Flying Colors!

I have a rant. But first, a few notes.

The ewe out in my pasture that looks like she's about to pop any minute ... hasn't popped yet! Poor girl is waddling around, swollen, with bags so big they are causing her to waddle. She's gotta be packin' twins. If not, it's a baby elephant.

Rob is for sale. www.herdewe.blogspot.com

And leading into my rant ... for starters ... as many of you know, Rio is for sale. Spay contract only. That's where people lose interest. Why? Because those interested in her are taken with her color and want to breed her ... for her color. The minute I mention a spay contract, you never hear from these people again. Yet the people that inquire have never worked stock before, and half of them are lucky they know sheep still exist.

For the last couple of years, I've been working very closely with the two litters that Zip sired. Occasionally, one is for sale. It's amazing the color freaks merles attract. They don't care how the dogs work. They aren't concerned with temperament. They don't care about anything but which colors the dogs "carry." They generally own several other crayola colored collies and are looking to add a merle to the bunch -- a lot of times knowing nothing about merle-to-merle dangers, etc.

Most recently, I have been corresponding with a woman who writes to me occasionally, asking me questions, etc. She wrote to me to tell me about her most recent litter. She primarily breeds red Border Collies. Well, a while back, she was looking at breeding her red female to her friend's red merle male. I looked at the pedigree of the male, and told her everything I knew about the lines, and none of it is good. She took the information, threw it out the window and bred her female to him and had a litter. So now she was writing to me to tell me that the puppies were on the ground. I look at her website and find out that she had different prices for red males, red females, red merle males and red merle females. Yikes! Are you kidding me? So I wrote back to her with a bit of a sarcastic response asking why the different prices, and surmising that I could probably charge extra because some of my dogs have blue eyes and throw blue eyes into their puppies. She wrote back, and I quote:

"The stud fee for this litter was $500 UNLESS I got merles, then it was $250 per merle up to $1000."

What? Get outta here! $250 per merle??? I could have made a small fortune off Zip's two litters! There were 4 merles in each litter! What was I thinking???

She then continued in another email ...

"Their color value is relative to the percentage of that color in the total population. The rarer the color the higher the value. The listed pups are priced for those markets and the merles at a comparative price to other red merles advertised."

"As far as the males being cheaper, that's something I feel strongly about. I've raised arabian horses, sheep, cattle, rabbits, dogs etc. and have always felt that for a male to be a sire, he should be outstanding. Most males aren't going to rate that. Therefore most males should be neutered. That cuts your usability down to pet and/or working. The females aren't held to quite as demanding a standard as their genetic imprint is much smaller than for a popular stud. In the females herding instinct, good temperment and good form to function conformation are a requirement but not at the extreme level a stud should be held to. Therefore breeding stock adds an extra dimension and value potential to the female. That's why I priced the males cheaper or if you'd rather, the females higher."

"As a buyer, you choose what qualities and characteristics you want and what you are willing to pay for that combination. Whether it's a pure black Arabian horse, a super fine fleeced alpaca, or a flashy working red merle border collie it all depends on what the buyer desires. When you go buy a car there are price variations for style, features, options, etc. All the vehicles will carry you from point A to point B. You choose what you want and you expect to have to pay for anything that's not standard, like four wheel drive. If my pups were overpriced for what they are, they wouldn't sell at all. If you choose to value all your pups the same, that's your choice. I've chosen to value my dogs at midmarket price for what they are, and lower that price if when they get old enough to judge, they fail to have the herding or working instincts."

Folks, I couldn't make this stuff up. Seriously. Where does she come up with the notion that merles are "rare"? There's NOTHING rare about merles. They are being popped out by the dozen all over the country. What she's missing is that they are not often trialed, because most often they are bred like shit because normally, the primary reason for breeding merles is to make cute merle puppies -- not to make good working dogs.

Anyway, I wrote her back with as much information as I could, being as frank as I normally am. No big suprise there. She responded and told me how offensive I was, and mentioned nothing about the substance of the conversation. Imagine that. Gee, that's original.

It's not offensive. It's honest. Something the world doesn't have nearly enough of anymore. Pure, politically incorrect honesty. Get over it.

I couldn't help but feeling that I just, once again, wasted my time.

I am so burned out on the color thing. I once had some ridiculous thought that I was going to breed the best merles on the planet and kick some ass on the trial field with them. My goal has done a complete 180. I would like to just blend into the boring black and white background and let others juggle the color freaks. I just want to work my dogs.

Happy tails,
JD