Well said by both. I think when a person stays in the dogs for a number of years a lot of the distractions either seem to fade, or maybe were never really distractions from the start. Or maybe there is a little more focus.

I can remember a time when the dog was either a winner, or getting ready for a shot to be a winner and anything else was a distraction. It was 'the box or bust' mentality.

We dabbled in a lot of different families. It was like our goal was to have a bloodline called winners. We did not breed that much and when we did success was par at best, slightly less than par looking back. Production and puppies and breeding and selection were distractions.

If ol' Joe down the road had some winners I wanted some. If Sam up the road had some, I wanted some of them too. So if a strain or family or string of dogs were winning I would jump on that bandwagon and ride it til she fell. A lot of short term successes not a lot of long term ones.

As I have grown up I can see the flaw in my plan.

It is funny as what you described as distraction we used as focus. Funny how that works.

EWO