About us and our philosophy
Our agricultural background has heavily influenced our kennel philosophy . We have learned that the backbone of the livestock industry is the females. Beef Cows raise the calves, Dairy Cows make the milk, and Sows raise the piglets. At HHF Gundogs, we have translated that to our dogs. Our females are not just here for breeding. We train, hunt, and test our females. We do this so we have a better idea of all of the genetics that make up our pups. Genetically a pup is 50% sire and 50% dam making both parents equally important. However, if the pup spends more time with the Dam, from conception to at least ten weeks old, then that will tip the scales to the Dam being the more critical part of the pup’s development.
Another influence we have from the livestock industry is why we choose to keep a limited number of males. Breeding two dogs simply because you own them and love both dogs is not always the best practice. The two dogs need to complement each other with their physical, mental, and performance traits. That is why we are not afraid to spend the time and money to go outside of our kennel to find the best pairing we can. It is not a cheap or easy endeavor to simply load a dog and drive across the country. Let alone coordinate dogs, owners, hotels, and veterinarians. Still we feel we give our dogs the best opportunity to produce the best litters they can.
At HHF Gundogs, we keep pups out of every litter. We do this for several reasons. First, we can evaluate with our eyes what we have produced to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the offspring. We also do this because we can help our clients better with their dogs. It is not a matter of if but when you will have setbacks or issues with a dog in training. With our first hand experience, we are having the same or similar problems we can work through the same problem with our clients. Keeping back dogs also helps us build our kennel from within. A breeding program is like a lump of clay that we are molding and shaping . By mainly replacing from within we can retain a large part of the clay instead of starting over each time.
This information is a lot to take in, but we have put a lot of thought and effort into our kennel and breeding program. We continue to learn and mold and shape what we have. We are not doing this to create the perfect dog, creating the perfect dog is a fool’s errand. We are doing this to develop a line of dogs that are a pleasure to have in a home and a joy to hunt behind in the field.
Hunting Dog vs Field Trial Dog
"I don't want a field trial dog, just a hunting dog." This is a common statement with hunting dog owners, and honestly, it is where we started as well. However we have found that these trials and tests and competitions provide us (the breeder) and you (the future puppy owner) with valuable information. We put our dogs up for evaluation by outside, reputable judges and organizations so that we can give you the best overall picture of our dogs, especially if you are unable to come see us in person. This helps us continue to learn more about the breeds and evaluate our own dogs better for the confirmation, hunting ability, and personality so that we can give you a better dog. We use all of this information to improve our breeding program which improves our genetics which also makes a better dog. We also test our dogs in real life thru our own hunting and guiding. By pushing our dogs to hunt and guide we are able to see just what our dogs can do and how there bodies and minds can hold up to that stress, thus being able to produce a better dog for our clients
Why we have 2 breeds
As of 2021 we added a second breed to our kennel, the English Cocker. It is something we discussed for several years and with our increase in hunting and guiding we found a need for a flusher. Sometimes it pays to have the right tool in the toolbox. We did a lot of research on many different breeds and found that the cockers and the EB's are very similar yet play very different roles when we hunt. Come on out and we would love to show you both dogs and find out which one is right for you.