The subject of purebred animals is a touchy one. Attitudes range from “Anyone who buys a purebred dog is killing a shelter dog” (PETA), to “My dog is a fashion accessory and as such not only has to be purebred but fit into my purse.” (Any Kardashian, plus their spiritual mother, Paris Hilton).
I suspect most people who own purebred dogs fall on the middle of this spectrum. They have a purebred dog because they are attached to a certain breed. I have owned one purebred dog (well, two, if you count the German Shepherd puppy we raised for the first 15 months of his life for Canadian Guide Dogs for The Blind). My beloved Toby was a Belgian Terverun.
I acquired him because I fell in love with the breed at first sight. I say “I” owned him because The General and Toby co-existed in a state of uneasy truce which every now and then would break out into full scale war.
All of our other dogs were mixed breed dogs from the shelter or a rescue.
Do I sound defensive saying that, as if people who judge me for owning a purebred dog can be appeased by my ownership of several mutts?
Some people who have been devoted to adopting dogs from the shelter eventually get a purebred puppy because they have a sort of ‘rescue fatigue. They want a puppy they can bond with form the start, a dog who will never know anything other than safety and love, and therefore (in theory at least) be easier on the emotions.
Perhaps our attitude to purebred dogs depends on the breed. Does even the most extreme opponent of dog breeding pass by your garden variety, common as dirt Labrador Retriever and automatically think “Purebred dog! Attack!!”
Do you feel, as one of my acquaintances does, that people who own rare breeds of dogs are just trying to lord it over the rest of us with our Golden Retrievers or Beagles?
Some people base their opposition to dog breeding on the basis of the now notorious health problems that have been the unintended consequence of breeding for a specific look.
Certain dogs more obviously display the defects that have been bred into their breed – the German Shepherd dog whose hind legs are so far under his belly that he can barely walk, the Bulldog who can only take a few steps before stopping because of breathing problems.
What does the term “purebred” even mean?
Chances are pretty good that if I showed you a Labrador Retriever from the Shelter and one fresh from winning Best of Breed at a dog show, you would identify both of them as Labrador Retrievers. Yet without those “papers” certifying her to be a purebred, the shelter dog would not be allowed to enter a dog show.
At the most basic level, a purebred dog is one who was born to parents who are both registered as purebreds in a purebred registry. The oldest and most widely recognized registries are the national kennel clubs, like the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC), the American Kennel Club (AKC) or the Australian National Kennel Council.
The Kennel Club is the oldest purebred dog registry in the world. “But Auntie Awesome,” you protest, “you left out the name of the country for that last one.” Peasant. The Kennel Club is the national kennel club of the United Kingdom. The Brits would react violently if you suggested people might not know which country this club represents. Why, they might raise one eyebrow – or even two, if they are unusually emotional, like maybe Welsh.
Aside from national registries, there are a handful of other well established and accepted purebred dog registries. The Field Dog Stud Book is the oldest kennel club registry in the U.S. The United Kennel Club is the second oldest and registers dogs not only from the U.S., but from 25 foreign countries as well.
Some breed clubs maintain registries. The Australian Shepherd Club of America is an example. While the breed standards of the ASCA are similar to those of the AKC they are not exactly the same. There are a number of rare breeds that are not recognized by national kennel clubs, who also maintain their own registries.
Some breed clubs split away from the main kennel club in their country because they disagreed with the direction being taken by the national kennel club.
Most often it was because it was felt that excessive inbreeding for looks over traditional working abilities, was ruining the breed. The Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Club for example, is an independent registry that allows breeding only and exclusively for hunting ability.
The Club will not allow a puppy to be sold to anyone who is not a dedicated hunter. Anyone who breeds without the Club’s permission cannot register their dogs.
Border Collies were not accepted as a recognized breed by national kennel clubs until quite recently. The International Sheep Dog Society (ISDS) was formed in 1906 with the expressed intention of improving the shepherd’s dog, so that livestock could be effectively managed. They didn’t give a damn about a dog’s looks; only its ability to herd or guard livestock. If both parents of a litter were registered with the ISDS, then the puppies could be automatically registered. In that regard, it was like a traditional kennel club. But any dog could be registered with the ISDS if it proved its herding abilities through participating, and gaining points in sanctioned trials.
In fact, many people who bred and/or owned working sheep dogs on real farms fought hard against the American Kennel Club officially accepting Border Collies into the ranks of purebred dogs.
Fifteen years or so before this battle was waged, Donald McCaig wrote in the end note to “Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men: Searching Through Scotland For A Border Collie”:
“If this has persuaded you to buy a Border Collie for a pet, I have done you and your dog a disservice. If you don’t have work for a Border Collie, or time to train it properly, your bright young Border Collie will invent his own work, and chance are you won’t like it.
There are dozens of dog breeds bred to be good pets. If a pet is what you seek, you should choose among them.”
Too bad for him. In recent years, Border Collies have risen six ranks on the popular needs list.
The struggle against recognition of the Border Collie by the AKC is described by Donald McCaig in his book, “The Dog Wars”. Bob McGowan had been Vice-president of the AKC at the time when this fight took place. McCaig described running into McGowan at a herding trial where McCaig was signing copies of “The Dog Wars”. McCaig sold a copy of the book to McGowan, although he warned the AKC official that he might prefer “Mr. and Mrs. Dog”.
I don’t know why he would have thought that, since in the latter book, McCaig says,
“AKC officials like Bob McGowan may have honestly believed that, without ever breeding, rearing, training, trailing, or working one Border Collie, they knew better than those who’d spent decades with the dog, how to shepherd the Border Collie breed. People can believe anything with a little effort.”
Devotees of a particular breed have strong views about who should be in control of the breed’s future.
Canada is more highly regulated than the U.S. The Animal Pedigree Act makes it easy to determine if your puppy is legally a purebred dog, because the Act provides that only five organizations can legally certify a dog as such. These organizations are: the CKC, the Canadian Border Collie Association, the Canine Federation of Canada, the Working Canine Association of Canada and the Canadian Livestock Records Corporation.
There are a number of breeds not recognized (as yet) by the CKC. But some of those breeds can still be registered as purebred through another of the listed organisations. The Canine Federation of Canada, for example, was created by the lady who introduced the Coton de Tulear to Canada.
The Cane Corso and the Auvergne Pointer can be registered with the CFC.
In Canada, if someone tries to sell you a puppy with ‘papers’ that don’t originate from one of these five organizations, you are paying a purebred price for a dog which is not legally purebred.
I have not been able to find a comparable regulation in the U.S. Although, loosely speaking, only an AKC registered dog (or a dog registered with the kennel club of certain other countries) would be eligible to compete in an AKC sanctioned trial, the government does not appear to have spoken on what is, legally, a ‘purebred’ dog.
The internet has created an opportunity for commercial organizations to spring up on the web, offering to ‘register’ your dog and issue “papers”.
The first red flag here is that these are companies in the business of making money. The official registries are run by not-for profit clubs or organisations. As a rule, the reputable people who are breeding dogs are not in it for the money. They are probably losing money. So both buying a dog, and obtaining ‘papers’ via the internet is a really bad idea.
The second big ‘Red Alert’ button for any online dog registry is if it does not require any proof of your dog’s pedigree in order to issue these bogus ‘papers’. One I looked at asked for the names of the Dam and Sire (mother and father) and for their registration numbers, but providing these registration numbers was completely optional.
Thirdly, you are allowed to decide what breed of dog you’re registering. You can even make up a breed if you like. What it boils down to is, they will issue a piece of paper stating your dog is a purebred because you said he is. It’s meaningless, and an open invitation to puppy mills to avail themselves of this no questions asked way to provide ‘certification’ of a purebred dog.
We might in fairness, also pause to note that even the well established Club registries rely on the word of the breeder as to parentage.
What does registration mean?
Let’s say you are now educated and will only buy a dog whose parents are registered with a national, well-recognized registry. You can relax now, right? Because that must mean your dog comes from sound lineage and will not have health or temperament problems, right?
A hard no to that.
All that registration does is to certify that your dog came from purebred parents.
That’s it. It’s a pedigree. No different from what you can find out about your own lineage on ancestry.com. Although if you’re like me, your pedigree is more likely to be full of pirates and peasants than it is purebreds of any description.
Kennel clubs and breed clubs make no pretence of certifying that any particular breedline is healthy, that the parents conform to the breed standard, or even that the breeder is ethical. You’re on your own for all of that. You need to check out the breeder you are considering buying from very carefully.
Do I need to tell you that purebred dogs are notorious for their health problems?
Although the stated intention of dog breeders and kennel and breed clubs is to “better the breed”, what does that mean in actuality? Many breed standards border on conformations that encourage physical problems.
Take for example, the German Shepherd Dog. The breed standard of the CKC states that: “Croup should be long and gradually sloping. Too level or flat a croup prevents proper functioning of the hindquarter, which must be able to reach well under the body. A steep croup also limits the action of the hindquarter.” Another standard specifically stipulates that “’The croup should be long and slightly sloping [approx. 23 degrees to the horizontal]’.
The croup is the line along the dog’s back to its rump. The result of breeding for a sloping back line, is to put the back legs under the abdomen. This is the bit in the breed standard that has contributed so much to hip dysplasia in German Shepherds.
Good luck finding a breed that is not genetically predisposed to medical problems.
Thirty percent of dalmatians are born deaf.
The chance of your Golden Retriever dying from cancer is around sixty percent.
Comparing the old and new versions of purebred dogs we see more and more extreme physical forms that cannot be consistent with health.
For the last couple of decades though, there has been mounting pressure on breeders to breed healthier dogs. And although kennel clubs, being not for profit organisations, don’t have the resources to regulate and inspect all breeders, they have stepped up their efforts in this regard.
In 1994, Time ran a cover story “The Shame of Overbreeding”. That article estimated that one in four purebred dogs suffered from a genetic disease. Not long afterwards, the American Kennel Club introduced its Canine Health Foundation which, among other things, funds research into specific dog diseases.
After the investigative documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed”, aired on the BBC in 2008, the BBC stopped its coverage of the Crufts Dog Show. The makers of that film maintain a website devoted to outing problems with purebred dogs.
Due to the outcry over what that documentary showed, the Kennel Club instituted new plans to try to emphasize health as well as looks. For example, show judges were allowed to pick only “healthy dogs.” Query how they know a dog is healthy, but at least they are moving in the right direction. Close inbreeding was banned. Each breed club must appoint a health official to liaise with the Kennel Club.
The Kennel Club and CKC have developed a Code of Ethics for breeders. While it is said to be ”mandatory”, as a practical matter, it is not enforced. Still, at least it has some moral force. As far as I can tell from its website, the American Kennel Club doesn’t have a breeders’ code of ethics. They seem to passed this off to the individual national Breed Clubs.
The Kennel Club actually now has a category for breeds with visible conditions. Breed Watch has highlighted a number of breeds as ‘category three’: breeds considered to be more susceptible to developing specific health conditions associated with exaggerated conformation. In particular, they warn about breeds with problems that involve the eyes, skin, dentition, movement and breathing.
The AKC also seems to have taken a more proactive role on the issue of the health of purebred dogs. Their Frequently Used Sires Requirement and the inspection by the AKC of large kennels producing more than seven litters per year (10 litters per year for the British Kennel Club) has resulted in many litters from puppy mills being turned down for registration. Some puppy mill breeders were at least refused the opportunity to claim their puppies as AKC registered, when they refused to positively identify the sire by a DNA test.
Governments are also responding to a vocal public concerned about health issues in purebred dogs. In Switzerland, for example, two people were prosecuted under the Animal Protection Act for breeding extremely brachycephalic cats. Tougher regulations followed.
The Treaty of the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals, 1992 states in Chapter One, Article Five: that “Any person who selects a pet animal for breeding shall be responsible for having regard to the anatomical, physiological and behavioural characteristics which are likely to put at risk the health and welfare of either the offspring or the female parent.” Twenty-six countries are signatories to this Treaty.
So why pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a purebred dog which is almost certainly going to be prone to some health problem or another?
The traditional answer is that “you know what you’re getting with a purebred dog”. Any purebred dog is going to look like any other purebred dog of the same breed. If you buy a Miniature Schnauzer, he is not going to end up weighing a hundred pounds.
Perhaps of even greater interest to most people is the claim that the personality and temperament of a purebred dog can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. Broadly speaking this is true. A Border Collie is likely going to chase balls and other dogs if they can’t get sheep or ducks. A Beagle is going to follow her nose.
Just be aware though, that personalities and temperament can vary within a breed. As we found when we met Toby’s siblings at dog shows, personality and temperament can vary even within the same litter. Toby was a strong willed, outgoing dog. One of his sisters was on the shy and timid side.
You will have to make up your own mind as to the ethics of buying a purebred dog. Or cat. I haven’t dealt with purebred cats because, as a rule they have not been inbred to the same extent as dogs, and therefore are not as prone to serious health issues (except perhaps for brachycephalic breeds, and I’ve talked about those elsewhere.
For my part, I don’t agree with PETA , that for every dog or cat intentionally bred, a dog or cat in a shelter dies. People buy purebred dogs and cats for a specific reason. It’s quite possible that if those people could not get the type of purebred dog or cat they want, they wouldn’t have a dog or cat at all. In any event, as a purely pragmatic matter, purebred dogs and cats aren’t going away.
I will say though, that we should all support efforts to ensure breeders devote themselves as much to health as to looks.