What would you do in the following situations? What do you think the wrong thing to do would be? Why? (This can be about ANY breed, but for the sake of the Cases I've already thought out, we'll say that you are breeding working dogs... any work, by the way, but work that requires drive(mostly prey drive)
Case/Scenario 1
You have two dogs, titled, health tested and cleared. Both dogs ahave excellent temperaments, nice conformation and work ethic. You breed them once, and get excellent puppies. Exactly what you were hoping for with this cross of bloodlines. The puppies are extremely nice all around. Many go on to be titled before or soon after they are a year old. (Also, in this one, I'm not talking about conformation titles, I'm talking about working titles, lets assume the conformation is second to the health, temperament and working drive here.) (An, lets not debate working younger dogs. Lets assume also that they are earning titles that are not straining their joints and such)
You breed this cross again a year and a half later. Same parents. This time the puppies are not as outgoing, not as drivey, not as sound conformation wise. Would you try again with this cross? If not, you wouldn't even try one more time? Why or why not?
Case/Scenario Two
(The younger dog can be either a girl or boy. It doesn't matter)
You have a young dog, and you have their father. The younger dog is say, a year and a half. The father is a nice successful dog, titled and campaigned well. Say he's eight. Not old, but not really young either. The younger dog is well on her way to being as successful as her father. Then the father starts having seizures or develops a cancer well known in the breed.
Would you breed the younger dog? Or would you breed it if you researched the lines you were breeding to even more carefully than normal for seizures/cancer? Why? Why not?
Case/Scenario Tres
You have a nice conformationally sound (for working, say, the dog probably isn't going to finish or step foot in Westminster) dog. Excellent drive, temperament, and great health. Would you breed this dog even if you had never titled her? You know she can do the work, but you just haven't gotten around to titling her. You have a stud who would bring out everything that makes her great and round out whatever it is that makes her not so great. Whatever points that may be. Make it up yourself. Would you breed this dog? She can do it. That is not the question. You know if you were to trial her, she could and would win. You just, are, lazy. Would you breed her? Or would you wait until you titled her? Would it change if the dog was six? Or eight? And you absolutely wanted to carry her bloodlines in your program? What would you do? What would you consider poor breeding practices?
Case/Scenario Go
You have a nice dog, all around great dog. Does his job or his sport well, is highly regarded by everyone in your breed to be an excellent representation of the breed. The problem is, he has a problem. Lets say, he either has DJD1 issues or he is a monorchid, or his bite is not correct, scissor instead of level, something relatively minor, but that has a chance to be passed on to any pups. Remember, we are talking working dogs. This means working dogs who have pretty much split from the show ring for the most part. His bite doesn't matter as long as he doesn't have a wry mouth or something.
Would you breed this dog? Yes? No? Why not?
If you did decide to breed, would you just tell the new owners or potential owners of the pups about the problem, or would you go one step further and insure that all pups were spayed and neutered. If so, what would have been the point of breeding him? You've just made more dogs, and the line is still not going any further. Could you justify that?
Case/Scenario VI
You produce a litter out of two nice dogs. All the puppies in this litter are extremely shy. All need intense socialization to be even slightly normal. One or two is extremely fearful and all have to be placed into experienced pet homes. None have developed fear aggression, but all are slightly wary of meeting new people and prefer to run away rather than greet. Would you breed these two dogs again? To each other? To another dog? Why or why not again..?
Play devils advocate with these if you want. I just have way too much time on my hands, and wanted to get a better grasp of what you all think it ethical and unethical. Personally, I'd have problems breeding any of these dogs again. Don't let anyone else response color your judgment and response. Please, no bashing any one for their opinions. You don't have to be a breeder to have an opinion over what the breeder should do.
(By the way, because I am weird, the Cases are numbered as follows.
1, numerical
2, written english
3, spanish
there is no four.
5, Japanese
6, Roman Numerals.
Thank you for playing along. )
Case/Scenario 1
You have two dogs, titled, health tested and cleared. Both dogs ahave excellent temperaments, nice conformation and work ethic. You breed them once, and get excellent puppies. Exactly what you were hoping for with this cross of bloodlines. The puppies are extremely nice all around. Many go on to be titled before or soon after they are a year old. (Also, in this one, I'm not talking about conformation titles, I'm talking about working titles, lets assume the conformation is second to the health, temperament and working drive here.) (An, lets not debate working younger dogs. Lets assume also that they are earning titles that are not straining their joints and such)
You breed this cross again a year and a half later. Same parents. This time the puppies are not as outgoing, not as drivey, not as sound conformation wise. Would you try again with this cross? If not, you wouldn't even try one more time? Why or why not?
Case/Scenario Two
(The younger dog can be either a girl or boy. It doesn't matter)
You have a young dog, and you have their father. The younger dog is say, a year and a half. The father is a nice successful dog, titled and campaigned well. Say he's eight. Not old, but not really young either. The younger dog is well on her way to being as successful as her father. Then the father starts having seizures or develops a cancer well known in the breed.
Would you breed the younger dog? Or would you breed it if you researched the lines you were breeding to even more carefully than normal for seizures/cancer? Why? Why not?
Case/Scenario Tres
You have a nice conformationally sound (for working, say, the dog probably isn't going to finish or step foot in Westminster) dog. Excellent drive, temperament, and great health. Would you breed this dog even if you had never titled her? You know she can do the work, but you just haven't gotten around to titling her. You have a stud who would bring out everything that makes her great and round out whatever it is that makes her not so great. Whatever points that may be. Make it up yourself. Would you breed this dog? She can do it. That is not the question. You know if you were to trial her, she could and would win. You just, are, lazy. Would you breed her? Or would you wait until you titled her? Would it change if the dog was six? Or eight? And you absolutely wanted to carry her bloodlines in your program? What would you do? What would you consider poor breeding practices?
Case/Scenario Go
You have a nice dog, all around great dog. Does his job or his sport well, is highly regarded by everyone in your breed to be an excellent representation of the breed. The problem is, he has a problem. Lets say, he either has DJD1 issues or he is a monorchid, or his bite is not correct, scissor instead of level, something relatively minor, but that has a chance to be passed on to any pups. Remember, we are talking working dogs. This means working dogs who have pretty much split from the show ring for the most part. His bite doesn't matter as long as he doesn't have a wry mouth or something.
Would you breed this dog? Yes? No? Why not?
If you did decide to breed, would you just tell the new owners or potential owners of the pups about the problem, or would you go one step further and insure that all pups were spayed and neutered. If so, what would have been the point of breeding him? You've just made more dogs, and the line is still not going any further. Could you justify that?
Case/Scenario VI
You produce a litter out of two nice dogs. All the puppies in this litter are extremely shy. All need intense socialization to be even slightly normal. One or two is extremely fearful and all have to be placed into experienced pet homes. None have developed fear aggression, but all are slightly wary of meeting new people and prefer to run away rather than greet. Would you breed these two dogs again? To each other? To another dog? Why or why not again..?
Play devils advocate with these if you want. I just have way too much time on my hands, and wanted to get a better grasp of what you all think it ethical and unethical. Personally, I'd have problems breeding any of these dogs again. Don't let anyone else response color your judgment and response. Please, no bashing any one for their opinions. You don't have to be a breeder to have an opinion over what the breeder should do.
(By the way, because I am weird, the Cases are numbered as follows.
1, numerical
2, written english
3, spanish
there is no four.
5, Japanese
6, Roman Numerals.
Thank you for playing along. )