And this in turn is influenced by popular breeding practices. How much genetic material they share depends on just how closely they are related.
The most fundamental reason for breeding purebred dogs is to produce puppies that are consistent in terms of appearance, temperament, and ability.īreeding dogs that are similar to one another helps to ‘fix’ the great qualities that we admire in our pedigree breeds. We’ll look at those in a moment What does purebred mean to people? In fact there are human communities whose genetic variety has been restricted in this way, sometimes geographically and sometimes through cultural rules and practices.Īnd we now know that such restrictions are associated with genetic disorders. It creates what biologists often refer to as an ‘island population’ In biological terms, separating each breed of dog from every other breed, is a bit like someone putting a massive fence around your village or town and making it illegal for people to marry, or have children with, those from other communities. You can read more about what the history of pedigree dogs here: What is a pedigree dog? What does purebred mean for dogs? And puppies can only be registered with a Kennel Club if both their parents are already registered as members of that breed. It is at this point, that the pedigree breed becomes an isolated group of purebred dogs.Īll purebred puppies today belong to one of these closed registers. And in the USA with the American Kennel Club (AKC).Īt some point in time, depending on when the breed was ‘recognised’ by the Kennel Club, each of our pedigree breeds became part of a ‘closed register’.Ī closed register is one where matings can only take place between dogs on that register. Pedigree dogs in the UK are pure bred dogs that are registered with the original Kennel Club (KC). A dog can have a pedigree (recorded ancestry) without being purebred. Like the ones we often make of our own family tree. But they are not quite the same.Ī pedigree is simply an ancestral chart. The terms purebred and pedigree are often interchanged. Let’s take a look first at pedigree dogs. That’s the debate we are going to look at in this article, and hopeful give you an understanding of both the pros and cons of purchasing a pedigree puppy compared with a mixed breed dog.
“Should I buy a pedigree dog, or would I be better off with a mongrel?”īut are pedigree dogs more, or less healthy than mongrels, or has the whole issue been blown out of proportion and misrepresented? You might also enjoy our guide to the distinctive Dachshund dog breed.