Dog breeding has always been an expensive hobby of mine and moving to the county I could only assume it would get worse. While I don't consider myself an expert, I am well versed in the world of the American Pit Bull Terrier. It's an amazing breed with loyalty that in my opinion far surpasses that of a German Shepherd or Collie. They have this amazing ability to just know when you are hurt or feeling down. Hence why I use them in my service dog program that trains APBT for veterans with PTSD/TBI free of charge. However, there is one down fall to the breed, their prey drive. Not towards people or children or even other dogs, but towards prey animals AKA livestock... It is just unreal how a dog so well trained for public service that preforms flawless when working turns into a complete animal when the presence of livestock comes into the picture. Now the possibility of one of my service dogs coming into contact with chickens in a mall are pretty slim it really got me thinking. How are breeders accommodating people in 2013?
I'm not talking about you little foo foo dogs that annoy the crap out of everyone with their yippy whinny barks. I'm talking about working dogs, all working dogs. Everything from the Rottie to the Jack Russel terrier. What are breeders doing now that is different from 100 years ago... Well to be honest, nothing.
Aside from mostly cosmetic and chic breeding purposes there have been no major leaps in the breeding community to create a more versatile breed of dog for this day in age. Think about... How much has society changed in the last 50 years? The last 20 years? People in today's age are getting dogs that are being bred for a different time. A time when things were slower and less crowded. You have people bringing a well bred dog into the city life and the dog is freaking out. Not because of bad owners or lack of training, but because the dog has been genetically programmed to be aware of it's surroundings in one way or another. This isn't just one or two breeds either. This is almost every breed of dog that people are having behavioral issues with. I will say that training does have some play in it but when dog after dog, breed after breed are have the same issues when living in the home of the modern family that tells me that the breeders are not doing their part to better the breed.
As a responsible dog breeder part of your job is to better the breed. So what does that mean? That means things like health testing for genetic disorders, spay/neuter dogs with serious faults, but also probably one of the most important and most often forgotten is the temperament of the dog. Each breed has a standard for temperament, but these temperament standards are in my opinion HIGHLY outdated. No where in any standard do you see things like "remain calm while cars whaling on their horns drive by" or "calmly walk through a crowd of rude people that are fearful of dogs" and quite honestly I don't think enough breeders think of things like that when looking for certain temperaments in their dogs.
So here is what I suggest. Start cross breeding. Start putting things together that have never been thought to put together. Sound crazy?? Well it sure is, but dogs wouldn't be what they are now if someone hadn't done something different. I'm sure I will catch hell from my fellow dog breeders, but even here on our farm and with our service dog program the traditional breeds just aren't cutting it anymore. We need to take our ideas of how to breed dogs and bring them to the reality of present day.
