“Smooths and Longhairs”
Download this page in PDF formatFrom the beginnings of the Dachshund Breed, the Smooth Standards were always the strongest of the coats and sizes. They were what most exhibitors bred when trying to make a mark in the Show Ring and so the Smooths were usually the ones to maintain that quality. Back after WWII, Fred and Rose Heying got an incredible producer, CH Favorite von Marienlust ROMO, who, when crossed with the White Gables and Gera bitches as well as the few who came down from CH Dimas Earth Stopper who only sired two AKC Champions but produced a couple of bitches and a dog who produced several dogs and bitches who really added the lines that Heying-Teckel, Gera, Donia Cline and the Bergmans liked and admired. These breeders became the set piece in producing great Dachshunds and winning with great ones in the Show Ring, and, with the Heyings and the Shultis’ using this look, it was soon spread all over the USA.
The quality kept getting better and better, but Tommy and Jean Dunk bred a litter back in 1962 that really changed the world of Smooth Dachshunds. They sent their bitch, CH Fleming’s Cherry Carmela ROMX, whose pedigree was a beautiful blending of Gera, Heying-Teckel and Badger Hill lines, to be bred to Fred and Rose Heying‘s dog, CH Falcon of Heying-Teckel ROMO who was the Top Sire back in ’62. CH Falcon of Heying-Teckel ROMO’s sire was the great producer CH Favorite von Marienlust ROMO, who was all Marienlust lines all the way back and Favorite himself was a pretty famous one from the Marienlust side, too. On Falcon’s dam’s side, he was out of an unfinished bitch, Lana of Gera who, though bred by the Ray and Gene Shultis family, was of a little different breeding and and she was sired by the Van Courts Dachshund, CH White Gables Basil ROMX, who was from old time California Smooths, but her dam was Jassy of Gera who had two crosses to the big 30 pound CH Dimas Earthstopper who was sold to Anne Smith Wenden’s Rivenrock Kennel back during WWII. Remember that Rivenrock prefix as, I believe, there is where a problem arises in the few bitches that came down from the big and powerful CH Dimas Earthstopper offspring.
The bitch, CH Fleming’s Cherry Carmela ROMX, was sired by the unfinished Red Locket Racketeer who was sired by CH Calypso of Gera who was sired by CH Badger Hill Nobby ROMX, but Calypso was also out of Lisa of Gera who was out of Jassy of Gera who again had those two crosses going back through the Rivenrock bitches to the great dog, CH Dimas Earthstopper. Racketeer’s dam was an unfinished bitch but was sired by the great producer, CH Fleet of Gera, who was out of CH Annette of Gera ROM who again went back to CH Dimas Earthstopper. Carmela ROMX was out of Fleming’s Cherry Genevieve who was all Fleming on her sire’s side, but her dam also went back to CH Flair of Gera who also went back to that dog I loved, CH Dimas Earthstopper. I normally do not go into this much about breeding, but, in this case, I want you to see that there were eight ways back to Earthstopper in the cross that the Dunk’s made by breeding Cherry Carmela to CH Falcon of Heying-Teckel ROMO. As I have said earlier that, when the Heying’s and Shultis liked a dog like Earthstopper with his bigger size and larger forechest, there might be some other things that came along with that size. I hate to bore you with all the details, but seeing all this and being honest about it will make what came next explainable. From reading, most people assume that the bigger size and laidback shoulders and more forechest in our American Dachshunds all came down from the great producer CH Dimas Earthstopper, but imagine if these bad temperaments ALSO came down from him as well through the Rivenrock bitches. Sometimes bad qualities also get passed along as well the great new qualities and, again, in my own opinion, we should give the dogs credit for the good and the bad and just hope that the bad can be gotten rid of in an easy way. I do think of those things in that way and hope that we all can give credit for everything we produce and can fix ourselves because, after all, THAT is why we are breeding .
When this litter was born back in September of 1962.the quality was so good that it must have made the Dunks ecstatic to see those puppies develop. In that litter, there was CH Dunkeldorf Falcon’s Favorite ROMO who, I am saying as a huge Dachshund fan, I will have to say produced many of the best that I ever saw in the pictures of their wins and the outlines he produced were just amazing, the ’64 DCA National Specialty BV and BB winner (from the classes) CH Dunkeldorf’s Falcon Forester ROMO who was owned by Charles and Lucile Stalter from PA, CH Dunkeldorf’s Falcon Fantasy who was BV and BB at the ’65 DCA National, shown then by handler William Callahan, CH Dunkeldorf’s Falcon Fantasia and CH Dunkeldorf’s Falcon Frappe’.
From the beginning, Falcon’s Favorite ROMO started putting out those gorgeous Dachshunds with an outstanding profile and started being used all across the country and his brother, Forester ROMO, was also used a lot in the Pennsylvania area, especially by Dr Bill Nixon, the great Standard Smooth producer, but the Favorite offspring won like no one had before and he soon was the #1 Smooth producer in the country. However, Smooths had always had a shyness problem and it soon got almost impossible to show and finish these beautiful dogs because, after they had their first season, they just froze up and really were impossible to show and it was hitting all over the country, especially in the Falcon’s Favorite line. We often would have a ringful of Standard Smooths that the Judge could not touch. I had this showing up in a few of mine back then, but I placed them as I did not want that starting in my line of Boondox Dachshunds. I noticed that the Nixon Dogs had mostly Forester behind them without that bad temperament, so I tried to blend in that line, but we were not making any progress in stopping this freakiness situation.
Many people get confused and think it is skittish pups we are talking about, but these had great temperaments at birth and when they started showing, and then, after going in season, they became untouchable. You could not bring this out by making over them and koochy-kooing them all the time as this horror of seeing new dogs, people and the whole Show Ring experience just NEVER got better and most of them could not be shown again except by great handlers who spent HOURS trying to get them to not runaway from Judges and other exhibitors and, if they did, by some miracle, finish, they would be bred again and pass that horrible legacy down to the next generation and that is one thing I promised myself not to do. I saw this all the time as handlers like Hannelore who I helped out, Michael Zollo and Bobby Fowler were always getting these spooks and, with hours and hours of work, finishing them so that they could go right back to the whelping box again. This was crazy to me then and still is today.
Anyway, all those great bodied and beautiful Falcon Favorite offspring were behind these horrible spooks, who had those great outlines as well, absolutely would not let anyone touch them and would never return to the Judge at all and many people thought they could win like that, but I asked myself, why would you want to? I knew what I had and noticed that Falcon Favorite’s brother, Forester, was not a horrible spook and he did NOT pass it on and I mentioned that to a few people who noticed that as well. I then concentrated on using the Forester offspring into my pedigrees and was successful for the most part, but you do have to know that, at that time, there was just so much CH Dunkldorf Falcons Favorite ROMO behind all the dogs from the ’70s that you were always using some of the ones with the bad touch behind them.
Then, while Hannelore was showing the great longhair CH Von Dyck’s Mr Bojangles L ROMX who was the Gaines Hound Group winner then and a Long BV at the ’73 DCA National Specialty, she sent her other great dog, CH Han-Jo’s Ulyssis L ROMO, to Bobby Fowler for him to show and Bobby did great with Ulyssis, but one of his owners sent a Standard Smooth bitch up to breed and Bobby accidentally let Dr Thomas’ Smooth bitch, Hubertus Scotch Mist, get bred to Ulyssis L ROMO, but using Ulyssis ROMO gave the offspring the conformation, movement and temperament that was lacking in the new generation of Smooths. That accidental litter, born in March of ’75, produced a great Dachshund, CH Tallavast Odyssey ROM, who sired some great Dachshunds himself, but his son, CH Tallavast Apollo ROMX, was the one who made the real changes in the Smooth Variety and, in the way that I look at things, totally got rid of the sudden swoop of spookiness that was literally killing the Standard Smooth Variety as far as I was concerned.
Anyway, a couple of years later in the early ’80s, I remember talking with Jane Fowler about a beautiful bitch named CH Laddland Cameo ROMX that the new exhibitor Kaye Ladd was showing and how much I loved her, but you could tell that she was as crazy as a loon and no matter how handler Michael Zollo tried, I was always afraid that she might just wind up in the bleachers as she was just that nuts. At this time, I didn’t know Kaye Ladd at all, but I was talking to Jane Fowler and Jane hoped she would change her fortune next time by doing a different breeding. Little did I know back then, in the early ’80s, that Kaye Ladd had been a huge Saddlebred exhibitor previously and bought her original Dachshund bitch from Ed Jenner of Knolland Farms (also a big supporter of Saddlebreds and Hackney ponies as well). Kaye Ladd as a Saddlebred breeder herself soon saw her temperament problem and bred her foundation bitch, Knolland Lorna ROMX to a dog from Jane Fowler’s breeding, sired by CH Tallavast Telemachus, an Odyssey son and a littermate to Apollo ROMX, and used this longhair link to get rid of the temperament problems she had after that one generation of that spooky litter which was sired by CH Call to Arms v Westphalen ROMX (who was also the sire of CH Bigdrum Close Call v Westphalen ROM). Kaye Ladd did this with her own knowledge and appreciation of this problem and totally got rid of that fear in her bloodline which very much surprised me and Kaye then went on to be the top Smooth breeder of the days she was active.
In those first few litters, she bred the spooky bitch, CH Laddland Cameo ROMX to CH Tallavast Apollo ROMX and got the very special bitch, CH Laddland Camelot ROMO who produced CH Laddland Stretch Limo ( BV at ’98 DCA National Specialty), the great show bitch CH Laddland Elvira ROM and the wonderful CH Laddland Emma Peel, who I finished with Kaye Ladd showing her and then Emma produced the fabulous CH Laddland Juliet ROMO, ( ’01 DCA National Specialty BV and BB winner) who then produced three DCA BV winners and in my mind set Kaye Ladd up as the star of the Smooth Variety from then on. Kaye also bred to Sidney Stafford’s CH Solong Squire v Bristleknoll ROMO and a Braaehaus dog that went back to CH Braaehaus Traveling Man ROMO (more about this later). As you can see, she used that longhair gene from CH Han-Jo’s Ulyssis L ROMO through CH Tallavast Odyssey ROM‘s sons , Apollo ROMX and Telemachus, and also used CH Solong Squire v Bristleknoll ROMO, a top winning longhair Special, to rid her line of that spookiness altogether whether she knew she had it in her line or not.
When I judged the Sweepstakes at the National Specialty in ’87, and gave BISwps Smooth to a CH Tallavast Apollo ROMX daughter shown by Bobby Fowler named CH Hellabrun’s Isabella who was a red Smooth that looked so amazingly like Mr T’s get that I asked if it was and the Fowlers told me she was sired by Apollo ROMX. I just scratched my head and thought she looks damned good to me. They also told me that the Braaes tried to buy Apollo from Dr Thomas and they had Apollo at their house for a year or so back in ’81 or ’82 and bred several Smooth bitches to him. Jane and Bobby Fowler said the deal just went bad and the Braaes did not like his puppies at all and sent him back. They then had a huge fight over what they owed for keeping him at their house and they did not want to pay the stud fees that Dr Thomas wanted for using the dog and so just paid for two breedings. I wondered why they didn’t like Apollo ROMX, because his pups looked just like the Traveling Man puppies we were seeing all over the place at that time.
Next, a few years later, I flew down to Florida to judge my first Dachshund Specialty and gave BV and BB to one of my All Time Favorites, CH Luvadox Rose Parade, shown by Gina Leone and from the breeding of Jane Fowler. Again, she was sired by CH Tallavast Apollo ROMX and out of a Telemachus daughter and so was inbred on the Ully/Smooth cross and showed the conformation, Dachshund style and movement that Ully provided to all his offspring along with that striking resemblance to those early Mr T Dachshunds. I was totally in love with that bitch of Gina’s as she was so wonderful to watch her fill up any ring that she was in.
Thinking about this, I started having suspicions about what could POSSIBLY have gone on after the Braae’s having Apollo ROMX at their house during the time that the great CH Braaehaus Traveling Man ROMO was born. First, Apollo, with that longhair cross, had that great temperament and the dog the Braaes were specialling, at that time, was CH Braaehaus Big Buoy who had super conformation and movement but with a terrible temperament and passed the temperament on. Second, Carol, who repeated EVERY breeding over and over, never once repeated the breeding that produced CH Braaehaus Traveling Man ROMO, who came to DCA as a seven month old puppy and won WD each day and finished that DCA National weekend in Washington! That certainly seemed odd to me as well as very unusual. Third, the type of offspring that Mr T threw were a complete change from the Nikobar/Fleet type that had previously came up with and they were exactly like the Apollo offspring that I have been loving the last few years. How exactly did that happen? It did make my mind wander and to see that Mr T’s offspring were finishing coast to coast and making the Smooths like showing again really gave me all the ammunition that I needed. Adding the fifty six Champions that Mr T sired to CH Tallavast Apollo ROMX’s legacy would really have shown what the Long/Smooth cross can do, but it is only in my mind right now. This was all swimming in my head while I was thinking of writing this piece about coat crossing and also how happy it makes me when I see it done correctly for the right reason. Think about the way that Bobby and Jane Fowler did that accidental breeding and all the great changes that came down from that one cross of CH Han-Jo’s Ulyssis L ROMO breeding that bitch owned by Dr Thomas and what came down from it as well.
Another great breeder, Janet Wayock, also saw the problems and the temperaments she was getting from her Smooths and was not satisfied with how they were affecting her breeding program. When she started judging, she had CH Han-Jo’s Ulyssis L ROMO in her ring and absolutely loved him and put him up immediately. I guess, since Ulyssis is being talked so much about in this section, I probably should describe him as he was really an excellent longhair Dachshund so perfect in every way and totally Han-Jo/Bayard bred with some Robdachs thrown in from the Javelin side of his pedigree. Saying Bayard back then meant there were many Long/Smooth crosses behind him as well and it appears that most of his Bayard and Robdachs lines had that cross which gave him the look of a great Smooth dog that was almost perfect in conformation and Dachshund style and, when he was shown, he could move better than any Dachshund I had seen yet. I know he was not a DCA winner, but he had the looks that all Dachshund breeders wanted. He had a beautiful long, arched neck, lots of forechest and correct shoulder angulation, a level topline and probably the best rear that I had ever seen in a longhair at that time.
Ulyssis L ROMO was a gorgeous dog and captured everyone’s eye, especially Bobby Fowler and Janet Wayock who both used him in their breedings to Smooths. I have explained Bobby Fowler’s experience with the Tallavast dogs previously, so this will be about Janet Wayock taking a chance on improving her Smooth line from the freakiness that almost overcame her success in the Smooth Variety. When she got her Dachshund License and started judging, she came across CH Han-Jo’s Ulyssis L ROMO at the Knickerbocker Specialty where she gave him BV and decided to breed to him. Janet had been living in Long Island and then Jacksonville, FL and then Pennsylvania and had always had really good and typy Dachshunds and actually her taste and mine were pretty comparable as she always had Standard Smooths from mostly Gera bloodlines and bought CH Fleet of Gera in his old age and brought him East for people to use him at stud. When she was in Jacksonville, Janet bred to Tommy Dunk’s CH Dunkeldorf Falcon’s Favorite ROMO a few times and had sort of bad temperaments since then. When she chose to breed to Ully, she had one Smooth bitch, CH Timbar’s Bold Chance ROMX who also carried a Longhair gene and that litter consisted of five Champions. two Smooths and three Longhairs ,but this mostly consists of one of the greatest producers of Smooths and Longs, CH Timbar’s Hedley Lamar L ROMX. He had so much style as the Timbar dogs always did, but also that gorgeous temperament that came down as the typical Longhair Dachshunds temperament that all the Longhairs had. I raised Standard Longhairs for many, many years and I never once had a bad temperament in any of them, nor did I ever place a Longhair pet who had a bad temperament, because it just was not in the Longhair line which came down from Mary Howell’s Bayard line (and, lest we forget, Ulyssis, although definitely a Han-Jo Dachshund, was basically all Bayard breeding) as far as I knew. Anyway, Hedley Lamar L ROMX, a Longhair, became a top sire for Janet and he was used by many knowledgeable breeders to get that temperament in their Smooths that was lacking, although he was a great Longhair producer as well and his get had a certain look that caught everyone’s eye. By this time Janet had moved to the Pacific Northwest and she surely did help Hedley get so many breeders on the right track-especially the local breeders like Bee Spencer, Ted and Karen Brunner and Steve Wolden and Becky Stephens who all learned so much about conformation, type and movement from her and REMEMBERED what she taught them. Janet Wayock did make a difference and Hedley, besides the Longhairs, sired so many great Smooths like the bitch John Sheward sold Sid and Ann Sims, CH Tanzee’s Lingering Sunset and the great ones that he sired for Janet like CH Timbar’s Mabel Normand, CH Timbar’s Bismark and many more who all were valuable in her Smooth and Longhair litters to come. She had the eye and the confidence to use it and was able to cross coats the rest of the time she was breeding and so did her disciples from the Northwest! This was another means that CH Han-Jo’s Ulyssis L ROMO helped both coats and especially saving the Smooths from that freakiness that almost put it under
The last part of this post is one about myself and for basically the same reason for using CH Boondox Panama Jack ROMO to get rid of the freakiness that happened in my Kennel. I had a pretty good Smooth Special who was a multiple Group Winner and Specialty Winner, CH Sonrise’s Martha, who came down from my first Champion, CH Rose Farms Choo Choo ROMX, and, when I finished showing Martha, I bred her to my Mr T son, CH Braaehaus Top of the Town, that I owned and, unfortunately there was CH Braaehaus Big Buoy behind him which evidently clicked the Falcon’s Favorite gene for spoookiness. Back in ’92,from that litter. I got an absolutely beautiful bitch from Top of the Town and Martha, Boondox Sweet Jane, who, conformation wise, was almost perfect and up until her first season, she had that famous Dachshund style and a terrific ground-covering movement and I had her in Fort Wayne showing her for her second weekend out. She was so beautiful and easy to please that I thought she would finish in a hurry so, on the first day of the weekend, the great All-Round Judge Anne Clark gave her WB, BW and BV from the Open class and I thought then that it would be an easy trip to her Champion title, BUT, on that same Friday night, she went into season and, when I tried to exercise her the next morning, she almost came unglued. She ran to the other end and I had to almost sneak up on her to grab her. I then tried to lead her to the Show Ring and she would not move a leg and acted like everyone was going to bite her head off! I tried to show her that Saturday but she literally would not walk at all. She stood there frozen. I could not show her and decided to take her home and try for the next week. Unfortunately, I tried for MANY more weeks and she was past the stage that I could help Sweet Jane out of this condition and soon realized that she could not be shown again. I knew how beautiful she was and how flawless in conformation her body was and she really looked like the best of Moffett and Mr T and Big Buoy all rolled up together. I was sort of sick thinking about losing her as she was about the best Dachshund that I had produced in my Boondox Smooth line.
Usually, when that happened, I always said not to ever breed the affected dog, because you did not want to add that to your own bloodline, but I thought I might make an exception this one time and try to see what I could do by breeding her to a Longhair, the great CH Boondox Panama Jack ROMO, who was my dog and was a really great producer. As I said earlier, I had NEVER had a Longhair show up with a bad temperament and shaking, it just did NOT happen because that gene was not in my original bitches, nor in any other lines that I had seen, either. PJ ROMO himself was by that time the #1 Longhair producer of all time and he really made each bitch produce better than they were and had several All Breed BIS winners, many Group Winners, even more Specialty winners and a long list of DCA BVs and Point Winners as well as several Westminster BVs and Group placers, too. I then quite easily decided to cross coats to see if I could stop that freaky oddity from ever appearing again. I then bred them and had four puppies, all of whom had the perfect Dachshund temperament and the freaky side was left behind as it never showed up in any of the Smooth puppies that Janie produced. I sold two as pets and kept CH Boondox Ipso Facto who I finished and sold to Japan and he came home later for me to use and the great one, CH Boondox Ipsy Pipsy ROMX who became a top winner on the first time she was shown. She became a multiple Specialty winner, a multiple Group winner and won BOSV and BOSB at her first DCA National Specialty in Louisiana and BOSV at her second DCA National Specialty in Georgia. She was quite an eyecatcher and was a lot of fun to show. When breeding her, I bred her to Longs and Smooths and got really top quality with every breeding. One of her males was sired by CH Boondox Polo L ROMX, Longhair CH Boondox Dimon Dino, and they specialled Dino for awhile, but her bitches, such as Dual CH Fiona, Am Can CH French Lace, CH Double Delight L and and CH Xenia Onatopp were the ones that always caught my eye and produced that greatness. I truly felt that this breeding gave me CH Boondox Ipsy Pipsy ROMX who always set the style for the Boondox Smooth line and her own offspring just kept getting better and better.
After reading this (VERY) long treatise on crossing the coats in Dachshunds to help one Variety over the others and understanding what changes occurred after that, I would hope that you could all see why it was done and if these changes really made a Variety better for having that cross behind it. I know I am easy to read and that I always like to see a new cross, wondering why it was made and trying to figure out the success that it had on the line. I guess that is one reason that I am always on the look out to make changes in the Dachshund Breed and love to see if these coat crosses did indeed work and, I must say, that they certainly worked in the crosses in this article and I tried to show why they were successful.
First, as stated previously, get a top quality bitch, so that you do not have to change everything and can change just an element or two, and still not lose those changes that you had made already. When you breed to try to get a more substantial and powerful Dachshund , such as the Wire breeders did all along the way, you can see if the changes are made and if they stay for that most important second cross you make back into that Wire Variety. As the Wires showed, you soon get the right stud dogs and they become the powerful sires that everyone uses and the quality should still be there. Also, when you cross, don’t use just any dog to help the Wires, pick out a pretty well-known one that has produced that down the line for years as those offspring will always catch the curious breeders eye and show them it can be done, but this is not just using a dog that is around your house, it has to be one that everyone will know and already know what a difference he has already made in everyone’s kennel already. I am not saying that as a snob, but as one who wants every cross to be the best that it can be and that does include using the top of the line in crossing the coats. Look at the Wirehair Stud dogs whose pedigrees are filled with Wire bitches bred to great old Smooths and most people do not realize it, but each of them are used, from CH Brentwald Joshua W ROMO to CH Starbarrack Malachite SW ROMO, repeatedly to spread the qualities that the Smooth dogs put into that Wire Variety of Dachshund.
Second, you have to ask yourself what objects are you wanting to change and where do you start and what dogs do you use to make these changes. In the ’50s, there had been some nice Longhair lines, but most of the old Longhair breeder were dying out, and Mary Howell of Bayard saw that some serious changes were needed and started chatting with a local Smooth breeder named Ben Klimkiewicz of Bencelia Kennels who was a Dachshund front man and I am sure they talked for years incessantly about the crosses that Mary Howell had to do to become equal with the Standard Smooths who were the power in the Show Ring. They soon decided to use the Bencelia Smooths to cross with her Bayard Longhair bitches and then breed them back to older Bayard Champion Longhair Dachshunds and so that cross took awhile to work, but luckily the strong-headed Mary Howell was behind it and they eventually came up with the new great CH Bayard le Tartare ROMX who sired the two greats, CH Bayard le Souvenir ROM and CH Robert de Bayard ROMO who both became top sires down the road into the ’60 and ’70s. Behind Robert were also all the California great Smooths like the Gera Smooths who sometimes also had the Longhair gene as a recessive which produced both the great Longhair sire, CH Covara’s Tabasco L ROMO and the pretty good LeLou bitches who also were all Gera breeding. Anyway, seeing these crosses made me realize why I was always taken by the Tartare and Robert offspring that I saw as that Long/Smooth coat cross certainly working for me all the way to here in 2024.
Finally, when the Smooths were almost taken over by the spookiness and fear that certain dogs carried, it was certainly plain that some judicious outcrossing back to the best Longhairs could show that famous Longhair friendliness could show up in your Smooths in the first generation and you could get rid of it entirely in your line of Smooths and it would not re-appear at all. Think of Bobby and Jane Fowler‘s accidental breeding that had some very unintended consequences along with the help of Jane’s eye in bringing out the great that CH Han-Jo’s Uyssis L ROMO carried into her line of Smooths with all the great Smooths that came down from him along with the help that Janet Wayock received in the Pacific Northwest after she bred to that same Ulyssis which truly did make her Timbar Longhairs and Smooths even better and, like Janet’s Timbar dogs always did, set the style for newer ones to catch up with. When you see the great crosses that were made back and forth between the Varieties that really helped the quality and the temperament of each Coat get better, you have to realize that AKC has actually used the way we breed Dachshunds to let us really use each Variety to cross coats with and make all Varieties and sizes better if we want to.
Many breeders have urged us not to cross coats and I guess I will have to disagree with that as anyone can see the great quality, Dachshund style and movement which came down from these crosses and, as surely all can see, crossing the coats made it possible to get rid of the horrible fear and unease that almost put an end to the Smooth Show Rings back in the late ’60s, ’70s,’8os and ’90s and made it disappear. Most breeders and exhibitors cannot imagine having a big ring of Smooths whose best animals were scared to death and few would even come back to the Judge. I am glad that all these things have been helped or eradicated by these coat crosses and, if someone is against crossing them, they can skip reading about these crossings and never really know how these changes did occur and why there are breeders, like myself, who really are pleased when he sees those crosses still appearing in even the new pedigrees.
Dan Harrison
Feb 22, 2024