We put a lot of time and reflection into choosing a stud dog for Emma’s second litter. We considered another full-UK litter, including a repeat to Harley, but in the end decided that we didn’t want to breed UK Boxers in the US (though there’s actually a demand for those dogs); we got into the UK lines to add traits to the NA lines we had, rather than abandoning them entirely or keeping two separate lines going. We certainly are open to doing full-UK breedings in the future, but since we had already done that with Emma, we decided in instead to see how the UK would blend with other lines for her second trip to the whelping box.
We looked at a few Australian dogs; several in the US and Canada, of course; and a handful of Continental dogs (and came very close to using one – we hope to incorporate him into our breeding program in the future still). After several months of researching pedigrees, stud dogs, and puppies from around the world, we ended up practically in our own back yard with Travis, VBIS, MBISS, Am/Can Ch. BJay’s Traveling Man, who recently became a Sire of Merit. We have known Travis for most of his life, as he was out showing with Genine when Hugo and Patsy were, and we’ve known several of his puppies through Genine, Rick and Cindy (Travis’ owners), and Ginger’s breedings to Trav.
Travis is a typey, square dog with both substance and elegance, and has not become overdone as he’s aged. He’s nine years old now and still going strong. In 2008 and 2009 he won Best in Specialty Show at Michigan Boxer Club – both times from the Veterans class. (In fact, he inspired a new trophy that the Club will now present to any member-owned Boxer that wins BISS from Veterans.) This past June he won Best Veteran in Show at the Grand Traverse Kennel Club show, the crowning point of his career and a perfect way to start his retirement. Travis was in the Top Twenty in 2004, finishing at #11 just behind his littermate sister Jill (Ch. Skidoo’s Charlie’s Angel). He was Best Junior in Futurity at the ABC National Specialty in 2002; Travis was 13 months old and already a Champion by then.
We chose Travis mainly because he tends to produce puppies that are typey and stylish, balanced with good size, and have great attitudes. He has also produced some lovely pigment, which combined with Emma’s we hope means we’ll get some dark stag-red fawns. (Of course that’s not the most important consideration, but we do love the deeply pigmented fawns!) Emma has many nice qualities to contribute as well, including her angulation, head, gorgeous feet, melting expression – and of course she’s typey and square, too. She does need more size, though – height, not bone, as she has plenty of that. Her pups from Harley are on the smaller side, as well, which we expected since Harley himself is smack in the middle of the standard and Emma has to stand on her tip toes to hit the bottom. Thus far the pups are bigger than Emma but still around the bottom end of the height guidelines – correct, but we’d like a little more height.
Unfortunately the 2010 breeding did not take; we are disappointed, to say the least, but we will try again in early 2011.
