Tim,
Please allow me to pick your brain for some history.  It will be interesting as many newcomers don't know some things about the Decker Rat Terrier and Mr Milton Decker.

Eli: Did you buy everything that Milton had left in his kennel?  He told me that he sold you his "very best" dogs.  I know they were the ones he seemed most proud of.  When I think of what a Decker should be, I think of Badger, Cougar, and Mr. Big.  I think of Towser and Stella too.  It's interesting to note that none of them were tuxedos.  It seems Milton produced mostly piebalds and blanket backs.

Tim:  I think the only dogs he didn't sell me were his personal pets. Yes, Milton told me that many times that those dogs were his finest. The reason Milton produced mostly piebalds and blanket backs was because they were what people wanted the most. He said the next best seller's were the tan and white's, then the black and tan which he had trouble selling. I had that same problem, people just preferred the other colors more. Now the I think its the other way around, people seem to have fallen in love with the black and tan tux color.

Eli: In your opinion, what is the very best dog that you purchased from Milton in terms of hunting and overall conformation?

Tim: I would have to say that Pepper was my best dog, if it wasn't for him being as good as he was I probably would not have gotten anymore dogs from Milton. But you know from experience Eli that your first Decker is always the best. This is funny, I was talking to Milton a couple of months ago and ask him that very question. He said his best all around dog he ever had was Henry, he said he didn't think he ever produce a dog equal to Henry. I told Milton about Pepper and all the great Decker's I produce out of his dogs and told him about how good they were at hunting and what people had used them for. But Milton insisted that Henry was the best, his best dog. I think I know what he was talking about, when old Pep died it felt like I lost one of my family. And as far as I'm concerned Pep was the best Decker that ever lived. LOL

Eli: What advice did Milton give you about carrying on his line of dogs?  There's no way he could just hand over his whole project with no advice.......

Tim:  That's kind of a funny story also. The first real conversation I had with Milton about breeding dogs was a heated argument, all the heat and argument was from me I might add. Here is the story, when I was buying all those dogs from Milton he guaranteed me that they were his best breeding stock and I could breed them all. I've had hunting dogs all my life but never got into breeding them so when I got the dogs from Milton I was very pleased with what I got until the papers came a week or so later. I couldn't believe my eyes, all the dogs he sent me were related, one way or the other. Believe me when I say that I was mad!!! I couldn't wait to call Milton and tell him what I thought of him for sending me a bunch of inbred dogs and ripping me off like that.

I called him that evening and lit into him about the whole matter and he let me ramble on for awhile then said in a polite voice. I will never forget this because it stopped me dead in my tracks. He said Tim, you don't really know anything about breeding dogs do you? I remember my mind just went blank, I didn't know what to say, I was speechless because he was right. The only thing I really knew about breeding dogs is what the old timers told me and that was you didn't breed dogs that were related. They said if you did inbreed, the pups would all turn out to be brainless fools that wouldn't hunt. Now I know why those old timers didn't have very good hunting dogs. LOL
So I had to eat some crow and tell Milton that I didn't know a thing about breeding dogs. Milton graciously offer to teach me what he knew about breeding dogs, he recommended some research papers, a book on genetics and that got me started on the right foot and I've been learning ever since.

Eli: Did he mention specific qualities that he looked for?  Of the dogs that you bought from Milton, what was the size range in weight and height?

Tim:   The qualities that he was looking for was to reproduce Henry and to improve conformation and ears. Height and weight didn't matter to Milton as long as they had Henry's qualities. Mr. Big was the biggest dog I got from Milton, he was 19" and 35lbs. and he always produced large pups, it didn't matter what female I used. All the other dogs were pretty close in size, around the 30lbs., 16" give or take a little. When Pepper was old enough I started to use him for stud, he gave me more of what I was looking for in size. Pep was really good at reproducing himself, he gave me some awesome pup's.

Eli: Did he inform you of any problems that he had with his dogs in terms of hernias or overbites or undescended testicles?  I've had 2 overbites.  I haven't had any monorchids yet.  I have had some hernias (both umbilical and inguinal).  Did you ever experience any hernias?

Tim:  No he didn't tell me of any problems, like I said before I never had one with any bite problems. I had one with an undescended testicle, that was Ammo. I did have one hernia, I had an accidental breeding between a brother and sister when they were only 6mo. old, they produced two pup's one had a hernia. I had her fixed and I give her away to an old guy that wanted a squirrel dog. I was really surprised when I heard that you and Kim were getting some natural bobtails. That's another thing I never saw in the dogs I got from Milton.

Eli: I'm not sure where the problems came from that I've experienced.  I'm assuming that I'm getting some from both the outcrosses and the Deckers.  Who knows?  There is no way to tell for sure.

Tim:  Your right, there is no way of knowing, like I've always said there is no perfect line of dogs, never has been and never will be, doesn't matter how careful we are about the dogs we breed.

Eli: One more question.  What are some of the main differences that you see in the deckers of today compared to the Deckers that you got from Milton?

Tim:  To tell you the truth I think conformation wise they are getting better, even some of the low % dogs are just beautiful. I just hope they retain their hunting ability. One thing that Milton told me to work on were the ears, he liked them to set right up on top of the dogs head. So that was one thing that I tried to bred for. I think that was one thing I was able to add to his line. I sent a picture of someone's dog to Milton not very long ago and Milton email me back and said he thought maybe the ears might just be a little to big now. LOL I told him he wanted big ears.

I would like to add that Milton and his line of Appaloosa's are getting rave review from horse lovers around the world. Milton told me that he has shipped horses to Europe and as far away as Australia so he still a busy man. If anyone hasn't visited his web site http://d-rea.com/stallions.htm check it out, there's an up to date pictures of Milton and Mary and some great pictures of his horses. Tim