You may have noticed that I have some pretty nasty things to say on the website and even nastier ones on the blog about non-hunters.

I get hundreds often thousands of “unique” visits to my website every week. A unique visit is from individual computers, and generally means I have hundreds or thousands of people looking at my site every seven days. If one percent of those folks contact me looking for a dog, or advise, that’s dozens of people a week.

That’s a lot of email to return. About half was from non-hunters. When I got started, I wanted to be helpful to everyone so I’d tell them I couldn’t sell them a dog, but would offer advice if they wanted.

Bad idea. Many were very unpleasant right then. People take it personally when you tell them they aren’t qualified to buy your dog. Somehow I must be defective if I can’t see what great people they are.

Of those who weren’t jerks, the first bit of advice they wanted was the name of a breeder who would sell them a dog. I don’t know any. Folks would become rude; as if I had some treasure chest of non-hunting GSP’s that I was hoarding for myself.

I don’t know any breeder who sells to non-hunters, if I did, we’d probably not get along very well. Even then, how could I recommend a breeder who I think is doing a disservice to the breed? Why would I recommend a breeder that I think is a bad one?

OK, so some of these folks would find breeders that would sell them a dog then call me to get my take. Most had found back-yard breeders or puppy mills, the exact things they had been trying to avoid and why they valued my opinion so much.

Can you see what’s happening here? These folks become a huge drain of my time; my free time. This is the time your boss has to pay time and a half to get you to come to work, and these folks can’t even refer a qualified hunter prospect to me, because they don’t know any.

Eventually these folks become ugly too, because they can’t find a breeder who I’d give the green light to.

So I type up a couple of form letters and use them to reply to the different types of non-hunters. These drew scathing e-mails that I really hate to read.

One lady got me on the phone and started belittling me. I told her that hunting homes were not my only requirement, just my first. And I asked, “Would you like to start the rest of the interview process?” I didn’t think so.

So I start ratcheting up the FAQ list to convince these folks not to call, write or anything. And they just keep coming, like the zombies in a horror movie.

The emails are almost always the same. “I’ve read your entire site and just love it. We really love GSP’s.” They either have one, know one, or saw one somewhere, possibly TV; worse they've been reading about them. Then they sometimes tell me why they’d be awesome owners, sometimes they don’t bother with the foreplay. “Do you have any puppies available right now and how much are they?”

OK, they didn’t read my site at all because they’d know 1) I don’t sell to non-hunters (you can always tell the non-hunters because they never mention hunting) and 2) whether or not I have puppies available.

One moron tried to argue his point stating he planned to loan his dog to hunting friends. Oh, sure. I think he should just borrow their dogs to walk. Anyway while arguing with me, he stated that he had back-yard bred two litters of GSP’s, as if that was a qualification that would change my mind to sell him mine.

So the replies get shorter and shorter, the FAQ gets longer and longer, and I realize that now one third of my FAQ is devoted to telling non-hunters to leave me alone. This is NO GOOD because the folks who I am trying to reach have to wade through pages of useless info go learn what they want to learn. I started a special FAQ for non-hunters

Boy did that go over well. The non-hunters apparently read it and now they just launch into tirades about what a jerk I am. I hope they start a boycott. It’s like the vegetarians boycotting McDonald's.

I even had a law student who graduated from the same high school as me. He says I’m conceited and arrogant, to which I reply, if I have too high an opinion of myself, why would you want to buy a dog from me in the first place? Don’t confuse arrogance and confidence.

I’m also discriminatory, to which I reply that I can legally discriminate when selling puppies, particularly since non-hunters aren’t a protected class. In fact, I’d probably be in deep water legally if I sold a pup to a home I believed to be bad. I haven’t heard back.

A lot of non-hunters are looking for a dog who can keep up with their “active lifestyle.” Any dog over 25 pounds can keep up with you and a lot of smaller ones can too. Our Corgis keep up with our GSP's. I don't think anyone could keep up with the Corgis. German Shorthaired Pointers make lousy house pets. They get into absolutely everything. They need huge amounts of exercise. If they don't have a “job” like hunting they become destructive. Do not believe what you read about any breed. All breed descriptions are written by devotees of that breed who apparently can't bring themselves to be honest about the faults each breed has.

Anyway, my beef with non-hunters is they can’t possibly give me the feedback I need to improve my breeding program. Non-hunters do nothing for the breed. There are plenty of other breeds, and plenty of rescue dogs.