Bob's Dog Blog

Things change. Sometimes for the better and other times, for the worse. The problem with changes over long periods of time is that they tend to go unnoticed. Rottweiler breeding programs are a very good example of a gradual change for the worse: a relatively new trend here in the USA.

To fill you in historically, a breeding program was essentially taking two exceptional specimens (dog and bitch) and having them reproduce exceptional specimens to begin the work of genetically upgrading or maintaining a high standard within that breed. It used to be that the breeder would keep a female or two from his own breedings, then find an exceptional male from another kennel (with genetic ties to the female) and breed that male to his female, thus creating a  third generation from which to further carry on the program. It was understood that to do this, you had to start with good foundation stock, keep good female offspring and breed that offspring to good males. This would be continued for years, hopefully proving out the original foundation pair and thus,the breeding program itself. This way, when someone wanted to buy a pup, they would know that they were getting an animal with a proven pedigree and some existing evidence that there were no health issues and so on.

This was also where various ‘lines’ of Rottweilers would originate, sort of like good wines from a well known winery or well bred horses from a specific stable. It used to be that you could look at a Rottweiler and almost tell what breeding program the dog came from. Those days are pretty much gone.

Fast forward to today. Here is the new scenario, all too often played out in Rottweiler kennels: Someone has a lot of money to burn, buys two stud dogs and a few females from Europe to begin a kennel. This is the slam dunk mentality and although it takes little time to get up and running, it is worthless as a breeding program. Why? Because the breeder is not proving out his stock. He is breeding Dog ‘A’ to Bitch ‘B’ and selling the pups, based solely on the merits of the parents. That’s it. All guarantees and glowing descriptions (you know the drill – “the greatest dog in the world”, etc) aside, what is being accomplished? None of the dogs in this scenario are proven within the framework of a breeding program, which can take five to ten years to develop (longer if the foundation pair have failed to produce good offspring). You see, just because the parents have fantastic pedigrees, or just because they are good looking dogs, doesn’t necessarily result in correct offspring. It will definitely help, but, again, the breeding program must be done to prove out the foundation stock. Period.  If anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying. Period.

You also see a similarity in hobby kennels where someone is breeding two dogs regardless of quality, pedigree, phenotype, etc. They advertise them as ‘AKC’ or some such to apparently impress buyers, when in fact, all Rottweilers can be AKC registered – it has absolutely no bearing on the quality of  any one dog. These individuals have even less of an idea of what they are doing than my first example and when they find out that there is very little money to be made, end their hobby, usually within five years.

What do both of these types of people have in common? Money Motivation. These individuals, in my opinion, are not doing the work necessary and taking the time needed to create a viable line of Rottweilers. In order to justify their money motivation, some of these people will eventually resort to lying, misrepresenting their breeding stock and other methods to make a sale. It always catches up with them, either through bad word of mouth, lawsuits, banishment from the AKC, etc. I have seen and heard it all.

The above descriptions were more the exception rather than the rule when I first became interested in Rottweilers, over fifteen years ago. In my opinion, the first purpose of a breeding kennel is to dedicate itself to the betterment of the breed. Money is the reward the breeder receives for doing the hard work of creating healthy, well bred pups for others to enjoy as fine examples of the Rottweiler breed. When a kennel devolves into some kind of cash cow then I think it’s time to re-evaluate Rottweiler breeding, particularly here in the United States.

Please understand again that the lazy use of the subject of genetics, as practiced in the above examples, is not scientific at all and without actually studying the results over time, is at best unreliable. To compound the problem by claiming their pups are as good as the parents with no proof in the form of a breeding program, makes the fantastic claims of those involved even more ludicrous.

While any major change in this situation will most likely not happen any time soon, I thought posting this would at least raise some awareness on the subject.

Bob

I would like to take the time to explain the word ‘Breeder’ to those out there who insist on telling me that their last dog was purchased from a ‘Breeder’ somewhere in Zootsville, who put their two pet dogs together to make puppies.  First of all, anyone can call themselves a breeder, sort of like anyone can call themselves an electrician or plumber, and so on.

The following is my experienced opinion and as such is based on what I know. If you have more information to add to this post, by all means email me with your full identity and I will be more than happy to add or correct what I have written here.

So, a Rottweiler breeder, in my opinion,  has the following characteristics:

1. They have dedicated himself to improving and maintaining the breed standard through excellent breeding stock and an understanding of the genotype and phenotype of the Rottweiler breed. This obviously goes beyond the ‘hobby’ phase as it takes a lot of time and hard work to develop any breeding program. Hobby breeders have their place, of course, as from this, some become dedicated Rottweiler fanciers who then develop their skills and breeding stock to finally enter the world of breeding, training and showing these magnificent dogs. However, do not misidentify one with the other. Know when you are buying a pup from a hobby breeder versus an actual, established kennel.

2. Ensures that his breeding stock do not have disqualifying faults in conformation; ensures they do not have major health concerns, such as hip dysplasia, before using them for breeding. Of course, there is no such thing as the perfect dog, but that is the entire reason you are doing a breeding program: to improve the breed, through adding what is good and eliminating what isn’t.

3. Waits at least until age two with a sire or dam to begin breeding.

4. Has a keen understanding of the Rottweiler Breed Standard by both reading and observing his own dogs and other specimens. A novice will not know much about what a Rottweiler should look like, only what they ‘think’ looks interesting, so they bypass the whole reason for breeding in the first place: to improve the breed. I’ve heard it all. I recently saw something written by some ‘expert’ who was looking for a dog with ‘a big blocky head and a short muzzle’ to use for breeding. This is idiocy. If you talk to someone who knows, they will agree on this point without fail.

5.  Has a keen understanding of Rottweiler pedigrees, from research and study of what pedigrees have produced the best results. A breeder with enough experience will have a good handle on pedigrees, at least knowing what has produced good offspring in the past and what is producing in recent years. Since it takes so long for a pedigree to prove out, someone who has been working on a breeding program for only a year or two will not be able to show the fruits of his or her labors for at least five to seven years. Most people cannot last that long in the kennel business.

6. Can and has successfully trained Rottweilers in obedience, particularly, so as to impart this information to owners.  I know people who have been marginally involved with this breed for a while who still cannot teach a dog to heel. This is hard to believe and harder yet to understand in light of the fact that training is a vital part of a Rottweiler’s life.

7. Understands the care and feeding of Rottweilers, from birth through to adulthood, so as to impart this information to owners. It takes work to raise a dog and owners need help sometimes. A breeder should have most of the answers or at least try to help. I have heard of ‘breeders’ who will not answer emails and phone calls from concerned owners who have questions. This, after having taken their money. It’s shameful, but true.

8. Has gone beyond the hobby stage in breeding Rottweilers. That is, beyond the activity of putting two dogs together to make puppies. While this is not always a sin (and sometimes it is done unethically), the hobby breeder must somehow progress beyond this level to learn enough to benefit both the breed and those who adopt puppies.

9. Actually creates and maintains a breeding program, whereby female offspring from his or her own litters are raised and if qualified, bred back to qualified sires on site or qualified sires from other kennels, in order to develop a line particular to his or her kennel. I have seen breeders do nothing more than import dogs and bitches from elsewhere to slam dunk a kennel into existence. While this is the quick result, I do not believe it’s the best result. Why do all of this work and not even have a line to call your own?

The above points are what, in my estimation, a breeder should have in order to have the integrity necessary to build and maintain a successful Rottweiler kennel. It may not sit well with everyone, but I don’t expect it to.

Best,

Bob

It has happened more than once, that I am asked why a three or four month old pup looks rangy and awkward, as opposed to the fat little eight week old most are used to associating with as regards puppy pictures.

I have gone over this with various prospective owners, but until now have never written an article on it. So, here we go.

A Rottweiler puppy goes through several growth stages in its development up through adulthood. A lot of this will have to do with genetics, as some bloodlines occur where growth is more gradual than others. By the way, I have never been an advocate of genetic lines (or absurd feeding programs) that enable the pup to grow too quickly. In my opinion, a pup needs time to slowly develop muscle tone, bone substance and other body functions and IT TAKES AS LONG AS IT TAKES. That is why, when I hear from some disgruntled owner that his or her pup is ‘too small’, I literally laugh out loud. If one expects the pup to be sixty or seventy pounds at six months old, then you are indeed asking too much. If the owner is feeding the dog a proper diet, with a good high calorie dense food, then there is nothing to worry about. Again, we have another instance of people thinking that their pup is a baby in a dog suit.

Okay, back to puppy growth stages. A pup will gain weight regularly up to around ten weeks of age. You can actually feel the weight gain, but there is no pronounced size increase between eight and ten weeks. It’s mostly, in my opinion, internal weight, as the organs and tissue and bone further their development.

After that point, things begin to stabilize and the body begins to develop in other ways than just size and weight. The headpiece begins to develop, the baby teeth fall out, height and length begins to be the major growth activity and so on. The internal organs also continue developing, such as heart, lungs and so on. This is then what you will see in a pup of ten to fourteen weeks of age. No, they are not Dobermans. No, they are not underfed, or abused. They are growing. Do you remember looking at pictures of yourself as a teenager? Is that what you look like now? I didn’t think so. Well, a puppy goes through the same type of growth stages.

Between fourteen weeks and around six or seven months, there will be another series of growth spurts, where size increase occurs, the muscle tone becomes more developed and the ear sets become unstable. The pup is less prone to falling over when it goes to chase a ball, as they are really developing muscle tissue now.  However, the pup still does not look like an adult at this point.

Look, raising a puppy to adulthood is work. Nobody ever said it would be easy. But unrealistic ideals about what an adolescent puppy should look like are so embedded in people’s minds, that maybe a picture story might help. So, I have included on this post pictures showing growth stages of two Fallhammer pups, Nala and Titus. Of course, both pups have been marvelously cared for, but the fact remains that neither owner had any idea their gangly pup would turn out as they did.

Bob

I split this article in half because there’s a lot for me to say here and I wanted it to be a bit more readable……..

2. So, what about phenotype?

Again, when you’re looking for a pup, you want the best possible combination of genetics (genotype or pedigree) and phenotype PLUS individual temperament,drive, intelligence,etc.
Here is what phenotype is: physical appearance and/or actual type or physical characteristics of the specific dog in front of you.

You may want a certain type when looking for a Rottweiler, such as a darker mahogany and a certain look for the head piece. Well, the parents may possess some of those types you like, but you should probably look at the pup itself to see if it also has that type. Some offspring do not look exactly like their parents, so getting a picture would probably help. Phenotype is the easiest to examine in a pup, because it’s right there in front of you!

Phenotype basically confirms what the genetics are telling you. It is the reliability of phenotype that gives you correct looking pups when breeding a male and female of similar type and it is what we as breeders should strive for in attempting to copy the breed standard.

3. That leaves us with tested temperament, drive and intelligence. We can call this Ability.

The following fact is the most overlooked in pup selection regardless of pedigree or phenotype : THE UNSEEN ABILITIES OF THAT INDIVIDUAL PUP ARE OF EQUAL IMPORTANCE TO THE QUALITY OF THE PEDIGREE AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF THE DOG.

If you want to train the dog in competitive obedience or protection or flyball or whatever, make sure the dog has the drive or interest in play to do the work. If not, you’ll get the pup home and it’ll look at you like you have three heads when you toss a ball for it to chase. Great pedigree. Looks great. Lousy drive. Oh, well, I guess the apple fell a few miles from the tree. I mean, for sure you would look for a working pedigree if you wanted a working dog, for instance. Still, it is no substitute for actually looking at the pup in front of you.

I’m not saying that if you pay three grand for a pup out of some awesome sire that you won’t get a great pup – all I am saying is that the fact that the sire is fantastic is not a guarantee that the offspring will be.

4. Here’s the moral of the story.

Study the pedigree. Are dogs on the pedigree proven producers in both work and conformation? Or are they all “Harley Von Davidson” (my own personal favorite) with a dog that won a Canine Good Citizen seven generations ago. (I recently saw a web site where they stated they were proud members of Avid and the OFA. I had no idea that when you micro-chipped your dog and sent in an xray that you became a member of such special clubs!)

Have the pup tested by the breeder. Take a look at the pictures of the pup. Are the nerves sound? Does the pup have any major faults or flaws that would be a health or performance issue? Really check it out. And I don’t mean just check to see of the parents were done on their OFA hip screening. Just so you know, that is actually only one body part out of a whole bunch. Have the drive tested, if that matters to you. I can test drive and nerves on a pup at seven weeks with pretty good accuracy.

Of course, if the pup is not thereafter socialized and trained to CONTINUE to be environmentally sound, then the three factors (genotype, phenotype, ability) will be wasted. And that is where you come in as the owner. If you want the pup to have ball drive, don’t expect him to get tons of ball drive if you don’t exercise that drive and bring it out of him when he’s a pup. I can’t tell you how many people come to me with their dog when he’s two years old and cannot understand when the dog doesn’t go crazy for the ball. Dog doesn’t know how to play and should have learned it when he was three months old.

It really boils down to ‘what am I looking for in a pup?’. If you want a certain look or working ability or just a pet that you can train to be a good member of the family, you need to at least discuss that with the breeder to see if he has a match for you. Again, just buying a pup on pedigree or looks alone is going to mostly be a status based decision. You know, like ‘my dog is better than your dog because of his pedigree or how big is head is.’ I didn’t think people thought that way, but I have spoken to some and I am amazed at what I hear. They actually believe that the dog IS his pedigree, which is false.

So, know that what the breeder is selling you is a blank slate. You as the owner need to socialize, train and responsibly care for the pup through its entire life. You are the one who can mold the dog into what you want as a family member and friend. And as I stated earlier, if you do the imprinting at an early enough age then the dog will be far easier to train when he’s a year or two old and you want to do something more with him. At that point, genetics might not be enough.

Bob

Please don’t misunderstand me here. I am a huge believer in pedigree (not the dog food, by the way) and what it represents genetically in the Rottweiler breed. But I am writing this as some buyers and yes, even breeders, base their entire breeding program on pedigree alone, with very little emphasis on environment and phenotype.

Let me clarify a few terms here. First of all, pedigree means the lineage or ancestry of a particular dog within a breed type. So, the pedigree of a dog includes the parents, grandparents, etc as far back as you can go and believe me you can go very far back with pure bred dogs.

Phenotype is the actual physical type, or appearance of the dog or bitch, usually as it relates to the written description of the breed standard for that specific breed of dog. Sometimes it is just referred to as ‘type’.

Environment means the way the dog is raised in it’s home environment. This includes how the dog is fed, exercised, socialized, trained and otherwise maintained throughout it’s life, from puppyhood through adulthood.

I will now attempt clarify the point of this article, mainly that the importance of pedigree is relative to the other two factors in a puppy or adult canine.

1. Should you care about a dog’s pedigree?

Okay, so now here is my argument. Selecting a dog on pedigree alone does not always guarantee that you will get a carbon copy of what’s on that pedigree. For example, if I were to choose to buy a pup who was bred from titled show (conformation, not working) parents and who had an awesome pedigree, but whose nerves were thin and who was skittish around people, would be a less than an intelligent choice. But, the breeder will tell you that the pup just needs a little socializing, and so on, it’s not genetic, and all that. Well, if the pup tests out with thin nerves at eight weeks, chances are the pup has thin nerves and you can help it with socialization but you may not be able to fully neutralize the dog’s nerves fully – so you always have the chance that the dog will react adversely to people. I know someone who has a working dog with that exact situation, who paid top dollar for the dog from a breeder and who was told that exact same thing – ‘Oh, she just needs socialization.” Not so, my friend. Sounds like a kink in the genetic line to me.

Now, you can have a pup with totally great, sound nerves, who goes to a home where they do absolutely no socializing with the pup. No trips to the park, no interaction with other people, kids, bikes, etc. Well, there will a bit of a problem there, but nowhere near as big a problem as the pup who already had nerve issues (genotype) to begin with.

Okay, so how does pedigree, or genotype play into the quality of the pup you buy? It’s like this- the pedigree may have great dogs somewhere on it, even close in. The parents may be International Champions with all kinds of great sounding titles from Europe. But the true test is, what has that pedigree produced, in real life? In other words, has the sire or dam produced a dog that was worthy of the breeding that was done and of the price you are paying? Has the sire or dam produced offspring that are consistently healthy, well tempered, possessing adequate drive or good nerve enough so that they will not shut down when they are corrected? I have heard of great dogs from the past, who were Korung, Schutzhund III dogs who were absolutely fantastic specimens, who produced nothing. They could not pass on the genetic blueprint to the offspring and so you got dogs, offspring that people paid a lot of money for who themselves were not their parents. I mean, look at some humans that you know. Look at the parents and see if the kids are as good as the parents. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Okay?

Bob