I have been involved with dogs most of my life in one way or another. I have seen
wonderful things happen in this world where dogs are treated with respect all living things
deserve. I grew up with dogs of all sorts mixed breed and purebred and I love them all.
There is nothing like the companionship provided by your dog as they are always glad to
see you and in their eyes you are always right. I love this innocence in my dogs. They are
always ready to cheer me up on those days when I seem like I have done everything else
wrong. Theres the wagging tail and joyful expression I see that tells me all the time that to
them at least I am O.K.
When I became an adult I got involved with the breeding of show quality collie dogs. My
border collies were working dogs and did well in the A.K.C. trials. The standards were bred
for their beauty and did well there also. It was my time in this world that showed me
another side of mans abuse to animals. It was a world filled with secrets.
When I was a child I learned from the adults in my life that all animals were imperfect. It was
a simple way of saying all us mammals carry genetic faults. There is not a perfect
specimen among us. The alley cat and the wild dog seem to be the healthiest in our world
as you will not see a cat born with no back legs living in the wild. But this is more due to the
fact that they would not be able to survive past kitten weeks in the wild and not because
the parents were more genetically sound. No matter where we come from all us mammals
have genetic faults.
In the world of the show dog it appears to me that kennels go to great lengths to hide the
genetic faults in their line. They like to present to you a picture of a perfect dog. This is to
keep the value of their dogs high still looking at this animal as property. Which by law, that
is what all animals are. I am not looking to change this fact or to start putting the value on
an animals life as high as the value of human life. I only feel it is morally wrong to hide a
genetic fault that your line may carry as a way to make more profit. We as the pure bred
dog breeder has a moral responsibility to the future of the breed we have. We want them
stronger, healthier, and better temperments. We want our working dogs to be better at the
jobs they were bred to perform. We want our companion dogs to be gentle.
When a dog becomes a champion, he becomes more valuable to his owner. His stud
services will be more sought after and soon sons and daughters to this dog will be showing
up in kennels all over the country and maybe even the world. Now suppose this dog
though perfect looking enough to make it big in the show dog world carried in his dna a
serious genetic fault such as deafness. This dog may not have the problem but he may be
passing this fault onto his many offspring and thus flooding the dog world with more
problems. But the owner of the dog does not want to tell other breeders about this problem
hes had with this line because he will make less money on this dog.
Now just assume he was willing to tell about this fault and thus make it possible for the
owners of the bitches to breed dogs to his dog who do not carry the fault and thus make it
less likely to cause more harm to come to this breed. This would be better. He will make
less money, but he will not be harming the future of this breed. I am afraid Ive seen little of
this sort of honesty and bravery in the show dog world. In fact even if you know of a
genetic fault in someones kennel you dare not mention this as you will be looked down on
by other breeders in this world. Thus the secrets in the show dog world is great and it is
doing great harm to purebred dogs.
I think the only way to improve the future of any breed is for everyone to be upfront and
honest about their lines. Sure you can breed only your dogs and avoid many genetic faults
this way. But you are limiting what you can accomplish because you are working with a
limited gene pool. How much better would it be if you could with confidence be able to work
with all the dogs available to you in all the kennels producing show type dogs. How much
better looking can you make your line? How much healthier can you make your line? How
much more of a positive impact can you make on the future of your breed?
It would be wonderful if we were required to mention any genetic faults known of in a line to
be mentioned in a pedigree or at least put in a record book where anyone interested in
breeding their dogs can look it up and thus avoid certain problems. Mans greed is never
going to let this happen.
I am working with only a few other breeders in our area all in an agreement to be honest
about any problems that could come up. I am only willing to buy dogs from someone who
would be honest with me about their line. I know there are no perfect dogs out there as far
as genetics go and all we can do is keep ourselves aware of the problems and avoid them.
Honesty is the key word here. We need to stop this cycle of silence in the dog world if ever
we are to improve the future of the breed we love so much.
I have worked with dogs in several different capacities through out my life from training to
breeding to rescuing. The most dishonesty Ive seen in the dog world has been in the show
dog world. I have seen some beautiful dogs in that world but have not seen any
improvement on the genetic soundness in their kennels. I would be so bold as to believe
that these kennels are doing just as much harm to the health of dogs as the back yard
breeders. Back yard breeders do what they do out of ignorance and non caring. The show
dog world has just as little caring going on and will even knowingly let genetic faults
happen due to the greed of money or prestige.
I am not saying all show dog kennels are like this. I am not saying that all pet dog kennels
are like this. I am saying they are the majority. Who suffers. The people who buy these
dogs certainly.
But ts the dog who is born with no eyes who suffers. Hes blind because the show standard
for their breed said small almond shape eyes are desirable. So the show dog breeder
breeds his dogs to get the smallest and causing a genetic defect. This puppy is destroyed
right away. Hide the problem and keep the fault.
Its the dog who is bound to have hip displacia because it was stylish that year for great
danes to be tall in the front and have an elegant gate. This was a genetic fault that caused
it but it was desirable. So more dogs are born with this tendency for hip dissplacia.
Or its dogs who are so small that they can not live a normal life and often die on the
surgery table because the anesthesia was to strong for them.
Or the breed who is plagued with hypoglycemia in many lines now because they can not
store fat in their tiny livers.
The dog born deaf
The dog born blind
The dog dieing form heart problems
The dog with cancer
The dog born with no back legs.
The dog born unable to breath properly.
These are the biggest losers of our greed.
All us who breed dogs must be determined to be honest in spite of what it might cost us in
money or prestige. It takes a lot of courage to be honest in a world that is plagued by its
secrets. It al comes down to why it is we are breeding dogs. I hear over and over again we
should be trying to improve the breed. How can we do this if ignorance keeps us in the
dark.
(ie) Swallow your pride and admit if your dog has had some problems with subluxating
patella in his line. Lets not breed him to your bitch if you know this to be the case in your
line.
wonderful things happen in this world where dogs are treated with respect all living things
deserve. I grew up with dogs of all sorts mixed breed and purebred and I love them all.
There is nothing like the companionship provided by your dog as they are always glad to
see you and in their eyes you are always right. I love this innocence in my dogs. They are
always ready to cheer me up on those days when I seem like I have done everything else
wrong. Theres the wagging tail and joyful expression I see that tells me all the time that to
them at least I am O.K.
When I became an adult I got involved with the breeding of show quality collie dogs. My
border collies were working dogs and did well in the A.K.C. trials. The standards were bred
for their beauty and did well there also. It was my time in this world that showed me
another side of mans abuse to animals. It was a world filled with secrets.
When I was a child I learned from the adults in my life that all animals were imperfect. It was
a simple way of saying all us mammals carry genetic faults. There is not a perfect
specimen among us. The alley cat and the wild dog seem to be the healthiest in our world
as you will not see a cat born with no back legs living in the wild. But this is more due to the
fact that they would not be able to survive past kitten weeks in the wild and not because
the parents were more genetically sound. No matter where we come from all us mammals
have genetic faults.
In the world of the show dog it appears to me that kennels go to great lengths to hide the
genetic faults in their line. They like to present to you a picture of a perfect dog. This is to
keep the value of their dogs high still looking at this animal as property. Which by law, that
is what all animals are. I am not looking to change this fact or to start putting the value on
an animals life as high as the value of human life. I only feel it is morally wrong to hide a
genetic fault that your line may carry as a way to make more profit. We as the pure bred
dog breeder has a moral responsibility to the future of the breed we have. We want them
stronger, healthier, and better temperments. We want our working dogs to be better at the
jobs they were bred to perform. We want our companion dogs to be gentle.
When a dog becomes a champion, he becomes more valuable to his owner. His stud
services will be more sought after and soon sons and daughters to this dog will be showing
up in kennels all over the country and maybe even the world. Now suppose this dog
though perfect looking enough to make it big in the show dog world carried in his dna a
serious genetic fault such as deafness. This dog may not have the problem but he may be
passing this fault onto his many offspring and thus flooding the dog world with more
problems. But the owner of the dog does not want to tell other breeders about this problem
hes had with this line because he will make less money on this dog.
Now just assume he was willing to tell about this fault and thus make it possible for the
owners of the bitches to breed dogs to his dog who do not carry the fault and thus make it
less likely to cause more harm to come to this breed. This would be better. He will make
less money, but he will not be harming the future of this breed. I am afraid Ive seen little of
this sort of honesty and bravery in the show dog world. In fact even if you know of a
genetic fault in someones kennel you dare not mention this as you will be looked down on
by other breeders in this world. Thus the secrets in the show dog world is great and it is
doing great harm to purebred dogs.
I think the only way to improve the future of any breed is for everyone to be upfront and
honest about their lines. Sure you can breed only your dogs and avoid many genetic faults
this way. But you are limiting what you can accomplish because you are working with a
limited gene pool. How much better would it be if you could with confidence be able to work
with all the dogs available to you in all the kennels producing show type dogs. How much
better looking can you make your line? How much healthier can you make your line? How
much more of a positive impact can you make on the future of your breed?
It would be wonderful if we were required to mention any genetic faults known of in a line to
be mentioned in a pedigree or at least put in a record book where anyone interested in
breeding their dogs can look it up and thus avoid certain problems. Mans greed is never
going to let this happen.
I am working with only a few other breeders in our area all in an agreement to be honest
about any problems that could come up. I am only willing to buy dogs from someone who
would be honest with me about their line. I know there are no perfect dogs out there as far
as genetics go and all we can do is keep ourselves aware of the problems and avoid them.
Honesty is the key word here. We need to stop this cycle of silence in the dog world if ever
we are to improve the future of the breed we love so much.
I have worked with dogs in several different capacities through out my life from training to
breeding to rescuing. The most dishonesty Ive seen in the dog world has been in the show
dog world. I have seen some beautiful dogs in that world but have not seen any
improvement on the genetic soundness in their kennels. I would be so bold as to believe
that these kennels are doing just as much harm to the health of dogs as the back yard
breeders. Back yard breeders do what they do out of ignorance and non caring. The show
dog world has just as little caring going on and will even knowingly let genetic faults
happen due to the greed of money or prestige.
I am not saying all show dog kennels are like this. I am not saying that all pet dog kennels
are like this. I am saying they are the majority. Who suffers. The people who buy these
dogs certainly.
But ts the dog who is born with no eyes who suffers. Hes blind because the show standard
for their breed said small almond shape eyes are desirable. So the show dog breeder
breeds his dogs to get the smallest and causing a genetic defect. This puppy is destroyed
right away. Hide the problem and keep the fault.
Its the dog who is bound to have hip displacia because it was stylish that year for great
danes to be tall in the front and have an elegant gate. This was a genetic fault that caused
it but it was desirable. So more dogs are born with this tendency for hip dissplacia.
Or its dogs who are so small that they can not live a normal life and often die on the
surgery table because the anesthesia was to strong for them.
Or the breed who is plagued with hypoglycemia in many lines now because they can not
store fat in their tiny livers.
The dog born deaf
The dog born blind
The dog dieing form heart problems
The dog with cancer
The dog born with no back legs.
The dog born unable to breath properly.
These are the biggest losers of our greed.
All us who breed dogs must be determined to be honest in spite of what it might cost us in
money or prestige. It takes a lot of courage to be honest in a world that is plagued by its
secrets. It al comes down to why it is we are breeding dogs. I hear over and over again we
should be trying to improve the breed. How can we do this if ignorance keeps us in the
dark.
(ie) Swallow your pride and admit if your dog has had some problems with subluxating
patella in his line. Lets not breed him to your bitch if you know this to be the case in your
line.
| Lets Be honest |
| As responsible breeders we have it in our power to be determined that all dogs born in our homes or kennels have the potential to live out their lives healthy and happy and should do all we can to see to it that this happens from the day they are conceived until the day they die. |