SOME years ago a leading field trialler commented to me that the current obsession with breeding healthy dogs was getting close to the point where we would forget what we were breeding them for in the first place. We might have wonderfully healthy dogs, she remarked, but that wasn’t much good if we had bred out all their working ability. She certainly had a point but, on the other hand, there’s nothing sadder than dogs that perform brilliantly only to die prematurely.
We now have the ability,
