Outcrossing to other Ratters

[Slickrock Deckers]

Little bear really does have that head,and a rather thick neck, if not quite the broadness of chest. Kodiak looks like a stouter version of Slickrock, and I thought Slickrock was stout. Did you ever breed him? I know he wasn't your ideal size, but that guy there IS the Decker Giant. I can only imagine him wanting to be a lap dog! Whoever came up with that name Decker Giant anyway? Great photo. Thanks.


Take a look at the breed description for fiest and rat terrier on the UKC website. The first paragraph is identical.

[Slickrock Deckers]

Slickrock's Little Bear

[Milton]

Kodiak (Big Bear)was a lap completely full, but a very good natured dog. We tried to breed him about 5 times. Only one litter resulted. All breeding seemed normal, but he was nearly sterile.

At that time, I realized that we needed new blood to continue. His one litter was too inbred. His beautiful big son had two inguinal hernias. I gave that pup to Chris and Betty Lindseth, the folks that gave me Henry, many years before. They had big Rowdy neutered and his hernias fixed. He was a wonderful 50 pound friend, hunter, and companion to them for about 14 years. I had given them a few more through the preceeding years----great people.

Although I knew we needed new blood, I also realized that our kids were grown and we needed to go in different directions. Tim Brown, Don Balcom, Rosalie Reneer, and Bobby Davis got some of our last breeding stock. A few others had purchased breeding pairs through the years, so, all in all, the breed did continue.

Molly, our middle daughter was going to OSU at the time we were trying to breed Bear. In one of her classes, she studied super individuals within a breed. He fit the description and as is usual in these indivinduals, they are sterile, in many instances.

"Decker Giant" did not come from us. I don't know who came up with that term, but it happened after we were no longer breeding. Milton

[Slickrock Deckers]

Barry Clark added the Duke outcross. Eli Brown added the Key's. That's it, from you to Tim Brown to Slickrock. I added some I got from Merlin and Avalon and Patches, a couple more true 100% dogs and Little Bear is 79% from your original stock. Seems to have worked, I've never had any hernias. Some we know would just say that if you just cull them when they appear, things will be just fine. I like it the way your new registry is doing it. Limited outcrosses for a specific purpose. My percent will actually go down by breeding back to Slickrock, but if I can breed some more dogs like him and Little Bear, I'll be very happy.

I'd like to find some more data on the sterile superdogs.

[Milton]

Jack----While I didn't read Molly's text, I understood that these super individuals could pop up occasionally in many species. The sterility factor seemed constant. Milton

[San Fermine Terriers/Marti]

Regarding Simons Tonto, I am not totally sure he sired any pups. I know that Kimmy owned Tonto last and she was aware of possible fertility problems with him, because I had discussed this with her when she was first starting up her decker breeding program. I discussed with her that I wasn't sure he ever produced any pups. I know that he was the sire listed on Hatties litter registeration. But- - - I would think that she would have had him DNAd when she got him to her home and then DNAd Hattie to make sure, since she had them both at her kennel. If Tonto wasn't Hatties sire then the only other male dog that I saw running around at Ina's was Klienschmits Ike. We will never know unless Kimmy has the DNA test for each of them which would be nice. I hope my thoughts are incorrect on this. We will probably never know.
Regarding bringing in outcrosses for hunting. I do know of a person" Lynette" from Radiant Rat terriers who has started crossing in the Basenji with the rat terrier. I have seen pictures of them and they are quite nice looking. Is anyone thinking of doing outcrosses like this, or just keeping it with in the rat terrier breed?
Marti

[Slickrock Deckers]

The ONLY thing that would give me pause is there are some genetic disease issues in the Basenji that we actually don't have already, but I sure would like to breed in those once a year heats! I'd like to see those photos. are they on the web? her imageevent shows her to be breeding different color rat terriers but I didn't even see any identified basenjis. I'd have to pass on the merle.

Ike, Tonto, whatever. just another question raised. DNA from there? Are you kidding? Maybe there was some testing done, but we'll never see it if didn't come out the way she wanted.

[San Fermine Terriers/Marti]

Hey Jack,

Lynette at raydiant rat terriers does have the crosses of the rat terrier and Basenji's. She must have taken the folder down. I have talked with her a while back and also saw the pups pictures. She was trying to improve her Brindle program through the Basenji and keep the hunting instinct going.
You may want to look up Raydiant Rat terriers and either email or give her a call. She would probably send you the folder to have a look at the dogs. The cross should be about 2 yrs old now. Tell her I sent you. A lot of the RT people frowned on what she was doing with the Basenji. I for one thought it was a great idea.

I loved our Smiley RT. What I enjoyed was the fact that he never barked and only yodled on occasion. It was when he thought we had left him. He loved us. One of the few dogs I can truly say we were his people by his choice. He wasn't a digger and not a climber, but dang smart and kept himself clean just like a cat.

Marti