The president of a Perth dog club has said people should pay greater attention to the pedigree of pets when considering adding a companion to their family.
German Shepherd Dog Association president Ian Marr said his club promoted documented breeding programs and show competitions to ensure successive generations of German Shepherds were not vulnerable to congenital conditions.
“To breed dogs breeders need to know the animal is sound, they’ve got a good character and temperament and we won’t know that until we’ve put them into a show situation,” he said.
“The benefit is to make sure the dogs are bred properly and not through backyard breeders.
“The beauty of the system is the ones that go into pet homes are sound dogs, they’re healthy dogs and you don’t get that unless you’ve got the background from the pedigrees.”
Mr Marr said not all backyard breeders were bad but the show system gave potential buyers peace of mind their future pet was less likely to suffer from any conditions likely to lead to disability or death.
“Backyard breeding doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad dog, what it does mean is you have no history of the dog’s background and its genetics,” he said.
“Go back 20 years and probably every litter would have a German Shepherd that would have hip dysplasia.
“We recognise that but any dog that has even the slightest possibility of creating that problem we don’t use for breeding.”
The German Shepherd breed was often associated with aggressive or territorial behaviour but Mr Marr said that was due to either deliberate training or sloppy ownership.
He said owners needed to understand the importance of keeping German Shepherds active with daily walks and training.
“A dog that’s got training and goes out into the community is not going to get in trouble and start causing fights,” he said.
“We pride ourselves on making sure breeders support our training programs and they push our puppy buyers to come here and train their dogs.
“We don’t train the dogs, we train the people to train the dogs.”
The next German Shepherd State Breed Exhibition will be held on April 22 and 23 at 23 Passmore Street, Southern River.
