I too work at the DoD Dog Center with Tim Bartlett and get our information DIRECTLY from the source. If your "intel" refers to Labs that program belongs to the TSA and the DoD has NOTHING to do with that. The DoD Puppy Program only uses malinois and Dutch Shepherds. Currently my team (which includes Tim)is training 9 of these puppies for use by the military. So suffice to say you can't get closer to the intel than him and I. The DoD Puppy Program hit a "bump" recently but is still funded and not going anywhere in the forseeable future. Civilians were contracted to manage and administrate the DoD Puppy Program. The goal is for the Puppy Program to provide about a third of our yearly procurement quota. Breeders have been purchased in many locations (US and Europe) and champions of differing dog sports and breeding have been used as studs. So "restriced" isn't really a word I'd use. The only facts I've seen in this thread are from Tim and the rest is merely speculation. The DoD program is successful compared to other massive Working Dog operations (the British program went down in flames with many the same problems we've overcome).

Kevin,

Ask him if my facts are correct and then you can validate them on here. I work with Stewart at Lackland and we also train in MondioRing together. He was telling me today that he was headed out there for a tactical K-9 seminar. Sounds interesting, wish I could have made it out to attend.

Tim

Joel how many from the infamous "F" litter ended up getting washed out, you can PM me if you want, and has any breeding been done with F-15? Thanks
~CHRIS

Chris,

9 out of 15 of the "F" litter puppies made it into the program.

FFifteen has had 1 litter of 9 puppies and 7 of the 9 made it into the program. Joel and I are currently training these puppies.

Tim would be better suited to answer about the F-litter. I do know there was fifteen puppies (ie that's where FFifteen's name comes from, and she is now out in the field). But if I remember well that litter didn't turn out very well. There's no guarantees when you mess with genetics. FFifteen is no longer a breeder but is a very good MWD now in the field. However, using 1 litter and 1 breeder out of AA-ZZ litters to cast doubt on an entire program isn't good. I never said the program was perfect but it is working.

See, Tim corrected me. Disregard my last post and refer to Tim's.

Joel, my comment on the purchase mistakes is in regards to the Spec Ops dog program, which I know ya'll have nothing to do with.
And that's not a speculation about those purchases, it's a fact. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

9 out of 15 puppies in a litter making it as a dual-purpose dogs would be the envy of any breeder alive.
If that was repeatable on a regular basis it would change canine breeding forever, but the bell-shaped curve for litters will always hold true.

Will,

PM me about the spec ops program. I am not familiar with that one.

Tim

Specs Ops? I'm curious for more information on that program as it's unknown to me. We provide all the dogs for DoD and that includes the new Specialized Search Dogs and the returning Combat Tracker dogs. I'd like to be enlightened on this program and who are using these dogs...