“The fact is, rather than hating them, ask – what have they got to benefit me?” – Mike RyanI think that this podcast is going to set the Aussie world on fire. I don’t say that lightly.Jeanne Joy Hartnagle, someone I long looked up to and finally got to develop a relationship with once I visited her father and mother in Colorado 15 plus years ago, kept telling me I needed to talk to Mike Ryan. But who’s Mike Ryan? I’ve been in the breed since the early 90s and I made it my business to figure out who I wanted to know . . . how’d I miss him? It was honestly embarrassing. I knew he was an ASCA breeder judge, but he was involved in the working dogs, too. He’ll tell you himself.Well, Mike spent his youth in the stockyards and visiting and really developing relationships with many of the breeders we’d consider foundation breeders. In this interview, he drops the non-PC version of things as he saw them happen from the 1960’s to today. He’s 360 degrees of Aussies for a long time.

And he’s whip smart, candid, and opinionated.

The audio is pretty rough, and I’m sorry about that – I’m grateful to Working Aussie Source for the funds to clean it up as much as we could. But this is an interview we need to have out there.

Thanks to Andrea Scott for volunteering to interview her friend, and Mike for being so candid.

In this session, we learn about:

* Foundation breeders and the wonderful character of the people I know* Crossbreeding . . . and it’s not where you think* Advice for things to improve with breeding* A universal call to improve the breed and it starts with the people* How he thinks we can do our part to get the breed better and better

Links and sources mentioned:

* Aussies: Form Meets Function – Facebook group