the "thinking of breeding your dog..?" flowchart
- Thread starter Fran101
- Start date
I personally don't think a dog is breeding quality just because of those qualifications. For instance:
-there are titled dogs in the pedigree (in a single generation, good dogs can produce crappy dogs, pedigrees are nothing more than an indicator or backup)
-it has a "stable" temperament. Many or most dogs have stable temperaments, something like a presa canario needs so much more than a "stable" temperament to be even considered for breeding, and it is so important for the breed.
I could care less why you breed your dog so long as you do it properly... if you breed only good dogs, cull and place in good homes, it doesn't matter to me whether you made money off of it or not... the money in and of itself isn't the problem it's that people let it get in the way of producing quality animals.
If you are breeding for the first time (and I think that is who this chart is catered to) than your dog should have some pretty serious titles (where this applies, obviously) on it, and even then... they're titles... and I think most titles put lots of emphasis on training... You can't pass down training, only genetics... so when judging a breeding dog you are trying to judge its genetic worth. There are people who will struggle to get titles on their dog, and eventually do, and then use that as a justification for breeding it. To me that's like painting a showdog's nails a different color and then getting its CH.
For something like a German Shepherd, I wouldn't breed it unless there were some pretty respectable people recommending doing so. See, improving the breed... does that mean an overall improvement? Because breeding my dog would be an improvement over a ton of GSD's out there (IMO lol). But I don't think he is an improvement over or in league with the top whatever-percent of working line dogs. When trying to "better the breed" as people like to say, you don't breed to good dogs if you have enough excellent dogs.
I would make an exception for rare breeds, where if they aren't bred the gene pool is going to be is dire straits.
Just my thoughts on the subject.
It's a good flow chart, really! I'm just being picky.
-there are titled dogs in the pedigree (in a single generation, good dogs can produce crappy dogs, pedigrees are nothing more than an indicator or backup)
-it has a "stable" temperament. Many or most dogs have stable temperaments, something like a presa canario needs so much more than a "stable" temperament to be even considered for breeding, and it is so important for the breed.
I could care less why you breed your dog so long as you do it properly... if you breed only good dogs, cull and place in good homes, it doesn't matter to me whether you made money off of it or not... the money in and of itself isn't the problem it's that people let it get in the way of producing quality animals.
If you are breeding for the first time (and I think that is who this chart is catered to) than your dog should have some pretty serious titles (where this applies, obviously) on it, and even then... they're titles... and I think most titles put lots of emphasis on training... You can't pass down training, only genetics... so when judging a breeding dog you are trying to judge its genetic worth. There are people who will struggle to get titles on their dog, and eventually do, and then use that as a justification for breeding it. To me that's like painting a showdog's nails a different color and then getting its CH.
For something like a German Shepherd, I wouldn't breed it unless there were some pretty respectable people recommending doing so. See, improving the breed... does that mean an overall improvement? Because breeding my dog would be an improvement over a ton of GSD's out there (IMO lol). But I don't think he is an improvement over or in league with the top whatever-percent of working line dogs. When trying to "better the breed" as people like to say, you don't breed to good dogs if you have enough excellent dogs.
I would make an exception for rare breeds, where if they aren't bred the gene pool is going to be is dire straits.
Just my thoughts on the subject.
It's a good flow chart, really! I'm just being picky.