Thursday, August 23, 2012

A Basic Understanding of Pedigrees

Tracing the lineage of a purebred dog should be easy, and the pedigree is the main tool used to do this research. Knowing the history of your pedigreed puppy gives you an excellent idea of what you might expect from the dog in the future. How it will turn out physically, what health issues it is predisposed to and what genotypes might be present.
Being able to visit the puppies litter, parents and other relatives is an important step in choosing a purebred puppy. Puppies brought home from a pet store have a shady background at best. How will you know whether or not a particular health problem runs in that litter or family of dogs? How did it's littermates and parents behave? What can you expect from the dog temperament wise? You have no history to compare the new puppy or dog to. It is always best to buy your pure bred puppy from a reputable breeder AFTER doing. You are considering adding a companion and friend to your family for the next 8 -10 years, not a purchase that you want to make on impulse.
To an amateur dog owner or potential puppy buyer a pedigree simply looks like a bunch of funny names on a page. Pedigrees are setup like a basic family tree.  The dog/puppies name will be center left, with its Sire (father) listed on top to the right and it’s Dam (mother) listed on bottom to the right.  The Sire and Dam’s parents are listed next (puppy’s grandparents) and so on and so forth.  Any reference to the puppies father’s side of the family is its paternal side and reference to the puppies mother’s family is the maternal side.
In researching pedigrees, breeders may use terminology to advertise a litter like “Champion lines” or “Championed pedigree”.  What exactly does this mean to an unsuspecting buyer? 
First of all what is a Champion? A Champion is a dog that has been shown to approved AKC judges in approved AKC shows and won enough points to earn the title of Champion.  It takes 15 points to earn a dog’s championship, which includes 2 major wins (I will reference this later).  The number of points in each show is determined by the number of dogs or bitches of the specific breed present at the show. The maximum number of points awarded at any one show is 5, so it takes a minimum of 3 shows to earn a dogs championship.  Included in those 15 points the dog must earn 2 majors under two different judges.  A major is simply a show in which enough dogs or bitches of that breed are present to make 3, 4, or 5 points available.
An International Championship through the IBCA is easier to earn than an AKC Championship, however it takes a certain rating by two different judges to be awarded this title.  A nice dog can complete this Championship in a weekend if several shows in the same location are offered.
So back to what a Champion Pedigree means... to reputable breeders this means numerous champions in the dogs first 3-4 generations.  For example, my female has 10 AKC Champions in her 4 generation pedigree (her parents, grandparents and great grandparents), 2 International Champions, and two dogs that did not receive their championship status. This is a Champion Pedigree. 
Unscrupulous breeders will sometimes say their puppies are from Champion lines, but when you look at the pedigree you might see one or maybe 2 Champions 4 or more generations back.  This is NOT a Champion pedigree in my opinion.  After 2-3 generations of breeding to poor quality or sub-standard dogs, the genes of those Champions is diluted enough to make no difference in the quality of the puppies.
One might ask, if I am only looking for a pet, then why do I care about such things as pedigrees, champions, lineage, etc.  Check out the article Why should anyone spend a little more money to buy a puppy from a show dog breeder?, for answers to these questions.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

My Experience in a Raw Food Diet for Dogs

In a blog post we published in January “Choosing a Top Quality Dry Food” we outlined what to look for should you choose to feed dry kibble to your dog.  I hinted that I would like to try feeding a raw diet, but didn’t want to further elaborate until I had some experience.  
Well, the good news is we have been feeding raw since February and LOVE IT!  The dogs love it, they eat better, they drink less water (which makes me feel better about bloat and the heat this summer) and best of all, they poop so much less.  We’re talking about two 170+lb dogs that poop as much as mini poodle.  Their coats are healthy, Boone’s skin allergies have all but cleared up, they are very physically fit and I know exactly what it is that is going into my dogs.
The work I put into it is much less time consuming than I originally had anticipated as well.  While it does take more effort than pouring some kibble in a bowl, it isn’t like I have to butcher the cow each meal either.  I try and stick with feeding them approximately 3 lbs per day.  When I first started out I was weighing everything, however after a month or so I can estimate close enough the scale is unnecessary.  I feed on average 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organ meat.  I do feed some veggies, while not a staple in thier diet they do act as a very health filler and the dogs love them.  Sometimes I puree various raw veggies and put the paste in cupcake pans and freeze it.  The dogs love them, I even mix in eggs or broth sometimes for added yumminess. I also feed whole sweet potatoes sometimes with meals or just as a snack. 
I will add that even with some of the recent recalls, should I need to switch back to a dry kibble, Diamond Naturals Large Breed 60+ is still my dry kibble of choice. If you are thinking of switching to raw or have questions about raw diets, I don’t claim to know it all, or even much at all, but I will give you my honest opinion in regards to my experiences.