A prospective buyer of one of my pups has been advised by friends to ask if the mother is highly bred as this can make the pups fairly nurotic????? I am a little stumped as to what they mean/ how to answer. The breed in question is springers who are highly active anyway. Do they mean has she been bred from a lot or as this person thinks are they asking if there is interbreeding in the mothers side?? I want to be able to answer but am a little stumped by this term?? Any help greatly appreciated

Brinny

ANYONE????

I'm no expert but I've always taken it to mean that the bloodlines aren't very wide i.e. the same names appear several times in the pedigree.
Could be wrong, though.

Hi Brinny,

They were refering to....well putting it another way.

Some of your dogs ancestors seem to be sleeping on both sides of the bed.

So joyce is correct.

HELEN.

Sorry i still dont understand Helen, I may just be being thick . I have spoken to the KC and they have assured me that mums parents are not brother and sister, how far back would i need to go?

Hi Brinny,

I assume they were trying to say that the dogs have been too closely bred.

Which is not a very nice thing to say.

HELEN.

Hi Brinny some people read these things and that is all they can think of, what people mean is has mum been mated to brother/uncle/dad/cousin or who ever just show them the pedigree and talk them through it that is if you think they will make good owners, i would be a bit careful as people like this tend to find other things to complain about once they have pup at home.

Usually when people use the term "highly bred" (which incidentally is meaningless!) they mean "closely inbred". That would involve mating brother to sister, father to daughter, mother to son, etc. Many people seem to think the "ideal" is a complete out-cross - ie no names repeated in a five-generation pedigree - but in fact with a mating like that the chances of the genes you want being inherited are very remote! For practical purposes the best results come from a mating where the sire and dam have one or two mutual great-grandparents.

Hope this helps.
:)

Its a totally meaningless phrase used by people who clearly know nothing about dogs. Maybe you should reconsider their suitability as puppy owners, I know I would! :(
If they have seen the pedigree of the pups (one assumes you have shown it to them on their 1st visit) and you have been through the various generations with them, telling them information about each dog, then they will have no need to ask pointless, ludicrous questions.

I've heard the phrase but had no idea what it meant, thought it could be a pup that was born over 2000 feet above sea level :D
Just another example of popping in on the board and learning a new thing, thats 2 new things I learnt today ;)

Robert

I think it has passed into Dogs from the Horse world - not a term used now, but horses used to be described as "highly bred", meaning thoroughbred )or very near. Of course, in the early days, thoroughbreds came from a very small gene pool, and were only availlable to the monied classes. Highly bred was considered desirable. Highly Couraged was another term - meaning "on its toes, active, ready to go" sort of thing. Reading 18th Century horse books these descriptions occur again and again.

bye
Gwen

Hi Robert, would it not be the conception rather that the birth, and if it is do you think the dogs need oxygen.