Confused!

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

I was going through the old posts about Beverly Manners, her daughter Angela, etc., trying to make sense of all of it.  Maybe someone can help?

As far as I can tell, it seems to be pretty much universally acknowledged that these two are complete nut cases, likely suffering from mental illness but in any case doing all sorts of bad things including operating puppy mills, scamming the public, repeatedly attempting to change the name of the breed, etc.

So if this is true, why is it considered desirable to have a dog whose pedigree goes back to Rutland and Tegan, if these are puppy mills turning out all kinds of unhealthy dogs?  

If these two were the "founders", and their practices are so shady, we do we believe that statement we hear so often about ALD's being the result of careful mixing of labrador, poodle, two different cocker spaniels, etc.?

What about Wally Condon?  How does he fit into all this?  Some sites will say that he started the breed.  What relation does he have to Beverly and Angela?

What is the deal with Wheaten Terriers possibly having been included?

Is it accurate to say that Americans are saving - or perhaps recreating - the breed by adding new diversity into the bloodlines and screening for defects?

What is difference between ALCA and ALAA?  What is the relationship between them?

I am the loving owner of an ALD that is a wonderful, healthy dog.  I've been singing the praises of ALD's everywhere I go - but maybe I should have been more careful before drinking the Kool Aid?

Thanks in advance for any light anyone can shed.

[Barb @ Gemstone Labradoodles]

I recently went to a bunch of courses at 'K9 College'. It's a seminar with 9 specialists and is one week long. The genetics section was very interesting. Dogs have 78 chromosomes compared to man's 46. This means a single dog already has more genetic diversity than we do. Apparently, you can lose the entire genetic makeup of a dog in 3 generations. At the course, they advocated inbreeding for this reason. I don't inbreed, nor do I intend to, but it did give a new perspective on the numbers needed in a population to keep enough genetic diversity.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Fascinating and thank you for sharing.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Ohhhh, very interesting.  I love genetic talk.  Thanks, Barb.

[Joan Bollaert]

Great post with great questions.  I'm still laughing at your comment, "....maybe I should have been moer careful before drinking the Kool-Aide....."..    lol   So funny.