Pheasant Ridge Ranch

Labrador People

Atco, New Jersey

This interview was conducted at the home of Ed Squires in March of 1984 by Lyn Snyder Hoflin.

How did you get started in dogs?

A good dog man never “gets started” in dogs. He is “born into dogs.” I never remember being without dogs, from my earliest memory. The first dog that was mine was a black and white Fox Terrier, Wirehaired. But at the same time my father always had a variety of gun dogs. We started breeding English Cockers, purely as gun dogs. Also across the road lived a retired major who managed a kennel of Fox Terriers, Wirehaired, who were show dogs, 1 where I worked in my spare time, free, gratis, and for nothing, I might add, just to gain experience. Here I gained some wonderful training, as the gentleman concerned took a liking to me – and, therefore, spent much time teaching me breeding, whelping, grooming, etc. I never went to the shows as many were during the – week and I was at school. The weekend shows would have stopped my training with the local poacher.

Here I must jump forward 40 or more l years to a day I am watching the Terrier group at a local show and happened to be standing t next to Percy Roberts, whom I knew fairly well. As the dogs went around, I noticed a beautiful Welsh terrier and without thinking, I t turned to Percy and said, “There is only one dog in that ring – the Welsh.” Where upon Percy said, “Where did you learn about Terriers?” To which I rep1ied “From George Hoskins.” And he replied “What a bloody small world, I was his handler?

Now back 40 or more years — at this time I am now in my early teens and my weekends are taken up with my training Charlie Huxford, the village poacher. Charlie was truly one of nature’s gentlemen. He lived alone, never had a steady job, just worked when he needed a few shillings. He could neither read nor write, but he knew more about nature and dogs than any man I have ever met. He had two Lurchers, and at that time there was NO n- stud book for this breed, yet there was not a Lurcher for a radius of 25 miles around that he could not tell you its pedigree five or six generations back. I well remember one Saturday – morning Charlie said, “We have to breed the bitch today, boy.” He always called me “boy” 1f and I always had to call him Mr. Huxford

At this point, it must be remembered that, none of us had autos, Charlie couldn’t ride a push bike, so wherever we wanted to go, it was “Shawkses” pony you walked. Now it so happened that this morning Charlie had decided to breed his bitch to Ruben Hick’s dog and this was twelve miles away and no buses or trains in that direction. Now it was my job to walk behind the bitch as a rear guard action, so we all went for a 24-mile walk. I just can’t see breeders doing this sort of thing today. The most important lesson I learned from this gentleman was when he said, “Boy, a gun dog’s front legs are for one purpose only – to stop his chin from hitting the ground. For if he is pulling with his front legs, instead of pushing with his back, he won’t last halfway through the morning in the field.”

This takes us up to the war in 1939 when dog food was in very short supply, and cartridges almost impossible, so the dog population suffered badly. After completing my training, I was posted, as a junior officer, to an airfield in the south of England. On my third day there I was duty officer for the day. My first duty was, as you can guess, to look the canine section over. The first thing I saw was a handler feeding a lovely black German Shepherd by putting his bowl on the ground and kicking it up to him. I asked the airman why, to which he replied, “He’s vicious.” I will not write my reply — I just opened the kennel, called the dog by name and took his food away from him. I patted the dog and gave him his food back. My next move was to put the airman on a charge. That was the best move I ever made in the whole war, for from then on, whenever I was posted, I was made canine officer on that particular station.

What happened after the war?

I was visiting an airfield in New Hampshire where I met a Labrador (dark yellow male) named “Bruce.” I had a great day with him and found him to be a great retriever. Before going back to London that night, I took him back to his owner and tried to buy him. But “no sale.” This left me no alternative but to marry his owner.

Housing was very difficult at this time and on one of our many moves, we couldn‘t have dog. As it was “get rid of Bruce” or sleep in a small English car with one child, it just had to be Bruce. I had a friend who managed a lot of ground, over 100 acres, who was gunning, so he took Bruce like a shot. He lived a very happy life until he was fourteen.

A few years later, we moved down to the New Forest where we bred pigs, chickens, etc. Just as a hobby, my wife also bred Miniature Poodles, ugh! So I bought a Border Collie to help with the other animals and birds.

When did you get into Labs seriously?

In 1965 when we migrated to the USA we decided, no more of this breeding nonsense. I would just like to have one Lab as a personal gun dog. Well, about eighteen months later, I made the mistake of going to a dog show. There was only one Lab shown, a champion, and I made the stupid remark, “My old gun dog could beat him.” And as you can guess, that was picked up pretty quick and I found myself with my gun dog committed to a show a few weeks ahead. The sum total of this was we got I Best of Winners and Best of Opposite Sex for a three-point major. But the old “Snoopy” hated showing, so she was only shown a few more times after that until she was a veteran. At the National Specialty, she won that class over five dogs who had all gone Best of Breed at the Garden, not bad for a little old gun dog.

When she got the major, a number of people enquired about puppies, so I decided to breed her just once and keep one out of her get. This was the thin edge of the wedge. At this time we were living in a development where there was a maximum of two dogs. Within a couple of years, we now had four dogs, a litter in the whelping box and another one due. So we moved to an old farmhouse with a barn and twelve acres.

Three years later, with eighteen grown dogs, I had to build a kennel. I had imported a number of dogs and was building up a good breeding stock.

When did you start judging?

I applied for and received my license to judge Labs in the late l960’s and about the same time started judging Pointer and Setter field trials.

Why did you start judging?

As it is the prerogative of all exhibitors to sit at ringside and gripe about the judging, I felt l should like a chance to put some ribbons where I had been putting my mouth, and be the gripee for a change. I had realized by this time that the reason different judges liked different dogs was not so much politics as the average exhibitor suspected, but rather that particular judge’s interpretation of the standard as he or she sees and reads it, into a dog. This not only happens in dogs, but is universal in anything. Like 30 years ago a single specification was put out in England for a bomber, called the “V Bomber.” When the designs came back, one was a “delta wing,” one was a “V wing,” and one a “scimiter wing.” All designed from the same standard. So instead of criticizing the poor old judge, you should shed a tear for him!

What has kept you in Labs all these years?

Trying to build a better mousetrap, I suppose. More years ago than I care to remember, Mrs. Helen Ginell said to me, “The only time Lab breeders change breeds is when they get too infirm to handle dogs of this size, and then many employ handlers just to stay in the breed.”

What is your goal in breeding Labradors?

lf I can breed sound, good looking gun dogs on a fairly steady basis, who will also make good house pets or guide dogs for the , blind, I shall be happy. Being slightly crippled these days, I cannot show my own dogs and am not in a position to be able to afford a handler. My showing is very restricted, for as I limp t around the ring, the dogs copy my gait and we get thrown out for being lame.

How many champions have you bred?

Honestly, I have no idea. I have always had too much to do to research a statistic like that. What I have done is to research puppy growth rates. I kept detailed records of birth weight, and weekly weight on each puppy in some 40-plus litters. I made a graph of each one, and then a master graph which anyone can use for checking weight gain in a litter. This will be in a chapter in a book I am getting together now. The book is called Training Your Human by A. Tropos with myself as guest writer for a few chapters – one of which is “How Do Your Puppies Grow?”
How do you feel about inbreeding, linebreeding or outcrossing?
Inbreeding should be approached with, caution, and rarely attempted. Now linebreeding is totally different. I almost always linebreed in my own kennel, for this is the only way you can establish a “line” of dogs that look somewhat alike. It takes many years of careful breeding. I never outcross within my kennel, I just wait until a good bitch comes in for breeding and keep the stud puppy. Enough said. This is a subject for a complete article.

Can you describe your ideal Labrador?

If I spent the next twenty pages on this question, nobody would agree with me. For as I have stated earlier, every judge interprets the standard a little differently, thank goodness. For “beauty being in the eye of the beholder,” we all look for different things. Also, if all judges thought alike, you would spoil all the exhibitor’s fun trying to decide which type each judge likes. If l stated I liked a certain type of Lab, that is all I would see for the next hundred years. Example – I once stated in an unguarded moment, that I liked black and white Pointers. Well, I judged them a few weeks ago, with a large entry, and almost 50 percent were black and white. Most of which I wouldn’t have given kennel room to. Judges, including myself, should learn to keep their mouths shut.

How do the Labs today stack up to what was shown twenty years ago?

There has been a vast improvement in type. Twenty years ago, there were just one or two of the type I liked, whereas today, there are many more. Then ten percent, today fifty percent. In the old days, there were times when your Winners class looked like a Group judging, you couldn’t find two dogs of the same type — but not the case now.

If you could start over again, is there anything you would do differently?

Yes. The night the truck pulled in front of me, I would have been on another road! Dog- wise, there are no changes I would make. Like the Chairman of the Board sings, “I did it my way.”

So what advice would you give to somebody who wishes to start in the breed?

Don’t rush in like a maniac. Try to slide in slowly and always have a back door you can slip out of, if you feel this rat race is not for you. Remember, in dog shows, things never get better — they always get worse! And remember also, dogs and dog shows get to be an addiction, far worse than drugs, drinking or sex!

From “The Best of the First Ten Years of The Labrador Quarterly” Summer 1984 – Spring 1994