Has anyone heard of these new breeding regulations? I read an article in the Dec. 21-Jan. 3 Economist about them limiting the number of times a champion stud could be used, changing the way pedigrees are issued and new ways of tracking genetic problems. This all sounds great to me, but I don't breed and was wondering what any of the breeders on the board thought. :)

I think they already limit the use of a stud dog to 3 times whether he is a champion or not in some parts of Europe.

I know in Germany for my breed they do a pedigree check and score it for epilepsy, if a dog has too many affected in their pedigree ie too high a score then breeding is not permitted. They also do not allow dogs of any colour other than the accepted Black (schips that is) to breed even if they are going to a country that allows these colours to be shown and bred, their documents have a no breeding restriction imposed by the German Kennel Club not the breeder. On the colour front they will register puppies but then will not allow black progeny from overseas with a coloured parent to breed.

I exported 2 black puppies from a cream bitch in Feb 02 and the German kennel club were happy about that no problems, until their new owner produced a coloured pup from 2 of her own blacks. After that the GKC would not allow her to breed with either of the dogs from here, so the male is now doing agility but the bitch is going to a Swedish breeder as they are allowed to show and breed with her.

For me I think a restriction of only 3 breedings is too small for a dog, I have spoken with pom breeders from Europe who find it very difficult to decide if and who to mate their boys with, especially when they produce so few pups. My own dog has an American father so 50% of his pedigree is an unknown in terms of what traits etc are possible with british bloodlines, I have mated him to 5 bitches privately with his breeder and my own foundation bitch, 3 lines he is very compatable with but 2 I would never put him to again. Of course this is only a very very simplistic way of assessing his traits but if I was only allowed to use him 3 times his potential could have been lost.