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Originally Posted by Lovetodream88  I have to disagree with you. Reputable breeders or good breeders what ever you want to call them do genetic testing and follow the genes back and everything else they can to make sure they are having as healthy puppies as possible. Yes they maybe hard to find but they do exist and they are much better for maintaining the breed we all love so much. We put to sleep 2 million dogs a year. People need to stop just breeding for the heck of it because it gives other dogs a death sentence. If you support a puppy mill or bad breeding then you are keeping them in business and letting them continue to bring unhealthy dogs that some suffer their whole lives. There is a place for good breeding! |
There are good breeders and bad breeders. perhaps 'reputable" needs to be changed with responsible. Some of these supposed "reputable" breeders are savages. They treat animals as products that can easily be traded like playing cards. I do not understand how someone could put down a perfectly healthy puppy for having eyes a shade off of the standard or ears a little too big. Or raising a dog for 5 years and just giving them away when they are too old to breed anymore to make room for more "stock" How traumatic for the poor dog, no matter how good a home they go to.
Anyways, gene testing is still pretty new and anyone with money can have that done. Pretty sure dogs were bred for centuries without it. It's a good aid but knowing a bit about the background of your lines will suffice in most cases. Funneling everyone to the handful of "reputable" breeders advertised will almost certainly hurt the breed in the long run because those lines and the cross breeding of smaller and smaller pools will eventually start to create new genetic issues we can't test for yet. hey will be free of the issues on the books, they will just have new ones that will rock the new families just as hard as the old ones.
My issue is whenever someone goes to looks for a puppy they get sent in the same direction, its better to give folks a broad idea of the types of things they should look for in a breeder, and really teaching them to get knowledgeable on their own because I have seen so many people come here posting about the 17 pound dogs they have gotten from "reputable" breeders who swore up and down the dog would only be 5 or 6 lbs..... The reason why these are occurring is partly because the pools of "reputable" dogs in areas are actually bringing forth genes that were bred back to the point of being recessive. Negative recessive traits can stay hidden for dozens of generations, they pop up when the lines that folks cross insect with inbreeding, even if they share relatives several generations back. So inn theory, even if a breeder has knowledge of the bloodline sever generations back you can still end up with a surprise, good or bad.