Should I Breed My Dog or Horse?

Having a beautiful animal or one you love dearly isn't just enough to become a breeder. You need to have some specific goals before you ever start breeding. The goals are more than just meeting the standards set by the organization responsible for setting standards for your particular breed of animal be it cat, dog, horse or any other animal.

My own experience with creating a standard came when my grandfather gave me my first Rat Terrier in 1952 for my fifth birthday. Back then they were usually called Feists. I don't know how long he'd been breeding the little dogs, but I found an old newspaper clipping among my mother's things after she died that said a dog my grandfather bred had won a rat catching contest in 1933.

In those days the farms and ranches that belonged to my grandparents and my friends' grandparents always seemed to have two types of dogs in residence. One was a larger dog of a collie type that was responsible for helping herd the livestock. The other was a small dog whose job was to keep the vermin population under control. These were the Feists.

While these dogs were not registered with the AKC, American Kennel Club (akc.org), or the UKC, United Kennel Club (ukcdog.com), it would be a mistake to think they just happened. The people who bred them had standards they adhered to. I learned something about these standards when I'd had my puppy for about six months.

Tripper was a neat little dog that was about 12 inches tall, weighed approximately 15 pounds, and had attitude. Tripper went everywhere at a trot, as is typical of Rat Terriers. My grandfather made the two hundred mile trip up from the Texas coast where he lived in order to test Tripper.

He'd given the puppy to me because he wanted to keep an eye on him with the intent of using him for breeding in the future. Tripper passed most of the tests and was looking good when I went to pet him and he snapped at me. That ended his potential as a stud dog.

I was really upset even though I didn't properly understand what all was going on. I explained it was my fault because I'd teased him and now he didn't like for me to get too near him sometimes.

This is when I learned my grandfather's first rule of breeding Feists. My grandfather told me no matter what no dog should ever try to bite a human. I will say here one of my uncles who raised German Shepherds didn't agree, but then he was breeding an entirely different type of dog although he also had strict standards about a dog biting the hand that fed it.

Many years later when my daughter wanted a puppy for her fifth birthday we acquired a Rat Terrier puppy from one of my aunts. The puppy could have been Tripper's littermate. She was bred from the lines my grandfather had established. When Grandfather died her husband, my uncle, took over the pack and continued breeding the little dogs on their farm. This uncle was brother to the one who raised German Shepherds.

With fifty years of breeding to a strict standard I saw what a really good breeding program produces. The puppy, called Sassy, is now twenty-one years old. She kept my barn rat free for most of those years and never, ever, no matter what the provocation, offered to bite anyone. My daughter could carry her around as kids will do, dress her up and push her in her doll carriage. Sassy put up with it all.

My grandfather had a number of things he bred for, but number one on his list was temperament. Beyond that he selected for vermin catching ability, then size, and finally, he preferred the tri-colored dogs.

My uncle continued breeding the dogs to this standard and my cousin is carrying on the tradition. After over fifty years of this kind of selection the dogs from this pack are uninformedly good natured, similar sized (12 inches and 15 to 20 pounds when grown) tri colored and rat catchers supreme.

With the example set for me by my grandparents, mother and uncles I learned how important it is to have a clear vision of what you are breeding for and certain points you will never comprise on. Temperament, excellence in health and performance should be high on the list of any breeder's list of necessary traits. No matter how beautiful an animal is if it lacks in any of the above traits it should not be used for breeding purposes.