Myth:

Truth:

AKC is a registration body, not a stamp of quality. It does not guarantee health, temperament or physical traits.

It is critical to choose a responsible breeder to best ensure you are getting a healthy puppy. It also ensures the pup will have the traits you desire, such as temperament and appearance.

There are new canine registries popping up all the time. For a fee, a stuffed animal could be "registered"! Be leery of scam registries, like the "Continental Kennel Club" (CKC is only good if you're talking about the Canadian Kennel club!). Some irresponsible breeders have discovered that using an "alternative" registry fools the buying public, while allowing them to cut some more corners.

A purebred dog from a responsible breeder will come from documented generations of healthy animals, which have been health tested to best ensure limited problems with offspring. They have predicable traits, even down to what health issues they may have.

Mixed breed dogs do not have some special gene that allows them to be healthier than their purebred counterparts. It's all in the ancestry - so choose a breeder that takes effort to ensure they are breeding healthy animals.

If only it were that easy! "All genes, please listen here! We are doing a major outcross and only the good genes are allowed to go."

Hybrid vigor is a term meant to be used when an "outcross" (breeding of two animals not closely related) results in offspring of better quality than the parents. This doesn't mean that every outcross breeding will result in offspring of higher quality, contrary to what "designer breed" breeders would like you to think.

If you desire a mixed breed, please check out your local animal shelter. They have lots of dogs, eagerly awaiting new homes.

All though predicable traits are one of the positives of purebred dogs, the dogs are not stamped out of a giant cookie cutter. Where you purchase your puppy could very likely be more important than what breed you choose.

All breeders are not created equal and the importance of breeder shopping as opposed to puppy shopping can't be stressed enough.

There will always be another litter, don't rush into purchasing the first pup you can find.

Often time "rare" colors are considered mismarks within the breed standard. Read up on your breed before purchasing and understand which colors are permissible. Mismarks should typically be sold at a lower cost as they are considered pet marked. Note: mismarked dogs can be registered with the AKC and can compete in most any AKC event except for conformation.

Rare colors even come at a cost. For instance, in some breeds, white dogs are often deaf and may have vision problems. Extreme sizes may also lead to health issues.

Some breeds have minimum and/or maximum height or weight requirements. Any breeder striving to produce a dog outside of their breed's standard should not be considered responsible and their motives for breeding should be questioned.

Conformation showing is how a dog conforms to their breed standard. This is important, even if you want "just a pet".

Good conformation ensures a dog's body's structure is built to avoid crippling problems. For instance, poor conformation can lead to problems with the spine or legs that can result in lameness and more serious injuries.

Showing is an opportunity to gather unbiased opinions prior to breeding. Without unbiased opinions, a breeder can let personal affections for dogs cloud breeding decisions (called kennel blindness) by over looking faults.

Showing connects breed fanciers, making breeders aware of current needs, trends or problems within a breed. It also allows a breeder the chance to find better mates, as their search isn't restricted to what is in their backyard.

Even the best litters create pet puppies, not destined for the show ring or whelping box. Breeding champion to champion does not mean all the puppies can become champions (which is why starting with mediocre or poor specimens results in even poorer quality animals).

Just because you don't want to show doesn't mean you should settle for a poorly bred dog! Stack the odds of a healthy and stable-tempered future companion in your favor and seek out a breeder who actively shows their dogs.

Breeding related dogs can be referred to as line-breeding or in-breeding, depending on how closely related the dogs are.

Neither line-breeding or in-breeding themselves are bad, nor do they create good or bad progeny (offspring). It all lies in the selection of the breeding stock.

These breeding methods can be useful tools for breeders, to lock in desirable traits. This can be beneficial in making the breeding results more predictable and fixing problems within a breed.

Some of the most influential dogs in their breed are line-bred. When these linebred dogs are bred to others, their strong traits can be passed along to their offspring.

The problems happen when there are health, temperament and/or structure problems with the breeding dogs. All the problems are concentrated in the puppies.

Want to know more? Check out these articles:
Understanding line-breeding
Planned Breeding by Lloyd C. Brackett