Exotic

Shih-Tzu

Purebred Breeding

Simply the best... and it shows in our puppies!

By

Heidi

These are all the questions to ask your breeder or that someone thinking of breeding dogs should ask themselves 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 least 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 dame look like, the grandsire and granddame and further back great sires and dames 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 Shih Tzu.

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 rewrite 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, temperaments 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 impossible to pin point were a trait or problem have come from. Out cross breeding 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 themselves 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 always recommend you to educate yourself, know your breed of dog, do some generation research and at least learn basic genetic knowledge or do some reading before you begin to breed 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 that 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 temperaments. 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 attention to go in to all these formulas here. However two which have proven very successful to me over the years are when you breed a grand daughter 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 brother 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 temperaments. Line breeding does require knowledge and research. It is always 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.

Let’s talk about Inbreeding - Inbreeding is the very close breeding of line bred stock to each other. Example of this are litter brother to litter sister, Sire to daughter, or mother to son, etc. This type of breeding should never be done by most. Some very experienced breeders may on occasion pull a inbreeding to set in a trait or type but than the breeding of these dogs down from this point must be used carefully and within the aims for which they were bred for. Inbreeding is only for very knowledgeable long time breeders to even under take as this type of breeding will truly intact the good traits as well as bring out any bad traits or problem to a very high degree. Inbreeding has however produce some very great top quality dogs who have in return produce other very high quality dogs however many inbreedings due results in breeders have to put down many puppies also and it is not for the weak at heart. Inbreeding is not a recommended form of breeding dogs expect in certain very experience breeders programs, usually done one time only for that one purpose.

The breeding of purebred dogs should not be taken lightly, and every breeder should always try to gain as much knowledge as they can on there breed of dog, its type, breed standard, soundness and health not for getting its true temperament. Keeping this in mind and do your research as a dog breeder it will insure that you breed better and healthy dogs for many years to come. After all breeding pure bred dogs is a true art form and breeding better dogs should always be you goal. Don't purchase you next dog from just anyone, seek out a good breeder of that breed of dog you want who has been around and breeding for a while. You will be much happier with your puppy purchase and so will your puppy and dog be happier and healthy for many more years to come. Today most good breeder also offer health guarantee's on puppies they sell and good breeders stand behind there dogs because they know what has gone into producing them.

Do your research:  Read about your breed, talk to breeders, you will be glad you did!

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