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Old December 5th, 2006, 07:11 PM
OntarioGreys's Avatar
OntarioGreys OntarioGreys is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Woodstock, ON
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There is a little catch to this and this is where you really need to know the breeder history and how and where they choose breeding partners for their dogs, and this kind of hit me afterward when I was looking up something afterward eg a cocker spaniel breeder that had a bred a dog I had several years ago and this becomes a problem because not everyone knows their breeders history.

Some breeders have been in the show and breeding circuit for 20 + years they have a long establish breedline that has over the years proven to be genetically free from disease and use breeding partners with other breeder who are the same, if they want to introduce a new dog into their breeding program that they are not as familiar with the pedigree lines then genetic testing would be done to ensure they are clean before breeding.

With breeding for 20 years a breeder could potentially have 40 generations from their first foundation dogs if each generation was bred at 2 years old, which would mean after that many generations any problems would be known

So incases where several generations have proven clear on both parents it does not make a lot of sense to pay for screening for continued genetic screening because they will continue to be free because there is no genetic disease in the breedlines, problems would only occur if unproven lines were added into the pedigrees

So no current genetic testing in this case does not make for a bad breeder, since they have a history of genetically clear dogs, this is where pedigrees becomes very important to look at and if other breeder dogs are introduced to the breed line, contacting them to learn their breeding history should be considered too and talking to other long stand breeders as well to see if they have had heard of any genetic problem within the breed line. THey should have some past genetic testing done though on their breed line and copies genetic records from other breedlines that were introduced into the breed line,


So I would not necessary disqualify a breeder that has no current testing done, if they have a long showing and breeding history with a proven long breed line especially if there is some documentation of health testing with other breeder dogs added to the lines. In some ways would prefer a dog from them than a newer breeder with genetic testing, because even today some health issues cannot be screened for yet and there is no genetic testing for temperament and in some breeds there are a huge number of possible genetic problems. not every longterm breeder would be good which is why tryig to check them out by talking to other longterm breeders in the area would be a good idea, if they are good their dogs will be highly regarded by other breeders, and breed rescues may also know if there is any problem with the breeder if there are problems they tend to be the ones picking up the pieces.

Any newer breeders though I would expect genetic testing to be done and proven if they are selling pups
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