Dexterous Rascals Outcross (our mission)
Breeding plan 2019
Author Meranda Sterk
Date november 26st 2018
version 0.1
Mission of our kennel
The mission of my pug breeding kennel Dexterous Rascals is to breed healthy pugs, with features that influence their quality of life, within the pedigree in the coming four years.
Vision
We will achieve our mission by the selection of the right combinations to increase the genetic variety, to decrease the chance of congenital diseases and by breeding features that have a positive effect on the general health of the pug (such as a longer muzzle).
Current developments
The resistance against breeds with extreme physicals that have a negative effect on their health is growing. They are either loved or truly hated. The Dutch law says that breeders should be aware of heritable characteristics that damage the health of the breed and they must prevent this from happening as much as possible. Besides the pressure of the people, there is a lawful necessity for breeders of brachycephalic dogs to breed dogs with a healthy skull (with enough space for the brain) and a proper length of the muzzle as well.
Dilemma’s
The pug is a unique breed with an exceptional character. For hundreds of years, they represent joy in their families. However, breathing problems are becoming an issue. One of these problems is called the “brachycephalic obstructive syndrome”. This syndrome is about a few characteristics around the muzzle. For instance, the narrow nostrils, a soft palate (in addition the palate can be too long or short as well) and deformity of the trachea. Due to one of these characteristics (or combinations), stuffiness (breathing problems) can appear.
Not only the muzzle but the size and form of the skull can cause problems as well. Sometimes, the skull is slightly under sized for the brain to contain all of the structures. Bulging eyes, neurologic problems and ear infections (A.K.A. otitis) are results.
To prevent these problems from happening, rigorous choices sometimes need to be taken.
Due to an upcoming amount of DNA tests, more and more relevant information about inbreeding and measurements of genetic variation can be provided. The use of inbreeding can lead to a very poor working auto immune system. Here for the dog will react on viruses, bacterial infections and cancer. The fertility and the length of life can decrease through the use of inbreeding. Simply said, less genetic variation means that much alleles are the same. This stage is called “homozygotes” . with inbreeding, this high state of homozygotes is caused by similarities.
The benefit of homozygotes is that the offspring will be quiet similar to the father and mother. For many breeders this predictability is nice but on the contrary it can be very deceiving as well.
Our choices
In 2019, we will make the following choices for our pug breeding kennel:
Concerning health,
- We will crossbreed different breeds to optimize the genetic variety.
- We will reduce the amount of inbreeding to increase the quality of the skull so that it cannot cause any form of health issues.
- The pugs that will be used, all passed the Dutch endurance test. Besides that, they all have great knees, proven by the so called patella luxation test.
- A DNA test will measure the sensitivity for pug dog Encefalitit (PDE) and another test will measure if the pug contains Degenerative myelopathie (DM) in their genes.
- We exclusively work with natural breeding males. (no artificial fertilization)
- We select our material by looking at the manner of birth. If a bitch needs a cesarean section to deliver her pups, we will not keep one of the pups for breeding purposes.
- We will accept that we are not going to be able to fulfill the breed standards of the pug within the first few generations. Our priority lies with the health.
- We will only use pugs that are approved by the association of pug breeders in Holland (commedia) and passed for all of their health tests.
- We will select the breeding material by looking at their behavior as well. Most definitely when we will be using other breeds. We will do this to preserve the pugs gentle and kind and joyful character.
Concerning expertise,
- We will maintain contact with several specialists such as, veterinarians, the expertise center of the genetics of companion animals and other experienced breeders.
- We followed study’s to improve our own expertise such as professional animal husbandry, kynological knowledge 1 and 2 and exterior/movement. We also tend to visit a lot of lectures concerning these topics. Our son, Rutger sterk, currently follows an English HBO study Animal husbandry at Van Hall Larenstein.
- We follow and read the most relevant, kynological scientific investigations.
- We maintain a very wide network of international (kynological) specialists.
Concerning behavior,
- We have circa thirty years of experience on working with, and training dogs of different breeds.
- All of our pups are born indoors (areas that are created for such matters in our house). We work intensively on the socialization of the pups. At the age of nine weeks our pups know, other dogs and cats, loads of different people, they are familiar with every sound in and around the house like the vacuum cleaner, the radio, television and many other sounds and smells.
The breeding kennel 2019
In 2019, we will make the following combinations,
1. Common pug combinations like every breeder is used to.
2. A crossbreed between a Shiba-inu male with one of our own pug bitches.
3. A crossbreed a staffordhsire Bullterrier with one of our own pug bitches.
4. At last, a crossbreed between one of our new males Rico. Rico is a crossbreed between a pug x Staffordshire Bullterrier.
The crossbreeds will be investigated by specialists. The offspring will be judged on all the different features concerning health, behavior, exterior and movement.
