Preservation Breeder? PRESERVE THIS!!!
Posted on August 24th, 2022
Most every breeder gives lip service to knowledge of the tasks for which a breed was developed. More often than not, that knowledge is limited to conventional wisdom and a few meager sentences published in an article like this. Knowing the exact job description and exactly how that job is performed will take you a long way toward breeding individuals that are anatomically able to excel at their work while at the same time possessing those breed characteristics that will enable them to do it well. The only trick here is that the breeder must know the job intimately and the dog must have a genetic predisposition to do it. Without both factors, form will certainly follow lack of function and the original breed type will eventually be eroded or lost.
"Is preservation breeding about producing dogs of a particular structure? Does preservation breeding equate to the ability to garner lots of confo ribbons and earn breeder accolades through your national breed club? The core of preservation breeding is about preserving functional dogs- dogs who have the drive, desire, physical structure, and intelligence to perform the tasks the breed was developed to perform. It’s relatively straightforward to breed for physical attributes but much more complicated to breed for physical and functional attributes simultaneously." - Quote from my friend and follow preservation breeder, Stacey.
Check out this article on Preservation Breeding: