As we all know, Hannibal's goal
was to get to Rome. He also was quite determined to accomplish his immediate
objective which was to get through the Alps. Unexpectedly he used his elephants
to do it. Any program that expects to be successful needs goals to give it
direction, shape it, and give it momentum towards successful results. If a
breeder cannot tell you what it is he wants to accomplish in his breeding
program, he probably doesn't know . That is not a good news! Well no one should
get on a bus with a driver who doesn't know where he wants to go or how he's
going to get there. Here at Bullmoose we believe in goals and getting ourselves
on the bus that will get us where we want to get. Goals! No breeding program
should be without them.
GOAL ONE:
Our Goal is to produce large dogs with backs that make them
look nearly square.
Comment:
A common criticism of dogs on the upper end of the standard, namely 26 or 27
inches; or females, at 25 or 26 inches, is that they have long backs. We are
working on the problem. Both Morgan and Arab horses are famous for their short
backs as compared to the Throroughbred. Complaining about long backed big dogs
won't fix their backs. The fact the animal is big doesn't mean it has to have a
long back. Kismet's Moonlit Shadow was 26 by 26 inches bodywise. Until you see a
dog like that gait a thousand foot driveway by choice at high speed with ease
and comfort, you will have a hard time appreciating the advantage of the short
backed dog. We've seen it! We appreciate it! Here at Bullmoose we continue to
work at consistently trying to produce more short back big dogs.
GOAL TWO:
Our Goal is to produce broad muzzles on both our males and females
consistently.
Comment: We like
broad muzzled dogs at Bullmoose. If the dog is to grab and hold, he or she needs
a wide muzzle to do it. I expect to see broad muzzles on both my males and
females. It is nice when people notice what you're doing without having to tell
them. We were rewarded recently at a show when four or five breeders mentioned
how nice and wide the muzzle was on the young female I had brought. Well, you
aren't going to find any alligator noses here at Bullmoose. We continue to work
at trying to consistently produce more wide muzzles on square heads.
GOAL THREE:
Our Goal is to produce large females
Comment: In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of small
bullmastiff females out there. The standard says 24 inches and we at Bullmoose
believe we should be able to produce females that can make that minimum. We
started with large bitches and we have no intention of breeding right through
them. Therefore bitch size is important to us. We continue to work at trying to
consistently produce females that fit in the standard as directed.
GOAL FOUR:
Our Goal is to produce healthy bullmastiffs
Comment: We believe in working at producing dogs
that are healthy from their noses to their tails. I can't see much point of
making a guarantee on one part of the dog, only to have it fall apart someplace
else. The guarantee on the hips isn't going to do you much good if the dog dies
from cancer at three years old. Here at Bullmoose we are working hard at
producing dogs that we expect to last. Sometimes nature can be cruel about
messing up even the best made plans, but we are trying to produce a line that
will make as few trips to the vet as possible. We remain concerned in looking at
the whole dog, not just one piece of it that can be guaranteed. We will continue
to work at producing the healthiest "total" dog that we can.
GOAL FIVE:
Our Goal is to produce dogs with "Great" movement.
Comment: Too many times someone has pulled me over
to a show ring to show me a "Great" moving dog? "See! Look at that!," they tell
me. Well I have trouble locating the one they're talking about. There are a lot
of "good" moving dogs out there, but I don't see that "Great" moving dog they
expected me to see. A "great" moving dog would be something like one of Vic
Zeoli's dogs, I think he was called Ch. Hannibal Kojo Dia of Kismet. The first
time I saw that red blur of a dog fly around a ring, my thoughts were that he
needed a bigger ring. The brother of my lead female on this home page, Ch.
Baca's Apollo Friar Tuck, also was a tremendous moving dog. I was standing next
to his owner at the ring when he mentioned that he hoped the ring was big enough
to spotlight the dog's movement. Both these dogs had tremendous drive in the
rear. We continue to look for that "Great" movement in our bloodline at
Bullmoose because we know it's there. We see some of it occasionally, but do so
want to see more of it more often in the animals that we produce.
GOAL SIX:
Our Goal is to push back the life expectancy of this
line.
Comment: We are very
loyal to the dogs in our line and would like to see them live as long as they
can. We expect out dogs to make it to ten years old. Many bullmastiffs die at
too early of an age. We continue to try to strengthen our line so we have more
survivors over time. We will do all that we can genetically through our
strongest line representatives as well as take advantage of that help we get
from changing research and medical advice. We want to see all the dogs in our
line live a long, long time and continue to do what we can to achieve that.
These are our most important
goals. We continue to work at achieving them. Each kennel sets it's own
priorities. These happen to be ours.
GOAL ONE:
