Dog breeding

No, what was the main gist of it?

It wasn't particularly favourable towards the Kennel Club and Crufts.

Yes,

Was watching it in bed with my staff lying next to me.

The sight of the spaniel with the brain too large and the boxer having the fit was unbelievable.

I’d like to get those pompous breeders in a dark alley for 5 minutes.

It actually made me cry - horrible, especially the Cav.

Good healthy dogs being put down as they don't have a ridge on their back!!

It will be interesting to see the fallout.

I didn't see it, so this is just 'views on dog breeding in general'.
I have long believed that the 'show standards' should include a 'fitness for purpose' clause, for example a bulldog should be capable of dodging as it would need to do if (heaven forbid) it was set to fight a bull. ANY breed should be capable of being taken on a BRISK walk for half-a-mile (for toy breeds) without showing distress. Breeds created to work (which means nearly all apart from the toys) should be physically fit for the work originally intended, even if (like the bulldog) that work is no longer an option.
If allied to this there was more control over breeding of non-purebred dogs (not a ban or anything like one, but control of some sort) then the 'non-show' pedigrees which are healthy would find homes as pets.
Crufts DOES tend to create a 'fashion demand' for particular breeds (when they win) and this leads to unscrupulous breeders breeding from unfit parents to satisfy the market.

i think it's great that we do something about the dog breeding issue .... but disappointing that we do nothing about the chav breeding issues

we care more about dogs than we do about human beings .........

This is not a new thing. My Irish Wolfhound, Shan was an enormous dog and for years displayed no signs of agression, except if aggression was shown to him, then one day we were in the garden and he attacked me.

Being hit by 13.5 stone of dog is a scarey experience, he dragged me to the ground snapping at my face. All I could think of doing was to ram my arm into his mouth. He tore at my arm, dragging me round the garden trying to get past my arm.

Then all of a sudden he stopped, he looked at me completely dazed, as much as "What are you doing down there".

My coat was torn to tatters, my arm bleeding, all I could think of doing was to take him to the vets there and then. They said there was nothing they could do and there was no guarentee that he would throw a fit like this again.

As OH is only 5 foot and at the time my son was only 3, I couldn't take the chance and had to have him put down, absolutely broke my heart. I sobbed my heart out in the vets and on my way to the hospital to get my arm sorted out.

Some months after I spoke to the owner of his litter brother, who told me her dog had displayed similar traits but aimed towards other dogs. She was a member of the IW Assocition and they did some checking back on the breeder. Seems they had breed from the same pairing on several occassions and this had happened previously and they knew of it all along but instead of being responsible and not using this pairing again when they found out, no they carried on because the type bred was so big boned and large.

Their accreditation to the association was cancelled and they were reported to the Kennel Club but what the outcome was I don't know.

Obviously this was not only bad for the dogs concerned but could have had fatal consequences to my family.

Still miss him though.

The human/canine comparisons did come up in the programme. It's still illegal for a chav father to breed with his chav daughter/grand daughter. Not so it would seem with dogs - although it if frowned upon by some, there are others who will interbreed so closely.

It was disgusting, that breeder who knowingly used her dog for stud with a genetic fault and was still best in show, well she should be shot.

Those poor GSDs, My Philly (47 kilos) has a pretty straight back and a massive a..e that's how they should look - even though she's one eigth border collie .

Kennel Club should close down

I think the programme was very biased and one-sided.No mention was made (at least I didn,t hear it!) about the accredited breeders scheme where the Kennel Club and sensible owner/breeders work together to eliminate these health issues.
None of my breeds have any undesirable genetic disabilities (Greyhounds have always been dense!!) so I haven,t gone too deeply into this.
My pugs,far from having any breathing/exercising problems can walk for miles and still be full of energy. I would never use a stud dog that wasn't from a long line of self-whelpers.
The problems start when people breed only for profit and will use any old dog on their bitches or when people take showing to extremes and the WINNING becomes everything and the welfare of the breed secondary. Unfortunately there is no legislation to prevent this and some of the show judges being such people doesn't help. The winners at dog shows are the dogs who IN THE JUDGES OPINION are the best example of their breed.
Yes there is a long way to go to get round this but the sensible exhibitors don't enter under these judges. Sadly the others do because they can be sure of a win and, unless you know better aren't the puppies from winning dogs the best ones to buy?

very true! lol.

I didnt see the programe but I have been anti pedigree of any animal for a long time, chickens that cant see, dogs thet cant breathe, and all the waste of life for the young that dont make the grade. we dont tell humans to breed with their aunts, why do it to animals, we all know the dangers of the deformities in people, why do we ignore it in animals?

This programme shocked and repulsed me, It may have been the angle/spin put on the programme, but there were parts that I found absolutely abhorrent.

The rhodesian ridgeback bred for the ridge which is spina bifida!

The cavaliers winner who had brain damage going on to father 26 new litters, even though the owner was aware they would be passing on such misery.

The bulldog, pekinese, and others who were having to have operations to allow them to breath because they had been bred to have flatter faces.

I used to watch crufts occasionally before, but could never watch it again, what some breeders are doing is criminal. I really hope this programme brings about such outrage that the government steps in and brings about some legislation to prohibit such close family interbreeding.

It was in there - they did show it, just after the Cav bit I think.

It would appear we need more breeders like you PF - with a conscience.