Breed Information
To
Breed or Not to Breed
This question plagues people every single day. Let
me tell you, there are many reasons why people decide
to breed their dogs and there are millions of reasons
why people should not breed.
Reasons that people give as reasons to breed:
- My dog is awesome. I want to have his legacy live on.
- My children would benefit from seeing the miracle of birth.
- I want to make money off of my dog.
- They are AKC registered and come from championship lines.
- I didn't plan on breeding but she accidently got pregnant.
- My dog is beautiful, others have told me they want a dog just like it.
None of
these reasons make the persons or dogs involved reputable
or necessarily "breeding stock". These reasons
for breeding usually result in what are known as Back
Yard Breeders and produce dogs for the sake of producing
dogs and not for the betterment of the Labrador breed.
Did you know that there are OVER 125,000 Labrador Retrievers registered with the American Kennel
Club annually? This is but one registering entity
in the world! Add to this number the other registering
bodies, mix in the "oops" litters that never
get registered, the registerable dogs that don't get
registered, all of the strays and all of the labs
stuck in shelters or rescues right now and the true
Labrador Retriever has become lost in translation.
If you
need a reason not to breed your Lab, we would highly
suggest looking at the Happy
Tails section of this site, the Available
Labs section of this site, or surf the Petfinder™
website to see how many available Labs there are out
there in the United States alone. Unfortunately, many
of these homeless Labs never make it out of these
shelters alive.
If you still are interested
in breeding:
Are you a reputable breeder or just a backyard breeder?
Find out the difference between the two here.
Now ponder this. Youd should breed ONLY
under the following conditions:
- You are active in dog clubs, competitions and of further IMPROVING the Labrador breed.
- Your dog is mature enough (2 years or older).
- Your dog is themselves titled proving that they are a capable working dog as the breed standard outlines and not just from "champion bloodlines".
- Your dog is free from genetic and physical defects and has all OFA clearances and eye certifcations of favorable scores completed and on record.
- Your dog is of sound temperment.
A
registered dog is not an indicator of QUALITY!
Most dogs, even purebreds, should not be bred. Many
dogs, though wonderful pets, have defects of structure,
personality or health that should not be perpetuated.
Breeding animals should be proven free of these defects
before starting on a reproductive career. If you do
not know what these defects are that we are talking
about, you should not be breeding. Breeding should
only be done with the goal of improvement - an honest
attempt to create puppies better than their parents.
Ignorance is no excuse - once you have created a life,
you can't take it back, even if blind, crippled or
a canine psychopath!