EelR
Are you sure your pups are out of Miller's True Spirit? He was a fine dog, & I'm not sure he's still alive.
Here's the story...
I purchased a puppy from a breeding purpoted to be by MTS in 2002, the year he won the National. I had the pick of the litter from a well known kennel. This pup was very handsome as were the others in the litter.
All the puppies were sold to field trialers first and then hunters, as this breeding on paper was outstanding.
I ran this pup in both puppy stakes and derby stakes around the midwest and midsouth. I had a number of wins with him
I received a phone call from another field trialer in Tennessee who like me was putting wins on their young dog. The problem for this litter started when rumors started flying about that National Champion Miller's True Spirit was sterile and had been that way for some time.
This other owner had already gotten DNA results back from the American Field (FDSB) registry.
The results showed that indeed this litter was misrepresented. MTS was not the sire of this or a number of other litters.
Ferrel Miller's signiture on the registration misrepresented the sire and the owner of the kennel that whelped the litter claimed her
was dead.
The American Field (FDSB) halted all registrations of dogs out of several Miller dogs, including two of his major circuit winning offspring. Other breeders were suspended as well. Fines were levied against several well known breeders for their misrepresentations. It was not only happening with Miller-bred dogs, other pointer lines, but other sporting breeds as well. German shorthairs were being caught up by DNA testing too.
My dogs submitted DNA testing showed he was siredby a son of MTS, Miller's White Powder; actually a sire considered by many a more desireable stud than MTS.
There were samples of Miller's White Powder on record and the kennel breeder signed an affadavit that the dead
was properly registered.
So to make a long story short, many of us innocent puppy buyers owned winning animals that could not be registered. It took months to finally get through the DNA red tape, prove that our dogs were who they actually were by, and get revised papers and DNA certificates.
I understand that Mr. Miller has paid very expensive fines to the FDSB to cover whatever transgressions.
EelR, I suspect that there could have been frozen semen taken before MTS became impotent, however I had heard Ferrel himself criticize this procedure at one time.
I'd be interested in your pups. Did you raise them yourself? Have you DNA'd them? Papers available?
Photos show your pups to be nice ones.
regards,
Bill
