I just finished a phone conversation with a woman whose dog has bit others (children and other dogs) numerous times. All bites have all caused injury needed medical attention. The dog is 3 years of age and she never did any kind of professional training- the dog simply lived in the family. No conscience decision to make a wonderfully social dog, no work on bite inhibition... She was seeking advise on dealing with the biting issue... oh and by the way the dog is used for breeding and the dog is pregnant yet again.
Lets talk about breeding a dog. The ONLY purpose to breed a dog is to better the breed. Its not to make money, its not so the kids can experience life and its not because your dog is so cute you can't imagine her not having puppies.
When breeding a dog one should prove not only that the dog is up to the breed standard but the dog must have an excellent temperament, as up to 60% of her offspring will share her temperament. We know we have the ability to alter a dogs behavior based on counter conditioning process, but the dogs personality is cannot be ignored.
If you have chosen to purchase a dog, what can you do?
First: why do you want to purchase a dog? Make sure the reasons are worth it. Most peoples reason is because they want more of a guarantee as to the type of dog they are getting. Yet these are the same people who never met the parents of the puppy in the first place!
MEET THE PARENTS: do not fall for some excuse that the male was shipped in for breeding or the female is just not around.... we have heard it all. No parents to meet? do not bother meeting the pups. You are looking for a family member here... not a show dog. Tempermant is everything
Understand Purposefully Bred does not mean PURE bred. It saddens me when someone purchases a mixed breed dog, while thousands of mix breed and pure bred dogs are euthanized everyday in our shelters. Designer dogs are mixed breed dogs. Some people think that because the designer dog is actually mixed from two other breeds, the dog will be healthier. NOT TRUE, its still a forced breeding and with a forced breeding comes a higher risk for health issues.
Quality Breeders DO NOT Advertise. See an ad in the paper or craigslist? Its usually a front for a back yard breeder to a puppy mill. Even if that is not the case, and the person you are getting the dog from only breeds her dogs once in a while, why are you contributing to the over population of dogs but purchasing a puppy from someone who is trying to make money off the lives of animals. There are rescue groups dedicated to pure bred dogs and 26% of all the dogs in a shelter right now, are pure bred.
Do NOT buy a dog from a pet store. These dogs are always supplied by a puppy mill. A quality breeder knows where her puppy is going. She is not leaving it up to a store clerk to make sure the home is a good choice.
Never allow a puppy to be shipped. Is your breeder half way across the county? And they are happy to ship the pup to you? RUN! A quality breeder will want to meet you and your family. If they are willing to ship a pup off to who knows where, what else did they not care about.
If you are paying money for a dog, you better gets your money's worth. If by the time you take you pup home, they are not 100% crate trained, potty trianed, know sit, down and come... then you are setting yourself up for trouble. A breeder- if they are there to better the dog, will of done all that work before you even take the pup home.
I love pure bred dogs, I love mixed breed dogs. I love dogs. I just want your dog to be the best for you and your family. Great dogs do not happen by accident... its starts before they are even born.
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Sorry, but all scientific research shows that crossbreds are healthier and live longer than purebreds. If you know of any published studies that show otherwise, I'd love to see them.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous, I think you may of misunderstood...sorry, I must not of been very clear. Let me explain
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, mixed breed dogs are more likley to be heathier with less genetic defects. But that pertains to chance breedings of dogs, NOT purposefully bred dogs. With any purposefull breeding (labrador to labrador or labrador to poodle...) the risk for genetic disease is greater, since the breeding is forced. With chance breedings we seen less health issues overall. My comment was about designer dogs- dogs who were bred, not by chance, but purposfully to one another. Therefore you get the same risk of genetic diease as with a pure bred dog.
Certainly if all who bred a dog were only breeding healthy, sound and stable dogs we would not see the genetic issues we have with purpsofully bred dogs. A good example of this is the Puggle, a mix of Pug and Beagle. Cute? yes, but with a load of medical issues. Often we see pups born with the top jaw of a beagle and the lower jaw of a pug and its a medical nightmare. If a stray pug and beagle "met on the street" and bred with one another, it would be more common for the pups to be spontaniously aborted or resorbed in the mother if there were genetic problems. In a forced breeding medical profesionals can step in an intervene, an prevent many of those problems. When two stray dogs meet and breed, its more likley they are medically compatable and the pups are healthier.
Certainly we love pure bred dogs, but we alwasy suggest adopting dogs from a shelter or rescue group.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
I'm afraid that's incorrect. It has nothing to do with "forced breeding". It's all about genetics.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that you have a higher degree of health problems and a shorter lifespan with purebreds is the decrease in genetic diversity. Purebred dogs are (to quote) "puddling around in their own gene pool".
There is a good paper that touches on this subject written by Prof Paul McGreevy at http://sydney.edu.au/vetscience/research/disorders/documents/solutiondogbreeding.pdf
You are still missing the point. YES, its genetics... "puddling around in their own gene pool" and being forced to breed with a dog they would not naturally tie with as a stray, can end up having similar genetic problems. Dogs who are used by backyard breeders and puposefull bred for profit have a higher degree of genetic problems (the people breeding them care more for money than the health of the dogs) they choose other less than standard dogs to breed with, wether is the same breed or not. Hense NOT as healthy as a true mix breed
ReplyDeleteI think you've misunderstood. The "puddling around in their own gene pool" quote refers to purebreds, not mixed breeds.
ReplyDeleteDogs that are used by backyard breeders may have a higher degree of genetic problems, although I've yet to see any hard evidence of that. There are plenty of KC breeders showing and breeding dogs known to carry genetic problems (watch http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/44215931), if you haven't already.
Regardless, purebreds still have a higher overall incidence of disease than crossbreds, regardless of where the dogs come from, be it backyarder, puppy mill, or wherever. This has been shown over and over again in numerous studies.
Apart from the obvious problems of recessive genetic problems being expressed within a single breed, there is the direct correlation between diseases such as cancer, as well as overall lower life expectancy, and decreased genetic diversity. Put simply, less genetic diversity = shorter lifespan.
There's no new science here; it's all basic stuff. Unfortunately, it's just not what the purebred hobby breeders like to hear.
Again, I'd be only too happy to read any published research you may have that shows otherwise.