Fixing One Thing at a Time
Moved by the fact that they saw few good Miniatures, Mr. and Mrs. Dwight Garner decided to see whether they could, in some small way, improve the breed. That was ten years ago (and this was written in 1960!) , writes Mrs. Mary Garner of Ida Grove, Iowa. (BTW, at that point, Mrs. Mary Garner was a Breeder-Judge who often judged our biggest Dachshund Shows).
” Breeding is fascinating” , says Mrs. Garner. “Being able to guide Nature in producing a living creature more perfect in Conformation and close the the Breed Standard is thrilling. It seems to be what we live for in breeding, both in Angus Cattle and in Dachshunds. However, we don’t take all the credit for being able to produce a few good ones-we have been lucky.”
We started with three-two poor ones and one good one. From there we proceeded some ten years ago to eliminate faults one by one. However, I don’t know all the answers. All breeding is so much gambling. Even when following the best breeding practices, you are dealing with many elusive factors that you can’t put your finger on. That is the challenging part to us.”
Mrs. Garner speaks proudly of the Miniature Champions she has bred including CH Garner’s Wee Hans-MS, owned by the James Ruffell’s (Lo-Dachs Kennel) in Bellevue, WA and CH Garner’s Miss Special-MW who had fourteen points after the Westchester KC Show.
Missy, who was a birthday gift to Albert Van Court of Los Angeles from Mrs. Van Court, is a daughter of CH Garner’s Something Special MW who recently completed points for the title of AKC Champion. Mrs. Garner says Something Special’s dam has four Champion children now.
Four generations of “Missy’s” pedigree show the title Champion before nine of the thirty names.
Written by Mary Garner
Miniature Dachshund Breeder-Judge
1960