Purebred Dog Breeding Today

The breeding of purebred dogs today has become very complex and even in many breeds of dogs there are many different breeding lines that produce different type and traits of dogs within the same breed of dog. This has come about due to breeders personel likes and dislikes of a certain types, sizes or colors but every breeder of purebred dogs needs to remember that breed of dog breed standard. Does your dog have its true breed characteristics? Does your dog appear to look like what its breed books say it should look like? Does it compare to picture of of dogs of its breed of old or of famous dogs bred in its breed? Finally does it have the true temperament for the breed you own? Last but not least is your dog of sound healthy breeding lines?

These are all question any breeder or some one thinking of breeding dog should ask themself before they undertake the job of breeding any litter of puppies in any breed of dog. If you can answer all the questions above and you have done at leat some research in your breed of dog and the bloodlines you are working with and do know what traits your bloodline has, what the sire and dam look like, the grandsire and granddam and further back great sires and dams in your dogs pedigree. The next thing on your mind should be what are you trying to improve on and what are you trying to keep in your breed of dog.

There are three main breeding methods of breeding dogs or purebreds, line breeding, out crossing and inbreeding. There are many good books out there on breeding of dogs and I am not trying to rewirte any of them in this writing, rather I am trying to get you as a breeder of dogs to think, read and questions what you doing and wear you going with your breeding program. I will discuss shortly the three ways of breeding purebred dogs as to only lay fourth a guide to breeding better dogs and keeping some type of constant format to produce dogs that closely look like each other, have the same traits, temperments and are sound healthy dogs. Lets us simply discuss them shortly and see if I can get you thinking and looking at the way you are breeding your dogs.

Lets talk out cross breeding - This type of breeding is seen a lot in dog breeding were none related dogs who are bred out none related stock are bred together and in your dogs pedigree. This type of breeding will not produce good dogs of the same type, quality and soundness. Breeding dogs this way only leads to many uncertain factors and can bring in many things a breeder is unaware of or even make it impossiable to pin point were a trait or problem have come from. Out cross breedings should be done by very experienced breeders only looking to correct a fault or make a certain improvement in there dogs and than the breeder must be sure the dog or bitch they are using carries this trait themself and the line they were bred down from does carry this trait or improvement for at least the last three generations in there line or pedigree for it to have any effect on result in making the desire changes, after this these dogs from the out cross are usually bred back into the main breeding line. Out cross breeding should not be done by new breeders or new comers to any breed and out cross breeding is no way to start a breeding program when trying to produce constant type, temperament and soundness in your dogs. Even long time breeders have made mistakes when out crossing and it is the fastest way to change type, temperament and soundness in any breeding program in any breed of dog. I allways recommend you to educate yourself, know your breed of dog, do some generation research and at leat learn basic genetic knowledge or do some reading before you begin to bred any breed of dog. Also seek the help of other successful breeders in your breed of dog that have been around awhile, most good breeders are willing to help and give advice to all novice dog breeders and new comers.

Lets talk about Line Breeding - Line breeding is the breeding of related dogs bred down from a certain breeding line of dogs. Many breeders think line breeding is close breeding of related dogs and it should be avoided. Nothing is farther from the truth. Good line breeding will produce your best dogs who will in return produce even better dogs if done right. Line breeding will give you much higher constant results producing dogs of the same type, size, quality, traits and temperments. That is if the breeder is starting out with everything being good and the line there breeding back into is good with all things they want in there breed of dog. Line breeding will quickly show a breeder just how good the line of dogs they are working with is but line breeding will also show the breeder any faults or problems they may have in there breeding program. There are many formulas for line breeding and these are discuss in many good books on dog breeding, there are different degree's of line breeding as well. So it is not my attenion to go into all these formulas here. However two which have proven very sucessufl to me over the years are when you breed a grand dauther to her dams sire, (i.e. grandsire) this does require some advanced planning and does require both dogs to be of very high quality with all the good traits you want and within there breeds standard. Half borther and half sister breeding with a out cross line in the middle of there pedigree has also proven very good results if the dogs used are of very good quality, sound and have great temperments. Line breeding does require knowledge and research. Its is allways recommended that you due this before any breeding of dogs. Line breeding in most cases will produce you better and higher quality of dogs in any breed as long as you are starting out with very good bred stock of the breed of dog you are trying to breed. Line breeding has been proven by many top breeders and top kennels around the world as one of the best ways to produce better dogs.