Hi jack i would like to touch on your comment about following in the footsteps of men like garner /patrick/ hamonds and boudreaux , but i think that may need to be on a new thread as i would like to say something about them but for now i will just add that as for the rufus dog that gary used to breed with and you said that for you to breed to a deaf dog it would have to have been an outstanding dog and one that was a one in a thousand before you would even consider it .
Well in garys own interveiw he acknowledges that the deaf dogs in the aligator line come form rufus ,and that he himself thinks that it is a disadvantage for a dog to be deaf ,and that he wouldnt want to breed a line of deaf dogs , and that he gets one about every 50 or so dogs down from rufus , which means that every 7 litters approx he gets a deaf dog based on anything down from his rufus stock and that has been going on for 40 years and how many thousands of pupies has he bred in over 40 years with an average of one deaf one every in every50 ? thats a lot of deaf pups thats for sure , so wouldnt you think that rather than keep breeding and selling the deaf ones back into his own stock when they appear as he has done, that he might have thought it wise to cull them so as to at least take out the ones he can which would make more sense , and not only that but also not sell them to other breeders as brood stock regardless of whether they want them or not, as i would think any breeder worth his salt would want to make sure that they have a qualty control of their blood even if another breeder doesnt and as such refuse to sell them a deaf dog for breeding .
Rufus was around 7 years old when gary got him and was in no way an outstanding dog in the way you talked about for a dog who was carrying such a fault would have to be for you to even consider breeding to it , and not only that but he didnt know the dog was deaf when he bought it, so i can only assume the folks who sold him the dog the bennets either took him for a fool or thought that it was obvious rufus was deaf and gary should have noticed it, but gary himself says he had the dog a LONG TIME before he noticed rufus was deaf which leaves me lost for words and anything i say about that will be taken as trying to discredit gary , but that statement alone in his own interview tells me everything i need to know ,and im glad i dont wear glasses and if i ever do they wont be rose coloured thats for sure.

Now i know NQK likes to accuse me of trying to discredit gary every chance i get , which is not the case , im merely saying what i belive to be true about him in this case and i want to be fair ,so yes he has like many other men put out dogs from bad to outstanding, but if he himself doesnt think breeding deaf dogs is a good idea, and wouldnt want to breed a line of deaf dogs, then why has he done just that by the very fact that he hasnt culled them when they pop up but breeds them ,and also sells them on to others even to do the same with , which is not what i think an honest or good breeder would want to do especially if the brood dogs he sells are for his own line of dogs on another mans yard , thats even worse as your increasing the chances of more DEAF dogs.
So if anyone is discredting gary its gary himself , and whether NQK or anyone else who looks at gary through there rose coloured glases thinks thats good breeding practice after 40 years of doing it,then good luck to them .