Marty Glover | Lasuite, Kris’s Kountry, Skydancer & Sandcastle Saint Bernards

Interview with Marty Glover, Breeder of Lasuite, Kris’s Kountry, Skydancer & Sandcastle Saint Bernards

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live? How many years in dogs? How many years as a breeder? What is your kennel name?
2. What is your “process” for selecting show puppies? Performance puppies?
3. In your opinion, is your breed in good condition overall? Any trends that warrant concern?
4. As a Preservation Breeder, can you share your thoughts on the sport today? How’s the judging these days? What do you think about the number of shows?
5. In your opinion, is social media good for the sport? Is it harmful?
6. What are the biggest challenges facing the dog show community as a whole today and how can these be addressed?
7. What are some of the positive changes you’ve seen in the sport over the past decade?

Marty Glover

1. I have been involved in Saint Bernards for roughly 27 years now. I have co-bred close to 80 champions along the way with my partners, Tikki Smith and Kristi Libsack, and in the past with Lori Latimer. Dogs bred were, or are, under the Lasquite, Kris’s Kountry, Skydancer, and Sandcastle prefixes. Currently, I am proud to be the Saint Bernard Club of America President. I live near the coast of Oregon.

2. I do not critique or make any decision until puppies are 8-10 weeks old. Then I process them out by overall “type,” soundness, and structure.

3. I think the breed is better as far as temperaments go. The type is all over the place. We are a head breed, plain and simple. Powerful is mentioned several times in our Standard and they should be that. Lack of bone, substance, and head is plaguing our breed.

4. I think there are far too many shows scattered across America every weekend.

I think many new judges do not understand our breed. They judge the Saint in a way in which they are everything they are NOT supposed to be. They tend to throw type out the window for some generic show dog that can free-stack. That is not what a Saint Bernard is. Our Saint clubs put on 64 Specialty Shows a year across this country, and I would much rather commit myself and my dogs to those where we have breeder-judges who know our breed and care about our breed.

5. Just like anything in life, social media can be used for good or bad.

6. I believe a main issue affecting the sport of purebred dogs is the severe lack of breeders who can house 10-plus dogs. Gone are the breeders of yesteryear who had 50 to even 100 dogs; that was a breeding program. The new person today has two or maybe three dogs in their backyard in 25 square feet and a complete lack of understanding their Standard, or how to read pedigrees, and they call themselves a breeder. And pet advocate groups run rampant and dictate what laws are passed that affect us.

7. Positive changes? That is truly a hard one. I think that we as the purebred fancy and AKC need to really think what we can do to get younger people more involved and stay involved to the point where they are our next great breeders 20 years from now. We need to support our local 4-H clubs with a better understanding of what AKC and the world of purebred dogs are.

I think that we as the purebred fancy and AKC need to really think what we can do to get younger people more involved and stay involved to the point where they are our next great breeders 20 years from now. We need to support our local 4-H clubs with a better understanding of what AKC and the world of purebred dogs are.