The Breeding Principle
It is a wholly natural feeling if you love the dog you own to want to breed her. There are millions of reasons pet owners give for thinking about breeding little Fifi. Accidents aside, which should have been prevented by responsible pet owners, none of the common reasons for breeding a pet are very good. Difficult as they may be to swallow, once you read what is to follow, the earnest attempt of this article is to discourage you from breeding either for your own pleasure or for purposes of turning your dog into a business.
Some of these you may have considered and others you may not have but it’s a good idea to debunk all the reasons people give for wanting to breed their dogs.
“I just love my little Fifi so much; I want another just like her.”
Dogs are complete individuals. While it is true that if you breed two purebred dogs, you will get a dog of the same breed, there is absolutely no insurance that you will get a dog just like “Fifi.” In fact, the chances are slim to none, because what makes little Fifi special are personal traits unique to her.
“I want my children to experience the joys of birth.”
There are many, many safer and better ways to teach your children about the birthing process. What you’re more likely to teach them about is the pain of the breeding process, the loss of their favorite pet due to a birthing complication and/or the illness or death of one or more puppies. You can teach your children about responsible pet ownership by adopting a less sought after, but highly appreciative dog from the shelter. This message will stick with them well into adulthood.
“I’m not in it to make money…”
That’s fabulous! Because as a serious breeder, you’re not going to make any, but as a pet owner playing around without concern for or awareness of genetics, your experiments and dabbles in the breeding world are likely to cost you quite a bit. Without the proper research into your dog’s genetic background, health testing and the same for the sire (father) of the puppies, you’re very likely to be breeding little time bombs that will become seriously ill or disabled as they get older.
A note on the aforementioned health tests: Just because you have taken little Fifi to the veterinarian for a yearly checkup and he’s said she’s fine does not mean she has been health tested. Both Fifi and Fido (the sire) should be tested for any hereditary disease specific to that dog. And thanks to selective breeding over the last 200 years or more, all dogs have many and most of them are very unpleasant. Some are debilitating, others are horrifically painful and still others are fatal. All breeds, regardless of breed should be tested for cardiac problems, hip dysplasia, and eye problems. These tests can be enormously expensive.
“My dog isn’t a purebred, I just want to have a few puppies and all my friends want one so I know they’re going to a good home.”
If you have already placed more puppies than you can possibly expect from a breeding, you’re one up on the game, but the problem is many of those people will back down when it comes time to pick up little Fifiette. Even if they don’t, do you really want to give people you care about, or even people you don’t, a puppy that you don’t know anything about genetically, and may be hiding serious genetic diseases? That’s no fun for your friends, the little Fifiettes and in turn, it won’t be fun for you.
The Truth About Breeding That Few People Discuss
If you were to trace where every puppy that was purchased from a breeder ends up, you would find that a good percentage end up in the very same shelters you are avoiding adopting from when you breed dogs. What oftentimes occurs is that the dog ends up being too much for the inexperienced owner. People fall in love with a certain look of a dog and have no clue what the breed’s typical temperament is. The result is ending up with an overly protective, highly intelligent, in desperate need of copious amounts of exercise German Shepherd, for example, who doesn’t fit in with two people whose livelihoods depend on being away from home 10 hours a day.
Before you think about breeding little Fifi, visit your local animal shelter and find a little dog who desperately needs a good home. Very little replaces the feeling of saving a dog from an otherwise miserable life.