7 Questions For Dog Breeders and The Kennel Club
Published on June 25, 2009 by Ryan O'Meara · 1 CommentToday, something different.
7 open ended questions that I’d be happy for anyone to tackle. They are aimed, primarily at those involved in the breeding or ‘regulation’ of breeding of dogs. Let’s go….1) Why are so many breeders and breed enthusiasts scared witless of the idea of outcrossing? Are they not aware of how their ‘breed’ came in to existance in the first place?
2) Why aren’t breeders more pro-active and forceful in insisting (and I MEAN insisting) that their good name not be associated with those who have sullied the reputation of dog breeding as a science? What I mean is, why do more breeders not DEMAND that the Kennel Club only EVER register dogs from breeders who meet high standards rather than happily sitting shoulder to shoulder with breeders who don’t care about health, puppy farmers and other breeders who use the Kennel Club to register poor quality dogs. Where is the ‘gold standard’ and why aren’t more breeders actively, strongly, aggressively pushing for it?
3) The ‘average’ dog breeder. How much do they REALLY know about dogs, let alone the genetics, health and reproduction of dogs?
4) What breeds have been materially and significantly ‘improved’ by KC endorsed breed standards, breeding practices and the show-ring over the past 100 years? Facts, figures, stats and case studies please on the breeds which are more healthy, living longer, are less prone to genetic disease and are in a much better state than they ever have been in the last century.
5) Breeding for the (human defined) definition of ‘closest to the breed standard’ – how does this aid the dog?
6) Why is health and temperament testing not compulsory for ALL matings? Such a scheme could be introduced with relative ease, why isn’t it? Why are the Kennel Club running scared of the breeders and breed groups who are MOST resistant to significant, radical reform? Is it because they themselves do not (really) wish to reform? Is it because they don’t believe there is much need for reform? Or is it something else entirely (fear of breeder setting up their own organisations and depriving the Kennel Club of revenue, for example)?
7) Who needs breed standards, dogs or their owners?
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Tags: kennel club
Very Interesting questions ……..
Here are my answers,
1) Can’t talk for anybody else, but I’m not scared of out crossing, but I haven’ used it. Out-crossing will, by its very nature, produce unpredictable results. You won’t get a uniform litter, the puppies will have features from both the dam and the sire but in various amounts and of course if the grandparents were crosses then features of those dogs will also be added into the mix. To improve a breed by outcrossing you would need to stable lines and then use backcrossing to the breed you were improving. This takes lots of dedication.
2) I didn’t think that dog breeding was a science. Genetics is a science and it is not fully understood. I’m not sure what you mean by highest breeding standards – do you mean only breeding from animals with no health or behaviour problems? If you do – doesn’t that reduce the gene pool even more that it is at the moment – shouldn’t we be a bit more intelligent than that?
3) I suspect that the average dog breeder knows quite a bit about the health and reproduction of their breed, I suspect they don’t know a large amount about genetics, but I also suspect that only people who have studied it formally would know alot about it. As for what breeders REALLY know about dogs, well what an odd question – do you mean their behaviour? Training them? Working them? Treating their illnesses?, What nutrition they require?, How they develop? or something else? (If this is what you mean, where can one find up-to-data, unbiased and current information?)
4) Depends what you mean by improved – hip scores are generally coming down, dogs that had reputations for being aggressive (e.g. GSD) have become less aggressive surely that is an improvement?
5) Breeding to a standard doesn’t directly help the dog, except that it allows the dog to be more predictable, whether that be in size, coat type, behavioural traits, trainability, exercise needs etc, etc. This allow the prospective owner have a better chance of choosing the right dog for them!
6) Why isn’t health testing compulsory? I think that it would be a good idea if it was, but for those who don’t agree they would still breed and not register their pups – possibly go into breeding “designer dogs” charge more money and do no health testing – because as we have been all told cross-breeds have no health problems! (of course this is not true!)
7) I think this is the same question as 5) people want the standards to know what type of dog they will get!
A little bit about me:
I have bred one litter – pedigree Labradors. I did all the health testing, ensured that the sire had too. Investigated the sires behaviour and the other litters he had produced. I charged a reasonable rate for the puppies – not to cheap and not too expensive and only advertised with the breed club (not in the paper or shop windows!) We had a large litter and made a small loss!!
I am a dog training instructor and I have an HNC in Canine Behaviour and Training, and I am currently studying to enhance this to a foundation degree..
I don’t work for the Kennel Club
Hope this widens the debate