Originally Posted by Yorkiemom1  Some people on this forum would like for you to believe that breeder membership on here and in general,do not want people breeding dogs....they would like you to believe the pro breeders are selfish and their motivation is to keep people from enjoying all the warm and fuzzy feelings a basket of puppies brings, or it is a financial greedy motivation, to "keep all the money gained from selling puppies for the professional breeders, etc. Of course, those reasons have nothing to do with why we discourage breeding by novices, and breeding stock that is actually perfect for a pet, but a disaster waiting to happen if that pet's pedigree is mixed with the wrong mate. I like to think of breeding like baking.
You have to be knowledgable about the basics of baking for starters, or nothing you do will come out right. You dont just go to the kitchen, throw stuff in a bowl, mix it all up, pour it into some pan..... You go to cooking/baking classes, you get mentoring from people that are good at baking, and you read tons of books written by people that know how to bake.
Next, you start with the very best ingredients. You know if you are using ingredients that are old or sour or tainted, your end product will be a mess. So you get the best eggs, the best flour, the best of all the ingredients that the recipe calls for.
Now you have to know what you are wanting to end up with when it comes out of the oven. Are you baking a pie or a cake? Are you baking a sheet cake or a bundt cake? Are you baking cookies? You MUST know what you are wanting to end up with before you know where to start. If you are baking a pineapple upside down cake, and instead of adding pineapple to your recepie, you throw in squash, or tomatoes or egg plant, you will not end up with a pineapple upside down cake. If you pour it all into cupcake tins, you wont have a pineapple upside down cake.
When the cake does not turn out, you get frustrated and you throw it in the trash...lesson learned. Unfortunately, when breeding, you can not just discard your mistakes. And remember, everything you produce, is YOUR responsibility....it is YOUR success or YOUR mistake.
Your dogs pedigree, and the pedigree of the dog you are breeding with, those are the "ingredients" for your final product. You must start with the best ingredients possible, good, strong, clean ingredients.....Your dogs pedigree is what your dog is contributing to the final product, what YOU are bringing to the table. The dog you are breeding to provides the other 1/2 of the ingredients. You want pedigrees that are genetically sound, no history of liver shunts, no heart issues, no kidney, pancreas, eye, hip issues....and you want these pedigrees clean and proven genetically sound for generations back, not just to mom and pop of the breeding pair, but way back for generations.....like at least 9 generations, even further back is better. You want to scour these pedigrees for not only genetic issues that are historically embedded in that pedigree, you dont want to duplicate dogs too closely in your outcome, because untill you REALLY know what you are doing and are soooo knowledgable about pedigrees and genetics and lines, you just want to be sure you do not start doubling up on the same dogs from both pedigrees.... no line breeding, no in breeding. And of course, there are "looks" that you get from specific lines.....personalities that are strong in these lines that go down through the years, into litters produced by these lines....to continue these great looks and personalities, you have to know what you are throwing together into the mix.
Breeding is not something to be taken light heartedly or just because you adore your little dog. Breeding is like everything else you should invest your time and passion and compassion and love into, so you do the absolute very best you can. Because these are living souls that result in breeding, unlike baking a cake, you MUST remember, if or when you mess up, you can not just throw it away and start over....the price paid by those innocent puppies is immeasurable.
By the way, I do not consider myself knowledgable in baking, so I do NOT bake! I leave it to the people that know what they are doing and are great at it! |