Thoughts on dog breeding and the Elhew pointer

Bob Wehle, founder and breeder of Elhew Kennels, with his most famous pointer, CH Elhew Snakefoot.

It’s been almost a year since the bird dog world was shocked by an announcement in the America Field.

It is with great sadness — but with the unshakeable conviction that we are doing the right and necessary thing — that we announce our decision to close Elhew Kennels and retire the Elhew “brand.” The Elhew prefix will no longer be available…
~ Gatra Wehle and Martha Hayes

Gatra Wehle is the widow of Bob Wehle and Martha Hayes is the widow of Brian Hayes.

When Bob Wehle died in 2002, he passed ownership of Elhew Kennels and the Elhew prefix to Brian Hayes. Hayes became ill and brought in others in a cooperative arrangement. When he died in 2015, some things became clear to the two women. The letter continued:

… it has become increasingly difficult to do justice to the Elhew legacy.

Why is that?

Because when Wehle died, his line of Elhew pointers died, too.

Bob Wehle devoted his life to breeding his line of pointers. He knew how to train his own dogs and competed with them in top-flight field trial competition. He judged prestigious field trials and perhaps most crucial, he hunted his dogs on wild birds. Pointers bred by Wehle were coveted by serious bird hunters and yet could win trials, also. The look of his dogs was distinctive: when you saw an Elhew pointer, you just knew what it was.

But without Wehle, no one could possibly know which dogs he would breed to which dogs. Breeding dogs is not a science. You can’t plug the information about two dogs into an algorithm and have it produce an analysis of the best mating. It’s far more complicated. The breeding adage, “Breed the best to the best and hope for the best” is simplistic and vague. Someone has to determine which is the best. And then, which best to breed to which best?

The person making that determination is the breeder.

Based on experience, knowledge, gut and intellect, the breeder decides which combination will most likely produce what is sought. The key here is that the breeder’s exact thought processes can’t be passed on—to anyone or anything.

Genetics can change rapidly and without a vision, the direction is usually toward mediocrity, or worse. In one generation, you can have dogs that are quite different from their parents. In two or more generations down, the dissimilarities can be significant.

Sure, a breeder could pair two Elhew pointers and could produce similar dogs.

But no matter what, without Wehle making key decisions, the outcome is not dogs bred by Wehle and not Elhew pointers.