Thank you.

There are thousands of people I have "took under my wing" with my book ... and through thousands of conversations ... but at the end of the day people make their own decisions. This can be a good thing or a bad thing.

For example, Hollingsworth told me the secret to his breeding ideas (which I have in my book), but *I* am the one who made the breeding choices that created my bloodline. My dogs are no longer "pure Hollingsworth dogs," because I added other dogs into the mix ... and, very quickly, I started breeding Poncho dogs and not linebreeding on Lady In Red (like Hollingsworth did) nor any other particular Hollingsworth dog.

Hollingsworth linebred on Lady In Red while I linebred on Poncho.
These are two totally different animals, and thus were two totally different breeding programs, each based on similar ideals, but expressed through two vastly different animals.

And even if I would have kept and bred only "pure Hollingsworth dogs," and continued to keep everything "tight Lady In Red," *I* would still be the one making the breeding decisions (for better or worse). They could not properly be called "Hollingsworth dogs" ... only (maybe) "Lady In Red" dogs ... but whether or not they would be like Lady In Red is a whole other deal. (I never saw Lady In Red, so how would I know?). Likewise, how can anyone linebreed Poncho dogs, like I do, without ever seeing the dog, his parents, nor most of the foundational dogs I bred to get to the dog they now own? They can't.

Now, they may or may not have my best dogs, and be able to keep them that way, but I just can't answer the question without seeing all of them myself (or at least really being kept in the loop with what's going on).

In other words, there are lots of "heavy Poncho dogs," but whille some of them are good representatives of my dog, and of my line, many are totally unlike Poncho and not what I want them to be. If people breed these latter dogs, are they really Poncho dogs? Not in my view.

So, it depends not just on the pedigree, and not just on the "percentage of Poncho" in the pedigree (or Silverback), but on whether the dogs themselves are like (and/or can produce) the traits of these dogs?

Has nothing to do with my not mentoring this information, or my having it available for anyone to access, ultimately it's a question of 1) whether people actually listen, 2) whether they actually understand, 3) whether they actually have the same ideals, 4) whether they actually have the best of my stock, and 5) whether they actually apply everything in the right way ... or even a better way ... which, again, I simply cannot answer without seeing the dogs. And I just haven't stayed in touch with too many of the people who have my dogs, because I have been pursuing other interests with my spare time.

I will say this, though, of the people who have my dogs, and know about what's going on with them (more or less) I would say Wildchild is the one most on point with what he has and what he thinks.

Jack