Dog Breeding
Dogs
Dog Breeding
Backyard Breeder | Breed Club | Breed Registry | Breed Standard | Crossbreed | Dog Hybrids and Crossbreeds | Fault | Pedigree | Puppy Mills | Purebreds | Selective Breeding | Snuppy | Stud Master
Dog breeding is the vocation of mating carefully selected
specimens of the same
breed to
reproduce specific, consistently replicable qualities and
characteristics.
Litters of puppies and their mothers should have clean, comfortable bedding.
At its best, breeding is a blend of science and art. The skilled breeder has
at least general knowledge of genetics and health, and in-depth knowledge of the
breed standard and
conformation points of his chosen breed. Most breeders are fiercely loyal to
their dogs, and are concerned about each individual animal.
At worst, breeding can be a slipshod enterprise in which the major concern is
profit, with little regard to the health and welfare of the dogs involved. These
often take the form of so-called ‘backyard
breeders’ (the term for random or ignorant breeding conducted on a small
scale), and ‘puppy
mills’ or ‘puppy farms’ (larger businesses). It must be pointed out,
however, that many excellent breeders run small-scale programs in their homes,
barns, or back yards, and there are profitable large-scale operations run with
knowledgeable staff and superlative
veterinary
care, so size and motive alone are not indicative of the quality of the breeding
program.
The birth of a litter of
purebred
puppies is recorded on a
breed registry maintained by an all-breed
kennel
club or a
breed club.
Such registries are not the exclusive province of
show dogs,
as is sometimes thought; the clubs of
working
dogs also maintain records of their dogs’ lineage.
A responsible breeder checks each puppy for health and conformation.
Requirements for the breeding of registered purebreds vary from club to club.
Most breed clubs allow for any registered puppy to be bred from once it reaches
a suitable age. Some clubs maintain an adjunct or limited register, for puppies
of purebred parents not deemed to have the qualities for showing or breeding, or
who exhibit a
fault.
A few clubs, such as the Swiss breed club of the
Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, the
Jack Russell Terrier Club of America and the
Mini Foxie Club of Australia, Inc. have additional, strict requirements for
the certification of adult dogs before breeding.
Future of Breeding
Snuppy, the
first cloned
dog, shows that it is possible to produce a dog that is the genetic twin of
another dog, although it is still difficult and expensive to do so. It is
possible that, in the future, it might be possible, and some people might
choose, to create a twin of their favorite pet or of an admired champion dog
rather than to adopt a dog or to wait for the outcome of a mating between two
preferred parents. If taken to an extreme, this would mean that people would be
able to review photos of breed champions, read their descriptions, and choose
one to duplicate, which would be cloned on demand.
See also
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