What's the Point of any breed? Controversial

Correct me if I am mistaken but I thought that was Rosie who is alive and well and lives with one of the TIDA commitee members?

Consider yourself corrected, I never met Rosie before that person got her, never mind fostered her, and why would I have said she is dead when she clearly isn't

Plus Rosie never went into a rescue kennel.

I have a question - where do people stand on established breeds that were originally bred as companion dogs and nothing else - a large proportion of the Toy breeds I would have thought fall into this catagory?

Clearly the NI couldn't be catagorised into this group but doesn't it show that being "only" a companion has been around (and accepted as a legitimate reason for breeding a dog) for a long time?

There are plenty of resons not to create new breeds IMO but just saying "because they have not been bred for a specific purpose / type of work" doesn't feature very highly for me.

For me, history is history and something we have to accept whether we like it or not. There are many existing breeds, which would not be acceptable if they were started today - the fighting breeds in particular. However, we have what we have.
Starting a "new" breed nowadays, given our "modern" appreciation of animal welfare is much less acceptable, not least because we cannot condone the culling of the hundreds of pups which do not come up to scratch during the process of development, especially in a context in which there are already thousands of unwanted dogs languishing in rescues all over the country.
The argument that "it was done this way in the past" or "all breeds started this way" just does not hold water in this day and age.

Mick

Hi,

I for one am very pleased that GSDs and Akitas were bred. I grew up with these breeds mainly and try to get my dogs involved in agility, flyball and obedience as and when I can so they all have a job to do, aside from being my pets.
As well as that, if my Son goes walkabout in the park I can send Zane to go and fetch him knowing full well he won't return without him. So it's also useful to have a herding/pastoral/working dog as a family pet at times.

My big GSD came from a breeder, my GSD/Akita was going to be dumped because at 6 weeks old she didn't look like a GSD (go figure!!) and my little GSD came from BDH.

Although I accept people will always go to a breeder for their choice of breed, I think first off those pure bred dogs in rescue shoudl be given second chances. That's not to say no more pure bred dogs shold be born, but we already have so many, who do come up to scratch, who can work and can make loyal family pets.

I wouldn't say there's no point in certain types of breeds but I don't agree with starting new breeds. We should stick with what we have for now or at least until the rescue crisis has calmed down.

My cousin and uncle used to breed staffs 15-20 years ago. They stopped when it was shown that many staffs who weren't wanted were ending up (at least in Birmingham) being used for fighting. They decided they would not be responsible for having more pups when there was no guarantee of where dogs of the breed they loved (not necessarily their pups) would end up.

So IMO, I trhiknk that if you want a dog, decide on the breed and then go to the main resuces to find a suitabel dog of that breed. There will most likely be a good match meaning a dog is given a new home one less dog in rescue) and there's less of a requirement to go to a breeder.

This doesn't though account for the pups born into puppy farms or what breeds they are described as.

Laura xx

For the record - I completely agree with you.

Good post. There are lots of established breeds available these days. I specifically wanted a working / pastoral guarding breed for my second dog, after being in a sticky situation on a camping trip, which Loki slept right through because he has no guarding instinct. Estrelas are still worked in Portugal today as they have for hundreds of years guarding flocks and property. Rio is first and foremost a pet, but I value the instincts and skills in her breed. It cannot be said that just because we have no for our livestock to be defended from wolves in the UK that there is no point owning an Estrela in the UK. OK I'm rambling a bit, but what I'm saying is that all the established breeds have a purpose, and can be just as useful today. The designer breeds have no purpose other than looking good, which they do very well. The problem is, that they are bought to look pretty, but they don't just sit there all day like an ornament and are easily discarded.

I agree that my NI would probably be useless as guard dogs, a neighbours pair of Staffies didn't even stop their house being burgled, so it's not just NI that are hopeless guard dogs. But they do the job that they were bred for, being family pets.

I don't see anything wrong with having a breed that is bred to be a pet, as that is the 'job' that most dogs do now. I am more concerned about people getting a working breed and having no idea how to fulfill the dogs needs and working drive, expect it to be cooped up indoors all day and not go crazy with boredom.


Also is it time people turned away from KC pedigree breeds that are bred for such extreme looks that affect the dogs health. Perhaps way back when the breeds began it was acceptable to breed deformities into the breeds on purpose, but as we have now moved on is it time it was stopped?

Also the celebrities with their handbag dogs, what is this all about? were these bred for the purpose of fitting in a handbag. IMO there have always been dogs bred for looks.

Thought the saying was 'you've let the cat out of the bag' Maybe Paris Hilton says 'dog'.

I don't see how a dog bred from working dogs can't have the same drives as working breeds? Huskies and GSDs are working dogs, so wouldn't their progeny have similar needs?

I have a breed that isn't worked any more in this country, and probably hasn't been used for it's original purpose for many, many years.

The breed, however, does work in Europe.

I own Boxers because I love their energy, their personalities, their funny faces and what I call the pseudo-guarding qualities that they now have.

In terms of a lot of breeds in the UK, the jobs they were originally bred for have now gone; however, I don't think that this means these breeds should no longer be bred from.

If this was the case, we'd only have the smaller-breed companion dogs to choose from...

I know what you mean, but there are so many different breeds that may be in the NI, all were originally bred for very different working purposes. The working drive for each particular breed would be very watered down compared with say a cross of pure sled breeds, or a cross of pure herding breeds.

Here is a perfect example of an NI that was in a rescue kennel as something else, he was down as a Husky.





I am glad to say he has found a new home

Yeah certainly not a Husky is it!

Do you know who the breeder is, or where he came from, who is dam and sire are? because I don't think he looks very NI to me...nor does he look like he is full husky. But if you are going to claim its an NI I would like to know how you know this for a fact?

When dogs end up in rescue they dont usually take their "ID" with them! It looks as much an NI as I have ever seen, in fact it looks damn near identical to the one that used to live near me that died of Epilepsy, slight difference on the chest markings though.

Looks like an NI to me, he reminds me of Nookie,

but, unless his sire and dam have been DNA profiled, or the pups microchipped we are not going to know who he is.

I hope he has found a loving family, and won't appear somewhere as a stud dog, as his history is unknown.

He actually looks more like a husky than some of the appallingly badly bred purebreds we get into rescue - certainly much more husky than GSD.

Mick