Gordon Setters were the breed of my childhood. At ten years old, I acquired my first show quality dog. Listening and learning everything my mentors had to share, their recommendations were followed without hesitation. Although their suggestions for stud dogs came with an explanation of their reasons, their level of experience was appropriately acknowledged and advice was well-taken. Likewise, my mentors graded my litters and guided me while matching puppies to homes. Fourteen years later, I bred my first litter of Belgian Tervuren. Shortly after the pups were born, I called one of my mentors, Becky Steiner of Crestar Belgian Tervuren and asked what age she wanted to come to evaluate the puppies. In spite of her matter of fact tone, her answer shocked me. “Two years,” she said. “You really won’t know what you have until they are at least two years old.” She did eventually agree to come evaluate the baby puppies. They might have been seven or eight weeks old. I don’t really remember. However, her initial response has been food for thought over the last thirty plus years.
Grading and selling puppies is a tricky business. Buyers have expectations for the things that they would like to do and accomplish with the pups. As breeders, we have our own set of hopes and dreams for each individual pup. Massive amounts research, experimentation and old-fashioned worry go into the process of caring for and evaluating pups, and yet, an oft quoted accusation persists that breeders regularly keep the wrong one! Pat Hastings recommends that physical evaluations be done at eight weeks plus or minus three days. Many breeders of smaller and more fragile pups keep them until 12 or even 16 weeks before making final decisions. Breeders with the space and ability may “grow out” pups to several months of age. Many breeders like to aptitude test puppies to assist with placing them in the best possible homes. Some performance oriented breeders can be insistent about aptitude testing at exactly 49 days of age. This may have evolved from a misunderstanding of research on human/dog socialization done by Scott and Fuller which seemed to indicate that if a developing pup was not exposed to humans before day 49, they would never have normal dog-human relationships. How that may have morphed into day 49 being the one and only day for puppy aptitude testing, I am uncertain. Certainly the approach used by Guide Dogs for the Blind, wherein testing is performed once a week on the same day over a four week period would seem more logical. With so much confusion about the process and so much riding on the decisions related to puppy evaluation and placement, it’s not surprising that we lose sleep wrestling with these decisions.
One of the challenges presented to us by the concept of preservation breeding is the constant integration of new information and our changing environment into how we view our roles as responsible breeders. How often have we responded to a friend hesitant to breed a dog because of one problem or another with, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”? A front slightly east-west, an ear a bit too large, or even a non-progressive juvenile cataract in an otherwise lovely specimen are really not deal breakers when we view them in terms of our shrinking numbers of purebred dogs and our gene pools teetering on the brink of collapse. How much more obtuse is it to make these sorts of judgments about baby puppies? When you think about it, they really are just babies with their whole future ahead of them.
We began to confront a pet population problem in the 1970’s. As responsible breeders we, rightfully, began selling the “lesser” quality pups in our litters as family pets on spay/neuter contracts. Over the past forty years, euthanasia rates have dropped precipitously. We know from a recent NAIA study of shelter pets that the percentage of purebred dogs in the shelters is below 5%. Somewhere in the course of this forty year flip flop, unscrupulous puppy producers realized that a purebred dog without AKC registration papers was still more valuable than a mixed breed dog. As upside down as it seems, the truth is that reputable purebred dog breeders cannot produce enough puppies to meet the demand. My neighborhood is filled with people who used to own purebreds acquiring a mixed breed dog because of the challenges related to finding a quality purebred pup. We need a new way to look at evaluating and placing puppies. Keeping one or two of “the best” and selling the rest on spay/neuter contracts and or limited registrations does not work for a number of reasons and the biggest one is that we cannot accurately foresee the future. There are simply too many unknowns involved.
While many experienced breeders do well identifying the best (potential) show dog in a litter, as preservation breeders we have to remember that the moniker of best “show” dog does not necessarily make a dog the best, and certainly not necessarily the only breeding choice in a litter. If we go back and ponder Becky Steiner’s advice, we will recognize that at age two, not only do we have a relatively complete conformational package, but we have knowledge about a dog’s temperament and abilities that we can only guess at when they are babies. A wonderful change that has taken place within the American Kennel Club programs over the last several years is that dogs and their owners have so many more places to excel. Performance events include all sorts of activities that dogs have innate instincts for including, hunting, retrieving, herding, going to ground and coursing. Companion events, including obedience, rally, tracking and agility, are open to all breeds and celebrate what can be accomplished by teamwork between an owner and a dog. Accomplishments in activities as diverse as therapy work and dock diving are recognized and celebrated. By age two, we can have a pretty good idea about an individual dogs’ social skills both with his own kind and with people. We know which dogs are comfortable in their own skins and which ones need constant management for a variety of temperament issues.
Health considerations and screenings are another reason to delay judgments about an individual dog’s potential breeding quality. Recent research has indicated several reasons to retreat from our previous philosophy of spaying and neutering non-show dogs on their six month birthdays. In many larger breeds, growth plates may not close until around 18 months of age. Spaying and neutering at a more mature offers numerous health benefits. By delaying just a few more months, we can have x-rays and results of other health screenings available. That could enable us to make better decisions. If our chosen show pup is healthy and appropriately social, we can choose to breed that one AND a littermate with accomplishments in a different venue as well. Heaven forbid our chosen pup has a serious genetic problem or has suffered an unfortunate accident, and then we may still have options. In our reality now, there are plenty of homes for well-bred purebred dogs. We need to make decisions in a logical fashion that will not unnecessarily limit our gene pools. Most people who come to us interested in a pup and who might be open to breeding are not crazy, money-motivated scam artists. They are people who are sincere and interested in learning about this wonderful hobby that we have invested our lives and livelihoods in for years. While many share our demographics (they are boomers too!), the opportunity to mentor a family into the fancy involves the extra bonus of bringing new people into the fold and give youngsters the kind of wholesome opportunities that we had growing up.
It’s been about thirty years since Becky Steiner and her comments on evaluating puppies rocked my world. In that period of time, I have come to understand that puppy evaluation, while necessary and appropriate, is only a glimpse at a foggy mirror. In fact, the true evaluation of a dog as a breeding animal is only possible after that dog is dead. A friend of mine has a dog that has been dead for several years now. His great grandson blesses her home and takes care of the farm. Great granddad died of natural causes at 16 ½. Three of his littermates (including a more widely used brother) died of the same form of carcinoma. A magic crystal ball that could tell us when dogs will die and what will be their cause of death could truly revolutionize dog breeding. Lacking that, reproductive technology offers us the ability to purchase an insurance policy.., at least for the males. Freezing semen from multiple males out of a litter allows us a tremendous opportunity to manage our individual stud dogs and our gene pools in a more educated and insightful manner. We can use them more judiciously because the ability of the dog to contribute to our breeding programs does not end when they die. We can incorporate information about longevity and health conditions of parents, siblings and the offspring of live breedings into our decisions about how best to use that valuable semen in a nitrogen tank. Yes, Virginia, my friend does have frozen on her dog. To the best our knowledge, none of them have died of the carcinoma that took all three of their uncles.
Grading puppies and evaluating breeding stock are things that we approach very seriously. In a new era of preservation breeding, we need to remind ourselves these are not two events separated by years of a dog’s life, but these are processes on a continuum designed to help us breed better dogs. At every point along the way, we need to be mindful of keeping our options open. The future of purebred dogs depends on our best efforts.
© 2016 Peri Norman