When Bredding Goes Bad
 

This was a column in the Toronto Sun Newspaper this morning and thought I would share with you all .
When breeding goes badly | Life | Toronto Sun


Dear John: We have three Yorkshire Terriers and we are having a combination behaviour/health problem. Abby is now seven years old old, and has always been timid. She suffers from separation anxiety. We had her sister, younger by one year, and they were both were bred at three. Each had a litter, which were sold. Immediately after, we received a male who is now four.
When he was one, we bred him to the then four-year-old Abby, who had a female pup that we kept and named Tasha. The first year went well, however, Abby got pregnant by accident. Abby continues to go into heat regularly every six months.
Tasha showed no evidence of going into heat. Tasha had her first heat at two. She has never been bred. Following this, Abby was very aggressive towards her, while Tasha was slightly submissive. Growling and baring of teeth between the two females became a daily occurrence, eventually tapering off to submission by Tasha. We have just finished the next heat with the same pattern but upping the moodiness, irritability, and aggressiveness by both females. Tasha is also possessive of her mistress and anyone else, adult to infant who she fancies. We cannot afford to neuter the females and really don't want to.- R.
Dear R.: I'm sorry if this is going to seem harsh, but after over 20 years working with dogs, I've come to learn people like you contribute - albeit innocently - untold misery into the dog world, and frankly, you need to stop breeding. I know it's ignorance and not malice, but how much common sense does it take to realize that breeding good dogs is more than just knowing the difference between a male and a female dog? It's unlikely you're doing the breed any favours and from what you're describing the dogs are miserable. What's the upside?
I know if you can't afford to neuter it seems unlikely you'd have the money to do the proper testing to make sure the breeding pair are passing on good genes, let alone handle pregnancy complications. Breeders that care about the Yorkshire Terrier breed would get the bare minimum CERF eye test and OFA X-rays (knees/elbows) prior to considering breeding. You even admit to breeding a dog only a year old! How could you know what sort of strengths and weaknesses his progeny might have when he was a year from adulthood himself? To top it off, by your own admission, you're even breeding dogs of questionable temperament.
When I refer to misery, I'm talking about what happens when the pups you breed get out of your sight and mind. Do you think it's right to pass on genes that may be contributing to suffering greatly from timidity and separation anxiety? Careful breeding is what will contribute to the reduction of genetically passed frailties, resulting in less suffering by the dogs and those people who innocently buy potential train wrecks - which without proper breeding protocols in place is what you may be producing.
Don't just take my word for it. Have a candid talk with professionals in the veterinary, rescue and breeding world about what you're doing. Any rational person who truly loves dogs could do nothing other then leave the breeding to those people that understand breeding good dogs is a major labour of love and sacrifice.
John Wade helps pet owners through his books, workshops and telephone consultations. If you have a question email him at johnwade@johnwade.ca.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Sorry I misspelled the title grrrrrrrrrrrr lol

:thumbdown to R...:thumbup: to John!!

Great article! :thumbup:

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Wow wonderful article! This "breeder" sounds like several threads started here too :(

Yup and as she is in my hometown, I'd love to know exactly who this person is.

Anyone that keeps unspay females together should expect these kinds of scuffles and moodiness, especially when they are in heat. It does not mean they are bad dogs. The person that wrote the letter to John obviously knows nothing about dogs or about breeding. John gave her some excellent advise.

Great article and I have to say the John was right on the money! Unfortunately, this seems be be the type of post that happens on YT far too often. When they are responded to the same way that John responded there always seems to be someone that comes along to say "you are not nice enough". :rolleyes: I say tell it like it is and don't candy coat it.

But you just know from the tone of the original letter that they won't follow his advice at all :(

Well true enough, but in a newsarticle which what was said I heartedly agree with, has a different venue or audience.

You can tell it like it is with no sugar coating at all, but not in such a way that is a personal affront to the person.

There are many ways to phrase things, and I'm as "guilty" as the next, I see a post, I'm aghast, I type quickly my thoughts, I inside want to leap through the computer and just strangle some folks, so that somehow comes through. Yes I am judgemental, and critical, and so concerned for the health of our breed, that it is hard not to say "are you an idiot"?

I'm rambling a bit, but I think it is possible to make a strong point, without directly being combative or confrontive with the poster.

The very very sad reality is people will breed dogs indiscriminately, will be thoughtlessly cruel, and sometimes deliberately cruel, there will be folks that come on here only to sell pups, there will be folks who disregard all our advice to research the breeder then need advice support and help for their sick pup. It is so very hard to read the oh so familiar stories, day after day, year after year.

In the final analysis, I do believe that we can post the "truth" the facts without denigrating the poster. And in the long run, those that are willing to learn are open to understanding, will get the message.

While I agree with John in a general way, it would have been nice if he had addressed the actual issue at hand. Apparently the person writing to him had not had a litter in 3 years and seemed to have no further interest in breeding but did have a behavior issue due to intact females. I feel it would have been better to comment on the health issues to the girls in leaving them intact, namely pyrometria, mammary cancers or another 'oops' breeding. This should have been stressed more, giving the letter writers the information that would hopefully prod them into doing the right thing. I don't think getting on a soapbox about bad breeding practices accomplished that.

Yes, the letter did remind me of things we see here at YT. Some threads just 'get to me', just like they do others. While some folks do need a good 'dressing down' for their practices, we should try to look for the real question and answer it. Skipping over the real issue usually only alienates the poster and, in the end, does the dogs no good and the dogs are always my focus.

Very well said! A very good reminder that it is after all, all about the dogs! I for one, needed the reminder as I usually read, get mad and then click off instead of causing more fighting, but that doesn't help the dog either.

The only problem with him addressing it was that the original writer stated she didn't have the money to spay and had no interest in doing so any way.

From the tone of the letter, I got the idea that it was more just a letter to "vent" about her out of control dogs than to ask for real help.

My sentiments exactly. Even though we agree with him, I find it sad that he ignored her request for help. They need to be spayed, offer her low cost solutions, tell her how important it is to get it done because it is life threatening. Yes, it's part of the problem.

I'm as guilty as John in the moment. But thinking about what to say like this man is notorious for doing, we expect a more fruitful response.

He ignored the fact that she said the one bitch didn't show any signs of heat until 2 years old. Blind or maybe maybe she has hormonal issues?

I didn't see where she said she bred a bitch at 1 yrs old.

Maybe a nice neighbor will take one or three from her to help stop something bad from happening. You shouldn't have that many if you cannot afford to vet them and care for them properly. MUCH LESS BREED THEM!

Thanks for articulating this so well. :thumbup::thumbup:

I think he should have stressed the cost of dealing with either pyrometria or mammary cancer and the writer could hacve seen the good sense in having them spayed. As you mentioned, there are low cost clinics that he could have told the writer about. Also, I've never heard of a bitch not having first heat until 2 full years and that would be another health concern.

What I'm getting from the breeding history is that the writer had a total of 3 litters. One each with Abby and her sister, apparently using an outside stud. She then got her own male she used with Abby and, from that, they kept Tasha, who has not been bred. It seems that they no longer have Abby's sister.

So now they have Abby, the male and the daughter, Tasha. And the issue is aggressiion with Abby towards Tasha. I don't see any overt bad breeding practices, though John assumes there were/are. To me, there just isn't enough info to infer that. If there were no prior temperament issues, the current ones cannot be held against the writer for past breedings. And there were no mentions of health testing or the lack of by the writer, but John assumes there wasn't and uses it as a take off point for his speech on bad breeding. His comments might be more valid if there were more breedings planned, but I don't see that.

What is clear to me is that the behavior problems are due to having intact females together. Abby is now beyond breeding age and Tasha is her male's daughter. There is no good reason to leave these girls intact. If cost is an issue, Abby should be seen to first. She is the one with the attitude problem and, being older, is at a greater health risk.

John gave a great answer....just not to the questions asked.

Tried to edit but ran out of time. Using the stud at such a young age was a bad breeding practice on the part of the writer. This may have been what provoked the response by John. However, he failed to provide an answer to the issue at hand and it seems like the writer was done with breeding, so his point was moot.