The year 1951 marked the beginning of our Pointer breeding program. After a quarter of a century we developed the ideas expressed in the original Faraway Kennel statement. The millennium will mark almost a half-century in the endeavor. Our current pups are our tenth generation. Over the last decade or so we have observed changes in field trials and dog breeding which have not necessarily contributed to the improvement in the breed. Over the past few years The American Field has published numerous interviews with knowledgeable bird-dog folks. The ones conducted by Karoleigh Nitchman and Everett Skeehan have been particularly interesting. Interviews with such folks as Robin Gates, Rick Furney, Andy Daugherty, and Colvin Davis are exemplary in bringing out some observations that I have made over the past decade or so. Others in these series of interviews have also said some of the same things. What follows is a list of our observations which have been supported by the above mentioned interviews also.
 

• Judges - There seems to be an increasing number of judges who lack bird hunting experience, never broke a dog, and also who have limited field trial experience.  I pay an entry fee to have someone with less field trial experience than I and who has never been bird hunting judge my dog.  Many major circuit trials are judged by individuals whose only qualifications are personal wealth rather than bird dog experience.
• All-Age / Shooting Dog distinction - All-age dogs are ranging less and less, and shooting dogs are running wider.  The distinction between the two seems to be disappearing.  The yardstick used by many judges is that of a widely ranging shooting dog.  The same dogs win both kinds of stakes on the same grounds.
• Stamina as a desirable trait - A leading breeder and one of the most influential has stated that three hours is too long for a dog to run in a field trial brace.  He also stated that a bird dog that can hunt all day is no longer relevent.
• Excessive emphasis on tail carriage -  I ask: "Do you see Greyhounds with flagpole tails?  Why or why not?"  This emphasis is also very related to stamina issue . The dog with the yard fiest type of artificial tail carriage doesn't have the stamina of the dog with the whip-tail as is required by the breed standards.
• Scarcity of quail -  This has led to dogs being trained solely on liberated birds and has led to generations of dogs that don't know how to hunt and handle wild game. While they are nowhere near the endangered species category the bob-white is nowhere near as plentiful as they were is the past.  This is a major contibuting factor to the change listed next.
• Decline in number of bird hunters - In this part of the country there is almost no bird hunting.  Preserves are about the only place you can find significant numbers of bird hunters.  Those who use to hunt have quit or have changed to turkey or deer hunting - both very abundant game species here.  This, of course, means no demand for bird dogs.  In the fifties one ad the Richmond Times-Dispatch Sunday classifieds would be sufficient to sell an entire litter.  Last year an ad running continuously from August to January in Augusta, Macon, and Columbus newspapers sold one pup to a hunter.  The rest were sold as pets.
• The "Don't bother me with the facts, I've made up my mind syndrome" - This does not represent a change; it is a condition among field trialers (in reference to breeding & buying dogs) that has existed for the past half century and continues unabated.  Rather than utilizing dogs for which substantial evidence exists demonstrating that they are among the best to which to breed they continue to breed to those in which the evidence is just the opposite.  Over the past half century only three excellent stud dogs have been popular.  All of the other very popular ones could best be labeled only "Grade B" or lower studs.  This includes even most of those elected to The Field Trial Hall of Fame.
• The popularity of the race horse model over the cattle model- This is also not a change.  It is a phenomenon that has always existed and continues today.  I am referring to the selection of the brood bitch.