So You Want To Stud Your Dog?
(The
following was originally written by this webmistress
as a post to someone wanting to breed their mixed breed male dog, but it is applicable
in any situation involving mixes and/or purebred)
Ok, let's
put mix breed overpopulation problems aside for a minute. You have a really great
dog you want more of him. The very FIRST thing you need to be sure of is that
he's genetically healthy. You sure don't want puppies to have Hip
Dysplasia, or eye problems down the
line, these are to be GREAT puppies, right? So, find
out about all the genetic problems in kelpies and GSD's,
and test for them. Check out this page:
Guide to hereditary and congenital diseases in dogs. Unfortunately,
it only covers AKC breeds, and doesn't include the Kelpie. You'll have to look
that up on your own.
All this
testing will have to be done for the bitch too. Get his hips x-rayed, and get
them certified by OFA. If they are both not excellent rated, then you pass on
a greater chance of crippled puppies. Of course since you don't know their parent's
hips, you don't know your dog still lucked out with a good rating, but still have
the genes for bad hips. A 1 year old puppy crippled by HD is a terrible thing
to see. And I don't mean just having your vet check them out, he's no specialist.
My wonderful vet couldn't see my mutt's luxating
patellas (got her checked out for agility, not breeding),
it took a specialist to find it. OFA uses a panel of 3 radiologists to rate dogs.
Check out their site:
OFA. Hey, it costs bucks, but you want the world's greatest
puppies, right? That means the healthiest puppies too. You will also have to have
him checked out for Brucellosis, and you might possibly
need CERF eye testing, heart and thyroid testing, Von Willebrand's
even, etc..... This is not your dad's veterinary checkup anymore when you're talking
breeding.
Has he
been bred before? I understand that Nature doesn't always take its course correctly.
The bitch could hurt him. I have a friend who told me last night he tried to breed
his lab boy, but the poor boy couldn't get it together, literally, and needed
human help. Are you willing to do this, with a bitch who's
being literally very bitchy? So you want to use your dog as stud. You do need
to get an idea of what the bitch and her owner will go through.
And,
mutt or not, it's still genetic pot luck if you get a puppy like yours. Each puppy
will be a genetic individual, and mom has a contribution too. You might get puppies
with the WORST qualities of the parents. Or, puppies that
all take strongly after mom, not dad. And, now bringing in the mix, you
really don't know what the puppies will get. Was your dog's kelpie
parent a problem dog, health or temperament wise? What
about the bitch's GSD parent? The dogs are still maybe carrying those genes. What
will the dogs look like, GSD, Kelpie, what? The puppies will NOT still be half
kelpie and half GSD. If a puppy gets a large dose of GSD genes from both parents
(who are 50/50 I assume, only applicable when both parents are purebreds of their
respective breeds), a puppy can get maybe 80% GSD genes, and really be 80% GDS,
not 50%. It's a genetic crapshoot breeding mutts. The chances
of you getting a dog just like yours is actually pretty small.
Then,
finally, there's overpopulation problems. Are you,
along with the bitch owner, going to be responsible for these puppies you bring
into the world for the rest of their lives? That means taking back a puppy for
any reason at any age, even 10 years from now. Are you going to make sure that
the puppies are all spayed and neutered? Can you imagine one of YOUR puppies ending
up in a dog pound? It happens every day in every city. After all, you created
this line of dogs, you sure don't want any to end up
in bad homes or in a shelter. Even if you're breeding mixes, you still morally
need to take care of the lives you bring into this world if you love dogs.
It might be possible to breed mutts responsibly, (not withstanding
that the puppies will be taking good homes that dogs and puppies who are already
here could use), and it's a