Can you ruin gameness? (genetics)

[EWO]

I also see the Waccamaw side. We had a male once that destroyed everything in his path. A Redboy dog. Went thru class with honors. Picked up his first one in about 40 minutes and his second in just under an hour. Top notch. In the third he destroyed the other, made two rocket like scratches, was minutes from receiving his crown, and stood the line. He was on all fours, not hurt, not breathing, just hung it up. It was so surprising it brought silence over the barn as one side was counting their money to pay up and the other side could not believe they were not going to collect. So one of the old sayings is they are not machines, they can't be turned on or turned off on our whim. Some things just go unexplained. This dog had just kicked all the ass he was intended to kick and he was done. EWO

[Officially Retired]

Anyone can have too much of a good thing.

Example: you may love ice cream, but if you're forced to eat a gallon of it every night, over and over again, there will quickly come a time where you won't want to look at another jug of ice cream again ...

[waccamaw]

That is called getting burned out!

[waccamaw]

There is an old saying that holds true ,never bet the farm on any of them .

[EWO]

Agreed. That is where opinions and definitions and variables make things difficult. As a young 23 year old that dog straight up quit. It was all on him. 30 years later I am thinking the cur tag was forced upon him by 'burning' him out. We space out the matches, maybe give him an easy bump here and there to allow him to enjoy it and maybe he does not cur on that particular night. Maybe it would have been number four, or maybe never at all. Who knows? EWO

That is called getting burned out!

[Officially Retired]

I think some dogs are just "front-running curs" ... they look great when things are easy but don't really want to go through a struggle.

On the other hand, I think some dogs really do get their dicks knocked in the dirt, and they really do have to go through HELL to pull off a win. A dog can only go through pure, physical hell so many times before he can no longer physically (or mentally) take that kind of stress anymore. And an owner has to have the sense to recognize this fact.

A dog that wins three blowouts in :28-:40 min has no business quitting on #4. A dog that always has to get the living shit knocked out of him for an hour, then mount a comeback from hell, to pull out a herculean effort and run staggering scratches way deep into the time-zone to pull out his victory, has no business being matched again.

And somewhere between these two extremes we as dogmen have to be able to read the dogs ... and correctly-assess what we're looking at ... so we can understand when to blame the dog for being a POS ... and when to blame ourselves for taking a proven warrior to the well once too many times ...

Jack

[EWO]

Very well said. This is a 'cut-n-paster' for later threads. EWO

I think some dogs are just "front-running curs" ... they look great when things are easy but don't really want to go through a struggle.

On the other hand, I think some dogs really do get their dicks knocked in the dirt, and they really do have to go through HELL to pull off a win. A dog can only go through pure, physical hell so many times before he can no longer physically (or mentally) take that kind of stress anymore. And an owner has to have the sense to recognize this fact.

A dog that wins three blowouts in :28-:40 min has no business quitting on #4. A dog that always has to get the living shit knocked out of him for an hour, then mount a comeback from hell, to pull out a herculean effort and run staggering scratches way deep into the time-zone to pull out his victory, has no business being matched again.

And somewhere between these two extremes we as dogmen have to be able to read the dogs ... and correctly-assess what we're looking at ... so we can understand when to blame the dog for being a POS ... and when to blame ourselves for taking a proven warrior to the well once too many times ...

Jack

[Pedhelper]

Very nice topic and great input from all.

[The Old Timer.]

I think some dogs are just "front-running curs" ... they look great when things are easy but don't really want to go through a struggle.

On the other hand, I think some dogs really do get their dicks knocked in the dirt, and they really do have to go through HELL to pull off a win. A dog can only go through pure, physical hell so many times before he can no longer physically (or mentally) take that kind of stress anymore. And an owner has to have the sense to recognize this fact.

A dog that wins three blowouts in :28-:40 min has no business quitting on #4. A dog that always has to get the living shit knocked out of him for an hour, then mount a comeback from hell, to pull out a herculean effort and run staggering scratches way deep into the time-zone to pull out his victory, has no business being matched again.

And somewhere between these two extremes we as dogmen have to be able to read the dogs ... and correctly-assess what we're looking at ... so we can understand when to blame the dog for being a POS ... and when to blame ourselves for taking a proven warrior to the well once too many times ...

Jack

that ca.jack is a very well put together post, also some very interesting replies from dog men.

[Officially Retired]

Thanks & good to see you here, Old Timer