As a newbie, I thought I better intro myself. I'm from the state of South Dakota... pretty popular with pheasant hunting as I live right in the center of the main attraction town that hosts pheasant hunting.

heres a few pics of my GSP and hes now soon going on 4months.

Why thanks! yes I live in Winner, SD. There's alot of Lodges i cant keep track around here. All spreading from Winner to Gregory, sd and as far as Murdo to Winner, SD.



My dad works at a Lodge and uses a Black Lab name Abe, there are Black Labs and Pointers. Hence to say I got a black lab for free (til it got ran over) and then now i got a Pointer pratically free and all I had to pay for was to get his herina checked on since his mother pulled on his ubill and pulled to hard and infected it. It really cost me 65.00 to get him repaired at the vet and thats the cost of getting him)


here's some more pics i took today. I took him for a dry run and he did very well except his partner in crime (Joey the cat) kinda got in the way a few times.

His name is Remington....

here he is looking on to geese on a lake.


His partner in crime.

Some people have all the luck. I have to pay for my dogs.

 

Might want to look in the dictionary on that one.  "Uncommon" is exactly what solid liver is, solid black is even more uncommon.

"Uncommon" however doesn't make it any better or worse, just less frequently seen as compared to patched, ticked, or roan.

Words are just words but they in fact do have meaning.

 Does the solid liver color bring this description to mind??

Well yes, since less than 10% of the breed in the US is either solid, or black, that would be the proper terminology.

I've been going to field trials for four years.  I've owned and hunted behind GSP's from "hunting and German lines" since 1969 all over the US and abroad.

The only way solid patterns or black are not "uncommon" is if you are in a region where they are "common" and everyone is breeding to the same stuff.

It's a simple matter of genetics and math.  Black and Solid are both dominant traits.  You can only get either with at least one parent expressing the trait.  That is a bioligically limiting factor you can't get around.

The other patterns and colors are recessive which means they are going to occur at much higher rates.

The only way black or solid will ever become common is if they are bred heavily and that will only happen if they start dominating in the field, and in the show ring.  Solids have a hard time finishing in the show ring and black is still not allowed.  That is also a huge limiting factor.  Neither dominates in field events in the AKC or AF so that's yet another limiting factor.

No not all field trial dogs are white and patched.  Try attending some trials and you might see that.  Yes you will see a predominance of white and liver dogs, particularly in areas where heat tolerance is an issue and since dogs and semen travel all over the country with relative ease you can see any of them anywhere.

It's not a matter of something being better but words have meaning and if we don't stick to the actual meanings of words the language is useless.

Try entering your own dogs in some trials, most if not all clubs now offer quite a few walking stakes as well as all walking trials.  The worst thing you'll do is have some fun and learn something about another "dog game".

I'll be judging a trial in your area next month, come on out. CR