Should pedigree dog breeding be banned?

Something I was shocked to learn recently is that a species can be considered extinct if just the gene pool that it comes from shrinks below a certain level.

Apparently this is the case with the Cavalier King Charles. There are millions of these little dogs in the world, yet the "breed" can almost be considered extinct because the the gene pool all these dogs come from is so small.

The reason behind this, selective/in-breeding.

I think I lie somewhere in the middle on this issue like a lot of others. One thing I have to point out though is that growing up all our dogs were the type that miraculously appeared in the middle of the night. There has also be an awful lot of heart break with these mutts we 'acquired'. One was a terrier which was blind as a bat and stone mad, ended up escaping and ran straight under the wheels of a tractor, I was about 4 at the time and almost ended up under the wheels of the tractor with it. One was something that looked like a Sheltie cross, it took weeks for it to trust us enough to let anyone touch it at all, turned out to be a lovely dog though. Neighbouring farmer turned up claiming it killed one of his sheep even though by that stage the dog never left our yard and my father had it pts without question in the interests of keeping the peace as was done in those days. The man turned up again fuming a few weeks on having lost 2 more sheep, in the end it turned out to be his own dog :mad:. Another we had was a puppy which started turning up to get fed, owners had bought a small 'weekend' cottage down the road and acquired a weekend dog to go with it. They were told numerous times it was with us and denied it was theirs. Two years on they arrived at the door demanding their dog back and claiming they had just found out where it was. Another neighbour informed us they had it pts the following day, no idea wtf that was all about! The last 'found' dog we had was another stone mad terrier which was wandering about in a forest as a bag of skin and bones. He clearly had some thing wrong in his wiring, spent about 16 hours a day jumping up and down on the spot and running aimlessly in an anti-clockwise circle, I think myelf he had probably been tied up on a short rope up till he ended up in the forest.

My own position is that I prefer 'breeds' as it is easier to get an idea of their general personality, energy levels and to a certain extent it is possible to do as much as you can to avoid health problems by making sure the parents have all the relevant health tests done. The other side of the coin of course is when you know what issues may crop up you can go some way to try and prevent them and educate yourself on what signs to look out for. I am more geared towards working breeds though and do agree that certain breeds should never have been developed in the first place, the amount of Cavaliers being churned out for example is shocking :eek:. Would never touch any of the breeds known to have more serious or numerous problems like pugs or dalmations or chihuahuas. In my case I use breed information as a guide on what to avoid. Give me a working terrier or hound anyday

ScumLord wrote: »

Some breeds that are based on deformity should be allowed to disappear and pretty much any dog smaller than a staff should be banned unless it can be shown the dog isn't at a huge disadvantage being that small.

I assume you mean this in terms of toy dogs, or are you of the opinion that terriers are in the same class? It is widely know that in general small dogs live longer and healthier lives (I am of course excluding the pugs, scaled down less healthy versions of bigger breeds, etc.)

There's nothing wrong with the vast majority of pedigree breeding, that's done above board and responsibly. My family got a pure bred pedigree dog from a proper dog breeder, his conditions of sale - dog had to be spayed to prevent further attempts to breed. He learnt this through experience. People oo'ing and awwh'ing over a house pet, only to turn around and use te dog as a pedigree puppy factory...


Our dog is fit and healthy pushing on 14 years old now. Never a health issue with her. It's when you have unregulated fools trying to make a quick buck that the problems start.

ScumLord wrote: »

Most working dog breeds don't look like they did when they were actually used as working dogs, they've been getting progressively smaller to meet demand. While things may not be bad for some of them now, although they are bad, it will get worse unless something is done to stop bad selective breeding.

Plenty are still used as working breeds but I understand your point, these smaller breeds (like the so called pocket beagle) wouldn't be bred to continue the working line. In the case of the beagle though as far as I know the kennel club breed standard states that beagles under 13" shouldn't be used for breeding, I have yet to see a 'pocket beagle' advertised as IKC registered. Of course the other thing that happens in some cases it that the breed standard differs from what someone wanting to work a dog would be looking for in the breed. There are still plenty of dogs around that come from working strains, the flip side of it being that some of them will of course have needs that the average pet owner can't or won't fulfill leading back full circle to unwanted dogs filling up the pounds. A happy medium is really what is needed and I agree that breed standards need overhauled to accomodate health issues while maintaining the good temprament desired by pet owners and show people. In order to do this, allowing breeding with some working strains which are largely unregistered would sometimes be the best way forward. The kennel club would then be in a situation that they would have to deviate in some of the clauses which determine the look of the breed at least to some extent. It would still take years decades to see any measurable improvement in the health of the breed as a whole and it is not likely to happen, especially in the current economic cliamate.

Magenta wrote: »

Golden/red Cocker Spaniels are an excellent example of this.



Not sure, but the greyhound has been around at least 2000 years- they are the only breed of dog mentioned by name in the Bible!

Sorry Magenta, i have to pick you up on this, Rage Syndrome can affect any dog, regardless of breed, there's somewhat of a myth that only Golden/Red Cockers are affected. In Cocker Spaniels its actually more prevalent in Black Cockers.

The Victoraians had a lot to answer for in regards to dog breeding, heres a very quick article that brushes on it http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/dogs-that-changed-the-world/introduction/1273/ The craze for fighting breeds was also a produce of the Victorian era, prior to then many breeds such as the Staffie and Pitbull were unknown prior to that time, and were the produce of specialised and selective breeding.

OP, if you met a man/woman that you absolutely loved but later discovered they had a long history of heart disease or cancer in their family, would this stop you marrying them and procreating with them?? No.

I have healthy pedigree German Shepherd and Boxer dogs. I love them (in a platonic way :rolleyes:) and I was happy getting them because they had certain idiosyncrasies that are particular to the breed and that appealed to me.