Dog breed discussion

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The burmese mountain dog is probably too much for an apartment living situation. They require a fair amount of excercise.

Addressing the inbreeding issue that someone brought up. Inbreeding isn't necessarily bad and in fact a certain amount is often desirable. Also there's different degrees of inbreeding. The following link discusses horses but this also applies to dogs:

Inbreeding, Linebreeding and Crossbreeding

Particularly note from the article:

Many undesirable genes affecting the horse's overall vigor and fertility are recessive. Fortunately, they have no influence in the heterozygous state, since the effect of the recessive allele is completely hidden by the effect of the corresponding dominant allele. Because of the overall effect of inbreeding is an increase in homozygosity, it increases the number of homozygous recessives. Hence, the effects of undesirable recessive genes begin to surface. Inbreeding does not create undesirable trait, it exposes recessive alleles for hidden weaknesses which are present within the sire and dam. Because successful inbreeding demands the culling of inferior breeding stock over many generations (to help eliminate some of the undesirable recessive genes from the herd), it may not be feasible for some breeders. Not only is the time factor impractical for most breeders, the intense culling often necessary may be an economic problem. Additionally, the traits which tend to surface within the inbred herd (such as depressed growth rate and decreased size) contrast sharply with what many breeders select for. Therefore, the breeder must be objective when the need to cull arises.

My understanding is that undesirable traits are very often carried on recessive genes and the more closely bred any animal is, the more likely the undesirable traits will show up due to the nature of recessive genes and the laws of genetics.

Also remember that when you purchase an AKC registered pure bred you will have access to it's pedigree with four generations of lineage available.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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The best way to figure out whether a dog will work or not is to check out the puppies yourself, as well as the parents. This way you get a good idea if the dog possesses the qualities/temperament typical for the breed, or if it is completely different (for better or for worse).


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Good advice. This also implies that you are going to a responsible breeder, which you really should do. Please avoid purchases from pet stores. The likelihood that you will get an animal with problems goes up way up and you end up supporting the awful puppy mill system.

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it's good advice, but everyone I know who bought a dog from a breeder claims their breeder is "really top notch". this can't be true.

also, my buddy is one of these people, and specifically picked the most chill dog he could (in a Golden litter) and at 2 years old the thing is completely hyper and hasn't learned to not bite (not biting in a malicious way, but he still has left some big bruises on people in the last few months).

[2/325Falcon]

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- Greyhound
A bit spaz. But I spent time with retired race dogs/rescues.

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FWIW my parents have had two retired racing greyhounds and both were big canine couch potatoes. Take them out, play with them for 15 min., let them back in, and they'd lie right back down. Both were awesome pets.

[wdcbooks]

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yeah definitely. we really would rather adopt from a shelter, but then again my wife really has her heart set on a specific breed, so that makes it difficult.

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Not really. There is a rescue organization for just about every breed out there. Try googling "X rescue" for the type of dog you want and you are likely to find an organization in your area.

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Each breed has a parent club that's associated with the AKC. Not all breeders are members of the parent club. For example here's a link to the parent club for Goldens:

Golden Retriever Club of America

They have a referral program:

Golden Retriever Puppy Referrals

They also have a code of ethics which is accessible from their web site. Anyway not all Golden Retriever breeders belong to this organization and if it was me buying one I'd be wondering if a breeder wasn't a member. Not saying you couldn't find a decent breeder that wasn't a member but I think your chances of finding a good quality dog without problems get alot better by going through the parent club of the breed you're interested in. Of course the flip side is that the breeder won't necessarily sell you a puppy either. Anyway all AKC registered pure breds have a parent club that is basically set up the same way.

[adios]

Italian Greyhound Club of America Home Page

Might be of interest.

[B00T]

Boston Terrier FTW

[JasonK]

I'm looking into getting a Maltese, Mini Dachsund, or Mini Pinscher.

[belgianbeerlover]

Don't get a lab. They really need to run and be active. Maybe a Bassett Hound?

[RunyonAve]

My brother just got a bulldog and they're so lazy.. it's friggin awesome.

For a more upbeat person, my girlfriend just got a Puggle and that little [censored] loves to run and play, but hardly ever barks and is a good lap dog when you want it to be.