Farris' rude call

Bob Farris had an interesting experience as he got into breeding dogs. Pudelpointers. He wanted to start a business and he just happened to call somebody. I started breeding dogs, and I kept a couple of males out of my very first two litters. I made a phone call to a guy back east, a guy that owned Yelahw Kennels, Bob Whaley, which is Whaley spelled backwards. I left him a message on his phone and I said, I would like to visit with him because I want to learn more about line breeding. I wanted to make my poodle pointers equal to my Chesapeakes in the water, retrieving ducks or any kind of waterfowl. He called me back about two weeks later. I left him a message and very, very, very professional. His comment on the phone was what would be the purpose of this conversation, you know? And I'm like, oh man. So I told him, I said, I've got poodle pointers. I want to create a specific line that's noted to be equal to a Labrador or a Chesapeake. In January, waterfowl. And he wanted to know how many dogs I owned. I said, well, I got two females. They're littermates. And then I got a male that's not related. And there was a little pause there, and he said, Mr.. You're nothing more than a backyard breeder. He said, when you have 15 different females and five different males call me, we'll have a conversation about line breeding. It really rocked me back because Bob Whaley was noted to be the English pointer, field trialer and skeptic.