I know it may sound like a stupid question, but I don't know and was hoping someone could tell me. I don't know much at all about dogs, actually I'm quite ignorant when it comes to dogs. If anyone could tell me, I would appreciate it. Thanks

As far as I know, they mate an undersized dog with an undersized bitch, then keep repeating for many generations (only breeding with the smallest of any litter) until the correct sized gene has been eliminated. All the time, of course, trying to retain all the other good qualities of the breed (or so I should hope).

Not to come off as I don't trust you, but how sure are you that that's how it is done? I assumed that also, but I was telling a couple of friends that, and they told me I was so stupid. I didn't have any proof that that's how you create the new breed so I've been trying to find some hard facts. Is there a web site that may also show this. Thanks for your thoughts.

Logic (and a basic knowledge of genetics!) tells me that would be the way to go.

What method do your clever friends suggest?
:)

I was actually wondering this myself the other day - thanks JG :)

It is sometimes done that way but it will often throw up other and sometime unforseen problems apart from small size, and so it is not always done that way. As far as I know none of the miniature dachshund were produced by breeding small to small.

Thanks for your insight Jackie, but is there anyway to find out for sure how this has been done? I'm really quite curious. If there was a web site or something I could go to study more about it would be ideal for me. thanks

It is a matter of researching each individual breed. Start with the breed that interests you most and work from there. Most breed clubs will have a history of the breed and you can do your own research from there. I would warn you it is not a quick job if you want to check for yourself and not take the clubs research as gospel. some breeds will run into a dead end or you will find that it is hearsay and you will be unable to verify. My area of interest is the hound group and it is only the Dachshunds that could be called miniature, and not suprising their history is to be found in and around Germany.

Thanks Jackie. As I have been searching the web for answers, I have found many dead ends on the topic. That's why I finally decided to ask someone on a forum, and this looked like a prety good site after reading the responses to some of the posts. Thanks again

If you say which breed(s) you are interested in you may find someone using this site may have done research already, and you could pick it up from there.

Actually, I just thought that any dog that people wanted to create a minature out of would have a certain method of doing so. My brother has a minature daschund and a minature schnouzer, so it's always made me wonder. Sorry if I misspelled the breeds, like I said I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to dogs.

The Mini Schnauzer is thought to be the product of the Schnauzer and the Affenpinscher and depending which Mini Dach your brother has (as they are all different) but the wire thought to be a cross with the Schnauzer too. As a matter of interest in this case it is considered that the Mini was about before the Standard. As you may guess they are both from Germany and we are talking centries ago. A good number of dogs seem to owe their origin to the Germans and I think they must have developed a good knowledge of what was required to produce the type of dog that was wanted. Now days we are trying to preserve the dog as it is handed down to us, but centries ago dogs were developed to do the job required of them and they were valued possessions of their owners. We have a totaly different attude today, well most of us have, and we now consider our dogs as companions and play mates, not a tool of our trade.

The problem with breeding small with small and so on down the line, is that in a lot of cases the gene that gives a small animal also carry some other totaly unwanted characteristic, so although it is being done in some cases in the US at the present time, it is not usualy thought to be the best way to go. But the way the dogs that are being bred to be very small in the USA are in most part small dogs already. Like the Yorkshire.

Well, it is an interesting subject, so perhaps you will look around the net or go to the library and carry on the research for yourself.

Isn't it odd, Jackie - the idea of crossing-breeding just didn't occur to me! :o I was thinking of how it could be done whilst still retaining the pure breed.
:)

I know JG, when I started to look into this I was surprised at the way our dogs were developed and the care taken to achieve a dog that was tailor made to fulfill the requirements. And now people seem to throw two different breeds together with no understanding of genetics and a hope it may catch on and make a lot of dosh. The present day exception to this is the chap who is trying to produce a short tailed Boxer.

The Guide Dog for the Blind made an honist attemped to breed what they required when they crossed the Lab with the Poodle, and to their credit they stopped when they found they had got it wrong. How they must feel now when people only interested in producing a cross that will sell have jumped on the bandwaggon of the Labradoodle, sighting the Guide Dog people as their right to do it. The fact that they, the Guide Dogs for the Blind, found it didn't work as expected, it totaly ignored.