Top Ten Hints for Breeders
by Debi Garvin
1). Never breed for fads – have a vision of the ideal animal in your mind and stick with it – know what your long term breeding goals are and strive to reach those.
2). Never breed purely to make money – once money enters the picture, it clouds ones judgment.
3). Always be honest with prospective buyers – never promote an animal as a way to make money. Find out what the buyer wants to do with the animal and sell them one that fits their needs. If you don’t have such an animal, be honest.
4). Every breeding decision must be made with an ideal of what you want to produce – the dumbest statement I ever heard was a guy stating he would like to breed a suri with a classic to “see what happens”.
5). Never breed an animal that exhibits a major recessive fault. You may be able to “hide” that trait in future generations, but you have kept it in the gene pool and probably increased its presence.
6). Never place a superficial trait (such as color) over a functional trait (such as conformation).
7). If an animal has a bad temperament, or a significant conformation flaw (such as a severe overbite, angular limb deformity, etc.) don’t breed it. Only about 5% of males produced should be used for studs and only about 75% (max) of females should be bred.
8). Never compromise traits determined by additive effects (size, structure, conformation), for traits that are autosomal (suri vs. non-suri coat).
9). Be very critical and be willing to cull animals that do not produce high quality offspring.
10). Breed for the ideal “companion animal”. No one really wants to deal with animals that are difficult to handle and are nasty.