No

I was hoping you would chime in and confirm. Yes they are once in a lifetime for sure.

I wouldn't take $2 million for our black lab

Really? 2 mil??

That's life changing money for your kid's kids.

You could buy a decent sized piece of land.

Nope. And we don't have kids, except for our Lab. "Only" paid $6k for her, so it would be a nice return on our investment, but we didn't buy her as an investment. Even though we could have bred her and sold the pups for a ton, we decided to have her fixed. She's a British lab and only weighs 50 lbs. We were afraid that if she had a big litter, it would be too hard on her. Master Hunter at 18 months and won a bunch of field trials by 3, when we bought her. Besides being an amazing retriever, she blood trails deer and hunts shed antlers.

Sounds like a nice dog!

What's her registered name?

She won field trials?

American trials?
Which ones?
Who was the trainer?

To my knowledge there hasn't been a British bred dog that has done well in American field trials.

Kirk Wichman at Hidden Lakes Retrievers. If you look on his website under Master Hunters you'll see the name Nelly MH. That's our dog. Can't recall her registered name because we call her Nelly. And yes, she won American trials. Which ones? Heck, I dunno because we were never into field trials and that was before we owned her. Just wanted a badarse dog and we got one. I'd have to look at all her paperwork to give you more detailed information.

I had one that I was offered 5K for when I was on a public hunt one time. I just laughed and said no. Might have been a rude thing to do looking back but, I just thought to myself, I wouldn't sell this dog for 500k. I had another guy offer to buy him another time but he never said an amount. I just quickly said that he wasn't for sale no matter the amount. Other than him though, every dog I've had was and is for sale. They all have a price until I have one better than the one I mentioned.

It would be interesting to know. If I knew her registered name I could look her up.

She's listed as a MH and if she had won a FT shed be at least QA2 if she won a qual.

Since she was a young dog most likely she ran derbies as a 2 year old. Still very impressive if she won a derby.

$6k for an intact 3 year old MH with derby wins is one heck of a deal!

Probably going to be Hidden Lake's Just A Dream (Nelly) MH by 2.7 years of age. Doesn't show any field trial info on RR.

Likey Robby stated, there are only a handful of "once in a lifetime" dogs out there like Bullet, Ammo and Mickey. Some people get lucky and have two or three, but sometimes they have to go through a lot of dogs to find them. And some never get that "once in a lifetime" dog.
Most of us have no idea what dogs of that caliber are capable of and until you see it, you can't apprecaite it. They're like Big League Hall of Famers, they make something so difficult just look so damn easy.
I'm an amateur field trialer, or at least trying like hell to be, and I've got a couple of little dogs that I think are nice. One is 4.5 and was QAA at 3.5 years old and the other is 17 months old and just got 2nd place in a Derby.
Like mentioned before, they're not kids or little people dressed up in furry suits and I think it's rediculous to even make the comparison.
They're dogs. They're special to me, but there will be more in my future regardless of if I sell them or keep them until they pass. As far as I'm concerned, they're always for sale to the right situation and the right buyer. My wife and kids view that scenario very differently.
Most peoples dogs aren't worth anywhere close to what it would take to buy the dog away from said person, regardless of future breeding opportunities.
The fact of the matter is that eveything has a price, but emotional attachement fogs reality for most.

You men know your dogs. That's her and, if it was derbies and not FTs, we're just fine and dandy with that. As I said, we were never into field trials and don't know all the lingo. Just wanted a badarse bloodline trained to the 9's. She learned to blood trail whitetails hanging around the cleaning shed at the ranch. We'd just say "where's the deer" with one hanging. Took about three deer and she was a blood dog. Same with sheds. Played "find the shed" around the yard four or five times. Now she's an accomplished shed hunter, too. And that's at 8 years old. By the way, she dives under water to retrieve live ducks, like all the badarse duck dogs do. WILL NOT retrieve ANY non-gamebird.

Still wouldn't sell her for $2 million.

BradyBuck, look up her bloodline.

Fouzman, derbies are under the umbrella of FTs.

Sounds like an awesome dog and why I tell people to buy from proven lines.



Looking at her pedigree definitely American FT pedigree! Really nice pedigree but not British.


Well her sires' dam info is not on RR so it's possible there are some British dogs there but 3/4s is American FT dogs.

yeah, I agree with BradyBuck. It's a very nice pedigree but definitely not British.

My gal is family to me

I don't know if I could explain the loss to my little girl as to where her "horse" went. I'm sure there is some number with a ton of zeros that would be life changing that I just couldn't turn down but it'd be close to million plus

15 to 20 grand? No not a chance.

When you start talking 50 plus? Now you have my attention. Maybe.

Fouzman, I consider Kirk a friend. 15-16 years ago Kirk was training dogs at Danny Farmers. There was a small group of us that used to meet and train there. I owe Kirk a debt of gratitude for opening that door for me. My old dog was then my young dog. Both of us learned a lot out at Anderson. At that time, among others, NFC "Rocket" was there. Being around the caliber of dogs that were there and watching them train raised the bar for both my dog and me. Kirk has been around some of the best labs in the country.

Thanks, Smokey. Wouldn't hesitate to buy another finished dog from Kirk.

I think a big part of the question is who the buyer is.

If it’s someone that’s going to let her turn into a couch potato and take her on a 102 degree dove hunt once a year, I wouldn’t consider it for any amount of money.

If it’s someone that has nice grounds, better training skills than me, and would take her as far as she could go in the dog games…maybe.

But probably not.

That makes perfect logical sense. Your dog is worth maket rate based on performance/age + personal value because you love your dog. That puts your dog above market. But then you have someone willing to pay more than market, $200k??? No dog is worth that much. I would have to sell for that lol.

How much do you think some of these top studs bring in over their life time and then with selling straws for 15-20 years after they die.

There are mediocre studs getting 5-6 breedings a month at $1500 a pop..

There is no telling what a dog like Lean Mac brought in. The last few straws I heard were bringing $10k a piece. Think about this Lean Mac has over 600 progeny listed in Retriever Results. He's sired hundreds of litters. I don't think it's a stretch to think he's brought in over $500k and wouldn't be surprised if that was pushing a Million.

The stud that I really want to breed Rally to is $2700 for the stud fee.

Some of those dogs are really worth more than $200k.

That’s a good point, I was not thinking of it as a revenue generating asset. I guess I was saying no way I would pay $200k for a pet/dog to fetch my ducks.

Looking at it as just a dog for hunting/pet for sure. I believe the offer I mentioned for $200k was actually basically just for breeding rights. The original owners still got to keep the dog but all decisions on breeding and the money generated from that went to the buyer. Like Robby said they only ended up having one litter at $10k a piece and then Ammo died at an early age around 8-9 years old.

It’s not literal guys. It’s just a way to express that they are more than just commodities to some of us.
I feel sorry for people who can’t understand that and considers every dog as “replaceable”. Tells me you’re not getting the full experience of enjoying everything about having a great dog.

I wouldn’t sell my Jenny for any price. And I mean any price. She is family.