By selecting color, is there a certain color combo you are trying to achieve? Is there a certain "look" you are trying to achieve and how to you determine it? It seems as if it would be impossible to predict.
How will your efforts exceed only this particular generation? What is the long term or does it start and stop with this generation?
How do you ensure that the breed specific issue of one breed will not be carried over to the next? Or that an undesired trait will not 'double up' in the offspring.
I.e, I *think* that Maltese are prone to eye infections and specific disorders. Would crossing one with a breed with a more protruding eye not increase this risk? Also, both breeds are prone to age progressive disorders...would combining the two create more or less risk of that?
Also, as Shih-Tzus are a brachiocephalic breed, their respiratory systems work on a slower pace. How can you ensure that you do not end up with offspring that aquire the brachio traits, but without the compromised respiratory system?"
Black and white in color. And yes for a certain look, like all dogs. Take a yorkie, they range a good deal in size and color, you have blue and gold, black and tan, gold, etc ect ect.
My ideal is black and white 6-8 lbs.
Like breeding any litter. The way not get breed specific issues is not to breed dogs with those issues. Can a litter still have a breed specific problem? Yes. Most of the time they do not. They have fewer issues.
The Maltese is not prone to eye problems. They have small well set eyes. The Shih-Tzu is prone to eye problems. They have what is called a brachiocephalic skull. Very short noses and shallow orbits to the eye.
In breeding a purebred Shih-Tzu, you WILL pass this down. It is part of the breed.
Can you pass this to a crossbred litter? You could in theory but that has not proved true for my puppies, They have had the smaller eyes of the Maltese 1 had larger but not protruding eyes. The same hold true for the extreme short nose. It has not been present in puppies I have bred. The noses are shorter than that of a Maltese but longer than a shih-tzu.
The life expectancy of a Maltese is 13-16 years. The Shih-Tzu 13-14 years |