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Originally Posted by Kat
I would like to thank all of you for your replies to my question but I do feel that some of you have personally attacked this breeder. I know some of you would like to ask questions but must understand that in different countries, there are different rules. There are different standards and different rules in each country
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I don´t think anybody intended to attack the breeder personally. Though I don´t think it is a good idea to ask a question like yours in an open forum (did you ask for a honest or a polite answer?) and didn´t agree with Michael´s posting (that wasn´t meant as an attack).The reason for the reactions is the difficult breeding situation at the moment. I am very sure that Patrick really loves the breed and his dogs and wants to do the best for both so I want to make sure that what I write now is meant in
generally not personally.
There may be different breeding rules in countries but there is only ONE standard for a breed and especially all breeding dogs should follow this standard as good as possible. The dogs should look like a European wolf, that means they should have wolflike head shapes and masks, small ears, light eyes, close lips without hanging corners of the underlip, a short straight tail, the body should not be build heavily, the thorax should be to broad and deep and the legs shouldn´t be to short in relation to the body. Unluckily most common judges (and even some breeders) especially the ones outside the countries of origin don´t really know what a wolfdog should look like. We have several champions at the moment with severe exterieur mistakes, some of them wouldn´t even be allowed to breed in the countries of origin. Very many dogs look like grey German Shepherds. If we all want to breed CVW and not German wolfdogs or Begian wolfdogs or Dutch wolfdogs we have to be very aware of the problem that show results in CACIB shows and Championtitels don´t mean anything at all as long as the judge wasn´t a specialised one for this breed. You have to know the breed very well if you want to be able to recognise a good stud dog. You can´t get to know the breed well enough for this if you haven´t seen a lot of dogs in the countries of origin or at least being judged by a specialised judge. So one of the possibilities to be a little bit sure of the quality of a dog is the Bonitation (even though there are some P1 dogs I wouldn´t use for breeding) The bonitation code additionally gives you the possibility to look for exterieur mistakes that don´t fit with your dog, no dog is perfect.
I absolutely agree that the charakter of the dog is one of the most important things and we luckily nowadays have a lot of dogs with a good charakter. Also some dogs have problems in the Bonitation charakter test because they are not trained or socialised well enough, that doesn´t mean they have a genetic problem which it they will give to there offspring. But even if a good charakter is one of the most important thing to look for it isn´t the only one.
A genetic problem that is very often given to the offspring is HD, and even HD A dogs can have the genes for bad hips, one little possibility to check is to look for the HD degree of the different generations. There are HD lines in this breed that shouldn´t been combined with other HD lines and the following generations should be supervised very intensly. wolfdog.org gives you the possibility to check several generations. The HD problem is getting worse at the moment and we should be very aware of that.
For breeders outside of the original countries it is not that easy to get to special dog shows or to bonitations. We have had and still have some problems here in Germany and I can imagine how difficult it is in Belgium with even less breeders. Most breeders out of countries like ours have to travel a lot to get the right breeding mates or to go to club shows or bonitations. That is the reason why the German Club decided to only invite specialised judges out of the countries of origin for the Club shows and why we asked them to do a bonitation together with each Club show each year. The next ones will be at the 24 + 25th of september near Heidelberg, that is not that far away from Belgium or the Netherlands or Luxemburg as the ones in other countries.
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Originally Posted by Kat
but what it all comes down to is the love that each breeder shows to his dog and puppies. By my research and by talking to Patrick, and other breeders, his heart is in his dogs. His care and devotion to these dogs is what makes them EXCELLENT CVW dogs.
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I am sure you are right but excellent in the breeding point of view doesn´t only mean well cared for and good socialised but it means a dog that is in every point of view better than most of the breed, that is something totally different.
Regards Ina