog probably has three faults. But some faults are much more important than others. A bad conformation is a shocking fault. The dog is going to pass that on to its puppies. An ear held a bit wrong, or a tooth out, is not a shocking fault. Other important things, the jawbone is more important than one or two broken teeth. Coat isn't the most important thing either.

You must breed for temperament, and don't let anyone tell you that inbreeding causes bad temperament. If you inbreed to good temperament, you'll have even better temperament, but if you breed to bad temperament, you'll have a dog that you can do absolutely nothing with. Should you have a dog with bad temperaments, you have no business selling it.

My bi***es are very closely line bred, in**ed, if you like. But you see, I have one advantage over you all. I'm very old and I know the ancestors all back. Apart from their pedigree, I know their faces and conformation and I've always in**ed heavily.

People should not inbreed if they don't know everything way back. It's not a job for anybody that doesn't know what he's doing because you can stamp in as much as you can stamp out.

If you are a good breeder - a breeder who really means something to the breed - you don't produce a whole lot of duds. I've told this story often before; somebody said to me "Poor Mrs Nagle - how dull it is for her - all her puppies are exactly the same. She must be so bored with them." Well, that's what I've spent fifty years trying to get.

I bred so few bi***es because I believe in breeding only from the very best. You want your bitch right all the way back and I think you get a lot of your conformation from her. I think she's 80% of your puppies. A great stud dog can uplift but you don't get a great stud dog very often, but you can see that your bi***es are all right. It's not right to say "Oh that bitch, she's not very good but she'll do to breed from."

Some of the stock that is being bred today is from animals that shouldn't have been bred from at all. When you have mass breeding, that is what occurs. The best breeders are the ones who only breed from the very best, and it pays in good quality.

Believe me, you are not going to make money breeding good dogs. In fact, they're rather an expensive luxury. You can't mass produce quality. You're lucky to get a very good dog one or twice in your lifetime, even if you're being very careful. If you have more puppies than you can handle properly, they will get faults - not faults that they inherited necessarily - but faults from lack of attention. Even if they started good, they'd end up bad. You can't have quantity and quality.

Exercise - you've got to use your common sense and not tire puppies. Exercise must be free. You must never drag them or a dog of any age behind a car or bicycle. There's nothing worse.

Slow walking develops muscle, but there's nothing that develops muscle like a gallop. I take puppies out to a nearby field and let them run around. At about four months they begin to be interested in things and they go right around the field. As they get older, you see their gallop improving.

It's so important to do this when your dogs are young because you'll never have them as well muscled if you try to do it later. Take them out and let them go with another and gallop round once or twice - that's enough. Then you develop hindquarters and the second thigh.

Do you know what the second thigh is? It's between the knee and hock, If you muscle that up, you won't have cow-hocked dogs. Otherwise there's no muscle to keep the hocks straight when the dog is growing up.

You also want muscle on the shoulder. Don't get the silly idea that this is a loaded shoulder. If the shoulder is properly laid back it can't be a loaded shoulder.

Handling - a good dog, well made, rarely stands badly. Just let it stand and it will place itself beautifully.

No hackney action please. You never want hackney action in a galloping dog. The show crowd thinks it's lovely to see a dog prance along. It isn't, it's all wrong.In England we always make the dog walk as well as trot in the show ring. If he can walk well slowly it means his hocks are all beautiful as they should be.

If you have a first class dog, you still want presence. What is this? It's the dog that comes into the ring, holds his own head up, and then moves off, not strung up with a ewe neck.

Take your dog into the ring, let it stand on its own, and run on its own, and then you've that valuable quality called presence, which will always carry you. If you have conformation as well. It will take you right to the top.

Florence Nagle, 1971
From Afghan Hound Times

31/07/2023

George fast asleep šŸ’¤snoring very loudly. got me pinned down couldn’t move if I tried. šŸ¾šŸ¾ā¤ļø

13/07/2023

Taken from a friends page.

LET’S TALK TOOLS

Red Arrow: Harness that fits around the dog’s body and when connected to a clip leash, creates a pulling reaction from the dog. This pulling reaction triggers the shoulders and chest muscles to be used which then influences the dog to use strength to get where they need to. If you have properly trained your dog to walk right next to you on a harness, you will not experience the pulling. Congratulations, I have yet to see this. šŸ˜‚

Orange Arrow: Flat collar, usually used to connect a clip leash to and often times sits on the bottom of the neck due to gravity and the dog’s head being higher than the shoulders. This then triggers the dog’s shoulder muscles and the pulling starts. Again, this teaches the dog that strength needs to be used to get where they need to. If you have properly trained your dog to walk next to you on a flat collar, you will not experience the pulling. The majority of dogs I see are pulling during this setup.

Blue Arrow: Slip Leash is very high on the neck where it is placed behind the ears, behind the jaw bone, and it allows us to influence the dog’s head and brain. Shoulders and chest muscles are not triggered and physical strength is not used during the walk. When used correctly, little to no pressure is on the leash and physical strength is used by the dog to get from point A to point B. If you have properly trained your dog to walk next to you on a slip leash, you will not experience any pulling.

Out of the 3 tools shown, the slip leash is one of the most productive tools to create a structured walk, a calm mind, and a solid relationship.

Ever watch anyone walk a horse by the saddle?

Yeah, me either.

That’s because when you walk a 1000lb animal, you need to influence the brain and not the body.

Let’s start influencing our dog’s mentally and not physically.

George being a goof.
14/05/2023

George being a goof.

06/05/2023

George asking to come in. Such a clever boy. šŸ¾šŸ¾ā¤ļøšŸ¾šŸ¾

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WR118RL

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