If your first inclination when purchasing a dog is to buy an all-breed book and begin flipping through the pages to find "the right breed" for you, you are already making a mistake.
The goal of all-breed books is to fill your mind with a romantic ideal of a brand-name dog.
The danger in doing this is that once you get this picture locked in your head, you have already "chosen your breed," which means you have rejected healthy non-pedigree dogs without even considering them.
It also means you have probably chosen a canine registry.
With breed and "registration papers" occupying the first and second slots in your priority list, gender and coat color typically fill slots three and four.
That means health and temperament fall to level five and six.
No wonder so many people end up with unhealthy dogs!
Remember that all-breed books are the dog market equivalent of a sales brochure; they offer lovely pictures and descriptive puffery, but they are not Consumers Report magazine.
You would not buy a car based on a sales brochure. Why are you buying a dog this way?
As for Kennel Club show dogs, remember the scoring system used by the Kennel Club:
- ZERO POINTS for health
. - ZERO POINTS for temperament
. - ZERO POINTS for work.
10 comments:
Consumer Reports on dog breeds... that'd be eye-opening!
Its sort of done for health care by one of the pet insurance companies.
Seems like the only options to getting a dog are:
1. AKC Breeders of conformation (health be damned).
2. Backyard breeders (health be damned).
3. Puppy mills (gruesome. are they still around?).
4. Shelters (where you can get a great dog, or one who bites your kids once he feels comfortable --- this was my recent option.)
What to do if one is searching for a lovely family dog?
What are you looking for? Why?
Once those two questions are honestly answered, get on list-servs of people that own those types of dogs. LISTEN. Ask questions. It may take 6 months to find the right dog -- just as it might take 6 months to find the right car, the right house, the right job, the right woman.
I do not know what a "back yard" breeder is. Most dogs are bred with people who have back yards, and most good dog breeders let their dogs play in the back yard.
The key question to ask breeders: "why did you breed this litter?" Their answer will tell you most of what you nee to know when selecting a breeder/litter for you next pup.
produce a conformation champion
produced a cute puppy
to let my dog have puppies
produce unusual colors
produce a winning agility dog
etc
Good question! I think you will find a lot of people who will tell you they want "one for themselves" for conformation, but further questioning will reveal that in the last four litters they have said the exact same thing and yet kept none. There might be some self-delusion there!
What's funny to me is the number of "breeders" who think getting two dogs to have sex is a "sport," and who think selling off 4 or 5 pups at age 8 weeks is a lot of work and a sign of their expertise. As Cole Porter might have put it about breeding: "Birds do it, bees do it / Even educated fleas do it."
Self-delusion = they are really breeding to sell pups.
Or perhaps they should re-evalaute the selection criteria they are using to pick mating pairs since they are not producing pups that they want to keep.
I find myself drawn to "dog men or women" who are running (and doing well with) their own breeding, year after year after year. It tells me they believe in their own breeding program and it is working.
The only breed book I recommend is by Nancy Baer and Steve Duno. "Choosing A Dog".
It describes the worst traits of each breed, the difference between well bred and puppy-mill versions, and who should not own each. A friend was going to write a book titled "No Good Dogs" but said this one had done it.
THANKS for that! Just ordered it.
P
I wouldn't mind them,if the decision wasn't completely based off the book. in fact I have owned them and still got mix breeds and non papered dogs. So my advice would be.
Write a list of what dogs seem to best fit for you in such book.
Research more into those breeds online.
Start buying more books of such breed,and look further then some pet store for such books.
Find a book by someone dedicated to the breed and not someone trying to make a quick buck by pushing out as much books on multiple breeds as possible.
Talk to owners and breeders of such breed.
Think about what you really want out of the dog,and does it comply with it. Same goes towards the variety in a breed.
Also I noticed some are better then others,one I had only had small drawings but was very honest about the negatives in a breed.
The more modern ones you find at a pet store seem to try to be more PC,so will deny such.
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