Dog breeding

Just remember...dogs are easier to train than children(but not as much fun to breed):p. So wrap up and head to your local rspca shelter and pick up a mut

dogs bred for health are easy muts lol

Only yesterday I had to go to Animal Rescue International for our pup and read some of the flyers on the wall... one reflected quite well what I think of (dog) breeding. Can't quote it word by word but it went something along the lines of:

(Dog) breeders exploit animals for their personal profit whilst there are so many stricken creatures out there, desperately looking for a place - therefore (dog) breeders are not welcomed here.

If you are looking for a dog or cat or any kind of pet - please opt for a non-pedigree animal. Not only their genetic "material" is more stable, not only their emotional state is more stable, but also you will help a creature that would otherwise find it harder to find a home.

Don't promote breeding and don't create demand.

my

There's a difference between dog breeders and puppy farms. The ones I deal with are people who breed litters when they're after a new dog for themselves and sell the others, they don't actually make a profit when you take into consideration all the vaccination, microchipping and so on. they're generally known as "hobby breeders". Reputable people will screen for genetic conditions, the national body for specific breeds will often publish lineages of affected animals so you can check the peigree of yours against known carrier lines too.

Puppies sold in pet shops are likely the result of uncontrolled breeding, as are most of the animals in shelters.

Get your animal from wherever but GET IT NEUTERED.

breeding often has two angles
1) looks -which I don't particularily like but can admit to liking a black dog with perky ears over a blonde with droopy ears
2) temperment -which I can understand

It seems to me that breeders can be good or bad, I think puppymills are probably more likely the cause of shelter overpopulation and the fact that some people just abandon their animals.

All that being said, i go with the mutts. Have found better temperments with them, less likely to get adopted next to a purebred, less health problems.

Gus has been my best friend for five years-he's probably eleven- and now I'm soon going to let him go to the proverbial farm where maybe he can actually catch those damn squirrels. When the time comes, I'll probably get another mutt who's about to be put down for no reason other than no room in the inn.

All of this talk about breeding and my dog is purebread Old English Mastiff, was 200lbs when she was healthy, and she is now 12.5 and 165lbs. How she is still alive is beyond me, she has had moments where we thought it was gonna be time to put her down, then she gets back up. No idea, at some point she must have made a deal with the devil

My mutt lived to be 15.

It's a two-sided thing.

Respectful home breeders, who have maybe two litters a year and who are working with rare dog breeds, can probably be respected. When you have a dog breed with a low population, such as most giant breeds, such a situation is pretty much the only thing that props the breed up. My family has purebred mastiffs. That being said, we plan on going through a breed-specific rescue in the future.

I have no problem with paced, respectful breeding. I have problems with puppy mills. That's just screwed up.

Really the larger problem is owners who don't spay or neuter for whatever reason. Yeah puppy mills make the situation worse, but you MUST spay or neuter your pet or you are making a bad situation so much worse.

Oh, by the way: Don't give the Amish any money. The Amish's religious beliefs let them puppy mill and it's MUCH harder to bust them for it. Not only that, they tend to just shoot the entire "production line" of dogs if they think they're about to get in trouble. There are rescues running just trying to recover dogs from the Amish.

FWIW, of our two elderly Mastiffs, one was a rescue, my cat is a retired barn cat, and my guinea pigs came from a small animal rescue. And our corgi was dumped on the street.

How can someone's religious beliefs be what's behind puppy mills? Or do you mean that it's because of the religion that they're not scrutinised?

Yay for mastiffs!! I'd absolutely love one!

Rouge Dragon: I guess the Amish view animals as property and thus have no problem breeding dogs into the ground and shooting them if they don't want them anymore. As said, in a few states it's a fairly sizable problem, if you google around you'll find stories about it. Terrible stuff.

As for mastiffs, they're not easy to find but all the breeders I've meet have seemed pretty decent. They're amazingly easy dogs to handle, too. If you get one and you do go to a breeder, make sure you see the parents and the bloodline. They can have hip problems and stuff.

That is generally the best way to be honest, you get to a point where you have to discount owning lots of dogs on the basis of the breed predilictions. Unfortunately the Kennel Club have very little influence over breed standards, they have tried to improve some traits by introducing the Hip and Elbow Scoring, but they only cover some of the problems. The worst affected dogs are the bulldog as the breed standards directly impact upon the health of the animal, such as bracycphalic disease, valgal deformation etc.

I have mixed feelings about dog breeding. I tend to dislike it in general, They propagate a lot of genetic diseases for the sake of breed conformation. Their isn't very much effort to improve the condition of the breed on the part of most breeders. For example german shepards are in a serious need of recueing. To hell with breed conformity, mix the breed with similar breeds untill the hip issue is rectified. But breeders continue to carry on the bad genes in the name of the AKK (what I call the american kennel club)

Most dog owners don't have a need for pure breds anyways since they are only seeking companion dogs. Theirs no need for special temperments, phqisques and behaviours that are required for working dogs.

Their is definatly a need for breeders for the purpose of working dogs, if your running a sheep farm your not going to do trial and error adopting dogs from a shelter untill you find one with good herding instincts.

When I get a second dog I have a list of various breeds I would like in it's mix, but I wont go to a dog breeder and buy one, ill just take my time searching shelters untill I find one that has a mix of breeds im looking for, because I will probably end up with a superior dog anyways and I know that dog won't end up underneath the needle.

The best dogs ive ever seen were mix breeds.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. Most dog owners have a need for temperament - or at least SHOULD! I was four when my family bought our first dog and it was essential that the dog have the sort of temperament that would be acceptable with a child in the house. And even without a child living in the house, you need to take into account children visiting the house, people who you encounter while taking the dog walking etc.

Temperament is HUGELY important, no matter the owner of the dog.

Behaviour as well - some breeds need more exercise than others and if you were to get a mutt with a very-high energy breed in it when you can't provide it with large amounts of energy then that would be a big issue.

Your standard dog owner who is only after a companion animal still needs to be taking things like temperament and behaviour into consideration.

II agree with Rouge. Like if all you want is a low energy companion, something like a Mastiff is 100% perfect if you don't mind the slobber at sight of food. But if you are a low energy person and get something like a Lab, it's going to go mad, not crazy, I mean angry mad. It won't listen, this is the kind of situation where you have dogs going and tearing up furniture and biting people.

hmm... might be being unfair to labs there. The only time I met a violent lab was one that had been rescued that a friend who runs a re-homing charity asked us to look after for a day until she could pick it up.

Poor thing went crazy at the sight of me and my sister. Think teenagers had abused it badly. Had to be put down later apparently

rogue it's important, but their needs are not so specialized they need to seek a pure breed. their are always dogs in shelters with a variety of good temperments and diffrent personalitys and behaviours.

I'm not being mean to labs, I love labs. They're energetic. But what I'm saying is that you can't treat an energetic dog, SUCH AS a lab, like you would treat a mellow one, SUCH AS a mastiff, or stuff starts going wrong. And like the dog going crazy at your sight. That's similar to my dog, apparently the person who used to beat her always wore a baseball cap and cowers in fear when she sees someone other than me or my mom wearing a baseball cap.

There are two kinds of Labradors in my experience. There's the really smart ones, you know the ones that know an entire list of tricks and retrieve or herd. Then there's the "stupid as a box of hair" Labradors. I'm not sure if it's because of overbreeding or what but they seem to go one way or the other.

They also seem to be getting bigger. Why are there 80 pound labs? Labs are supposed to weigh like 45 pounds!

Rouge Dragon is right that many breeds have character traits, Red setters being dippy, Patterdale terriers being snappy, Greyhounds nervous, but this is not a guarentee and each animal is also influenced highly by the type of upbringing and treatment, as well as some of the influence of the breed, so a pedgree does not always ensure you will get the same behavior traits.

Some working dogs are definately bred for a purpose, some no longer perform that (i.e. border terriers were bred to go in saddle bags hunting) and some do. Those breeds are understandable if certain physical criterea need to be filled. The problem arises that a lot of breeders who show the animals, do not work them as well, and still want dew claws removed and tails docked, even tho' it does not affect the dog, it just means lower marks in the show ring!

But how do you know? That's the problem.

If it came between a dog from a breeder with a background and bred temperament versus a mutt from the RSPCA and I had a young family, I'd pick the bred dog any day! And as much as that isn't the case all the time, I wouldn't be taking chances if I had kids!