Part 2 - Viewing a Litter
Posted: 14 Sep 2007, 19:49
PART TWO
Viewing a litter.
Often an experienced working or show person will put their name on a puppy from a particular bitch before the puppies are born and in fact sometimes they are even conceived! But most people will have their first contact with the breeder other than over the phone when they go to see the puppies the first time. When you arrange to see the puppies get there at the right time. Nothing is going to create a poor impression quicker with the breeder than not arriving at the right time. Puppies eat, play and sleep in that order and a good breeder will try to arrange the “Play” phase to coincide with your visit. Arriving early and the breeder will not have had time to cleaned the play pen and too late and the puppies will be sound asleep!
Expect to be asked some questions. The breeder brought these puppies into the world so of course she will want the best for her babies. The breeder should also be prepared to answer your questions. I would want to know about health checks. The test for Glaucoma where appropriate is a once in a lifetime test the same as hip scoring whereas the standard eye test needs carrying out each year. The more dogs in the puppy’s pedigree which have been hip scored the better picture you can get of the hips in the line as a whole.
When a hip is scored the panel are looking at 9 features which consist of angles, shape and clearances. All of these features are awarded a mark of between 0 and 6 except one which is between 0 and 5! The marks for each feature are added together to give you a score per hip of between 0 and 53 (The lower the score the better.) These scores are usually shown as a figure such as 7/6 which would mean that 7 marks have been lost on the left hip and 6 on the right. In talking most people will add the scores for the two hips together and talk about a dog having scored 13.
Be aware of the average hip score for the breed before going to see the puppies, that way you will know whether a score is good or bad. For example, the average for a Labrador is 16 (total for both hips) whereas for a Clumber Spaniel it is 42! Obviously from that you can see that a figure, without knowing what is good or bad in the breed is of no value to you at all! A score where one hip is much different to the other is often (But not always) an indication of damage rather than a hereditary fault. Knowing the scores of the dogs behind this one would help to confirm this.
Elbow Displasia is something else which is being tested for these days. In this the grading system in use in the UK is 0 to 3. 0 is classed as normal, 1 as minor displasia, 2 as moderate and 3 as severe. At the moment the test has only been around since 1997 and has not really got accepted by a very large number of breeders and for my part, until it achieves large support from breeders I cannot see rejecting puppies because they have not been tested. With me the jury is still out on this one!
It’s nice if the breeder removes the puppies already sold because you then have the chance to concentrate on only the puppies you are interested in. Some breeders pick the puppies for the puppy buyers saying that as they know the puppies, they are better able to say which would suit a person best. This might or might not be a good idea. For a first time puppy buyer with no experience it can be very difficult to visulise the puppy’s future nature but for an experienced person I don’t believe this is such a good idea because I don’t believe anyone knows exactly what I am looking for. I like to sit and watch the puppies, see how they interact with each other. I’m looking to see which is the dominant one, the submissive one, the independent one, the one who comes as soon as I call, the one which goes to investigate a knotted handkerchief, all the little details which make up the individuality of the puppy. I look at the basic overall shape, Rear angulation, lay of shoulder, tail carriage, remembering that rear angulation usually looks greater in a young puppy! I VERY gently look at the bite, the way the top and bottom jaw meet in front. Most breeds specify a scissor bite (where the from of the bottom teeth touch the back of the top teeth. In almost all breeds, the bottom jaw grows more than the top so if the bite is right at an early age then it is quite possible that it will finish wrong! I like to see just a small gap between the front of the bottom and the back of the top to allow growing room. Some breeds are prone to deafness but it can happen in any breed so I try to test for it, snap my fingers behind it’s head to see if it takes notice. Be careful not to create a draft of you wont achieve anything, the puppy could just be looking to see where the draft is coming from! I don’t make a big thing of it in front of the breeder but just add it into the little things I do when around the puppies.
After all this watching I have usually got an eye on the dog of my choice but then comes the big question, “Do I want to live with this dog?” Science goes out of the window and the heart comes in! If the heart says yes and if the breeder is happy with me then that’s the one! It’s a deposit to the breeder and counting the days!!
Next time we will be collecting our puppy!!!
Regards, John
Viewing a litter.
Often an experienced working or show person will put their name on a puppy from a particular bitch before the puppies are born and in fact sometimes they are even conceived! But most people will have their first contact with the breeder other than over the phone when they go to see the puppies the first time. When you arrange to see the puppies get there at the right time. Nothing is going to create a poor impression quicker with the breeder than not arriving at the right time. Puppies eat, play and sleep in that order and a good breeder will try to arrange the “Play” phase to coincide with your visit. Arriving early and the breeder will not have had time to cleaned the play pen and too late and the puppies will be sound asleep!
Expect to be asked some questions. The breeder brought these puppies into the world so of course she will want the best for her babies. The breeder should also be prepared to answer your questions. I would want to know about health checks. The test for Glaucoma where appropriate is a once in a lifetime test the same as hip scoring whereas the standard eye test needs carrying out each year. The more dogs in the puppy’s pedigree which have been hip scored the better picture you can get of the hips in the line as a whole.
When a hip is scored the panel are looking at 9 features which consist of angles, shape and clearances. All of these features are awarded a mark of between 0 and 6 except one which is between 0 and 5! The marks for each feature are added together to give you a score per hip of between 0 and 53 (The lower the score the better.) These scores are usually shown as a figure such as 7/6 which would mean that 7 marks have been lost on the left hip and 6 on the right. In talking most people will add the scores for the two hips together and talk about a dog having scored 13.
Be aware of the average hip score for the breed before going to see the puppies, that way you will know whether a score is good or bad. For example, the average for a Labrador is 16 (total for both hips) whereas for a Clumber Spaniel it is 42! Obviously from that you can see that a figure, without knowing what is good or bad in the breed is of no value to you at all! A score where one hip is much different to the other is often (But not always) an indication of damage rather than a hereditary fault. Knowing the scores of the dogs behind this one would help to confirm this.
Elbow Displasia is something else which is being tested for these days. In this the grading system in use in the UK is 0 to 3. 0 is classed as normal, 1 as minor displasia, 2 as moderate and 3 as severe. At the moment the test has only been around since 1997 and has not really got accepted by a very large number of breeders and for my part, until it achieves large support from breeders I cannot see rejecting puppies because they have not been tested. With me the jury is still out on this one!
It’s nice if the breeder removes the puppies already sold because you then have the chance to concentrate on only the puppies you are interested in. Some breeders pick the puppies for the puppy buyers saying that as they know the puppies, they are better able to say which would suit a person best. This might or might not be a good idea. For a first time puppy buyer with no experience it can be very difficult to visulise the puppy’s future nature but for an experienced person I don’t believe this is such a good idea because I don’t believe anyone knows exactly what I am looking for. I like to sit and watch the puppies, see how they interact with each other. I’m looking to see which is the dominant one, the submissive one, the independent one, the one who comes as soon as I call, the one which goes to investigate a knotted handkerchief, all the little details which make up the individuality of the puppy. I look at the basic overall shape, Rear angulation, lay of shoulder, tail carriage, remembering that rear angulation usually looks greater in a young puppy! I VERY gently look at the bite, the way the top and bottom jaw meet in front. Most breeds specify a scissor bite (where the from of the bottom teeth touch the back of the top teeth. In almost all breeds, the bottom jaw grows more than the top so if the bite is right at an early age then it is quite possible that it will finish wrong! I like to see just a small gap between the front of the bottom and the back of the top to allow growing room. Some breeds are prone to deafness but it can happen in any breed so I try to test for it, snap my fingers behind it’s head to see if it takes notice. Be careful not to create a draft of you wont achieve anything, the puppy could just be looking to see where the draft is coming from! I don’t make a big thing of it in front of the breeder but just add it into the little things I do when around the puppies.
After all this watching I have usually got an eye on the dog of my choice but then comes the big question, “Do I want to live with this dog?” Science goes out of the window and the heart comes in! If the heart says yes and if the breeder is happy with me then that’s the one! It’s a deposit to the breeder and counting the days!!
Next time we will be collecting our puppy!!!
Regards, John