Efficiency over Aesthetic

Now that everyone has had a bit of a chance to get used to the idea of me getting Cor from a breeder, I want to go a bit further into the minutia of the breeder I am working with.

Here’s the thing about breeders. Because being a responsible breeder is a labor of love for one’s chosen breed, most breeders not only have a specific breed they specialize in, but a specific client type they provide for.

I’ll explain. 

Say you’re looking for a show dog, what type of breeder would you seek out? Likely, you would search out breeders that breed for the aesthetic of the breed. Pretty, glossy coat in the right color, the proportions and shape that identify that breed. You would also search for strong breed-specific instincts and the patience to deal gracefully with long trips surrounded by new dogs, people, surroundings, and other surprises.

If you’re getting a hunting dog, you would look for a breeder that breeds for prey drive. Mamas and daddies with good birding instincts.

Someone looking for a sheepdog or a cow herding dog (it’s a thing!) would look for a breeder that specializes in keeping the herding tendencies and instincts within a Livestock-Guardian-classified breed.

As I am looking for a Service Dog prospect, I went with a breeder that selected the mama and daddy for temperament. Daddy Blue is a Service Dog himself and Mama Duchess is a show dog who loves to play with children and is very good around babies. She loves attention and, to quote her person’s website, “is loyal, highly intelligent, well behaved, extremely affectionate and calm.” To have ‘calm’ specified on her bio says a lot. 😉

Puppy Cor just about aced his temperament test and has a low energy level. He is also very social, and, according to the temperament tester, very social and ‘let’s go somewhere!’–all things about which I can’t tell you how excited I am! I get a snuggle puppy that will also prod me to not be a hermit all the time–to get Vitamin D and be around other people. I can just about guarantee you Mom is excited for that, too. Service Dogs are life-savers in more ways than one. And a lot like retirement home workers–unsung heroes keeping others in livable, working order.

Back to the topic, though. 🙃

Of course, just because the parents’ genetics offer a good chance at your goal doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed. Only 1% of dogs have the necessary temperament to be a Service Dog, and several training organizations have a wash rate of over 50%. Just because your pup comes from a highly selective breeding program doesn’t mean they’re immune to this statistic. In fact, within Cor’s litter only two of the seven puppies passed a temperament test. This isn’t an uncommon statistic when temperament testing, either. Only two pumps passed the temperament test in Teddy’s litter as well. And, in a litter of ten bred by my service dog trainer herself, three passed the temperament test, and only one is still in the program.

All the same, most Service Dogs do originally come from a breeder as Service Dog Training starts pretty much from birth. Not all of them–several people in Scouts Legacy have rescues that do very well. Something–as previously stated–that I aim for one day.

With this margin of error, however, most puppies bred for Service Dog prospects don’t end up qualifying, but have been raised from birth as if they will. Meaning, there are several well-trained dogs looking for pet homes within every litter as well as those that wash from a training program, be it a Service Dog training program or a police dog K9 training program.

This is the biggest thing I looked for in a breeder. The next thing I looked for was which breed would be best for the type of Service Dog I was looking for.For those who haven’t figured out which breed I went with, I will cover that in my next post. For those who have, well, if you’re looking for why and some other fun tidbits (and pictures), there’ll be that, too!

💜 You were not born to fail! 💜

Lauryn