Bad to the Bone

Posted on Nov 21 in The Right Small Dog for You, Where to Get a Small Dogby Jeff K.Print

What makes a good dog? Good temperament. Good training. Good breeding. I want to take a few minutes to talk about that last item, because of the three, once breeding is done, it is done for good. You can work around a dog’s temperament. You can retrain a poorly trained dog. You cannot change a dog’s breeding.

Breeding refers the practice and the results of mating two animals to produce offspring with particular characteristics. Those characteristics can be anything from a dog’s fur color to a dog’s desire to hunt rodents. Breeding has been going on for centuries and its practice has ranged from scientific and precise, to accidental and irresponsible.

We could spend a lot of time talking about the science of breeding, referring to alleles, genotypes, dominant and recessive genes, and hybrid vigor. Unless you are a breeder or a scientist, it makes for pretty boring reading. What may be more interesting and relevant to you is the motivation and practices of various kinds of breeders.

Who is out there breeding the dogs we buy? There are professional breeders, usually allied with the American Kennel Club, who take great care in striving for the most healthy and true-to-breed dogs they can produce. Generally, professional breeders are motivated by results. Producing a top quality dog is the reward.

Next come the home breeders or, so-called “backyard breeders.” This is a mixed bag of people, and encompasses everyone from those who operate like the pros; to those people who crank out litter after litter simply to generate income. The best backyard breeders maintain high standards of animal husbandry and produce very few litters. The worst of the lot breed their dogs over and over without regard for what or how they are producing. The worst are on a par with puppy mills, the only difference being the damage they do is less widespread because they do not have a retail pipeline/business to sell their dogs.

Puppy mills are the worst of the worst because not only do they generate puppies simply for profit, they do so on a massive scale, often using inhumane processes. Breeding practices at puppy mills concentrate on high-volume output with little to no emphasis on quality.

There is a strong correlation between the motivation and practices of breeders and the fitness of the dogs they produce. You will be able to find the best quality dogs and the most professionally conducted buying experience when you purchase a puppy from a professional breeder. Likewise, there are many wonderful backyard breeders whose knowledge and skill produce fine dogs. Generally the top pro breeders in the country are no secret. You will have to a do a lot more research to find a high quality home breeder. While it may be tempting to buy a puppy from a neighbor because the dog looks like a good one on first inspection, you really need to do your homework to make sure you are working with someone who knows what they are doing. See this article for more information about how to find a good breeder.

Puppy mills sell to retailers, such as mall and outlet stores. I have no hesitation in saying avoid these places at all costs. It does not matter how good the situation looks on the surface, puppies in stores do not come from good places.

Bad breeding practices, aside from being inhumane, can produce dogs with pretty grim problems. Name a body organ or an anatomical system, I will tell you how a careless mix of genetic material can make it diseased or deformed. Name a behavior problem and I will show you how a sire or breeding bitch can spread that problem with its genes. The worst of it is, many of these problems are not apparent in puppies. Bring a puppy home that comes from bad parentage and six to twelve months later, (sometimes longer,) any one of thousands of latent problems will rear its ugly head. The best breeders guard against genetic problems to the best of their ability. The worst breeders think “I got mine. Now its your problem.”

Please be careful and do your homework before you buy a dog from a breeder. If we all insist on good breeding, the business of bad breeding will dry up and blow away.

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• Golly Mrs. Cleaver, Which Dog is Right for Me? says:

  November 28, 2008 at 9:13 pm

  [...] Bad to the Bone [...]