In defence of responsible "backyard" dog breeders.
I'm seeing something happen which I predicted a decade or so ago: the Pomeranian breed of dog is becoming polarised in type.
Natural selection has been largely subverted by humans in this case, to create the types of dogs which suit our purposes. I believe the pomeranian is subject to "commercial selection" and "cosmetic selection". Both of these selection modes have an impact on other breeds and other species, but especially breeds which are not "working" types.
The breed standard for pomeranians requires that the dogs be built in a particular way, and as with other breeds, the stud breeders who often show their dogs in formal competitions aim to have their dogs comply most intensely with the standard, or at least with dog breeding fashions based around the standard. This means that "show poms" are tiny, fine boned, intensely fluffy, have tiny muzzles and ears, tiny, tiny feet, short legs, short bodies and so forth. Averaging out the photos of poms found in a Google Image search for "pomeranian" provides a general idea of what a "good example" of the breed looks like.
That is the type of dog bred by registered breeders of show poms. Unfortunately, as with other breeds, there are drawbacks to breeding so intensively for "type". Health problems and deformities crop up. Temperament is not selected for as much as appearance. The functionality of the dog is compromised. These are not "pets". These are "show dogs" and "stud dogs".
The puppies which are not regarded by the breeders as being suitable stud animals are de-sexed or sold on the condition that they will be de-sexed. And fair enough.
However, there are pomeranians being bred for sale. And it's not surprising, because there are few things more appealing than a pomeranian puppy. (Dawww!)
However, the breeders who are most prolific in providing the market with not de-sexed animals are the puppy farmers. Whether they are registered or not, puppy farmers who breed pomeranians are strongly inclined to choose larger, more vigorous specimens to breed from. A 'Show pom' is likely to have litters of one or two pups, with great difficulty, and often delivered by cesarean section. So a larger bitch who can carry and give birth to four or six pups is preferable. To ensure that the large bitches conceive, an even larger male is selected to breed with them. The puppy farmers are not that interested in breed quality. Their objectives are to sell puppies. The buyers don't get to view the parents to see what their pup might grow up like, so all they need is for the puppy to look reassuringly healthy, plausibly pomeranian and be appealing enough to sell.
Now, as the pomeranian breed has been bred down from larger Spitz types over the last couple of centuries, it requires careful selection to maintain a line of poms which are as small as the breed standard requires. In almost every litter, there will be a great big lump of a pup, or a tiny wee one, or both. Selecting mostly the healthy, well formed tiny ones to breed from maintains the breed at the small size. Left to their own devices, the large ones breed most effectively, and the breed reverts to a size and type more suited to the breed standard for the Finnish Spitz from which I believe poms are largely descended. (though I note that, probably due to the Australian climate, there is also a tendency for the larger, commercially selected poms here to have less of the fluffy undercoat)
So the puppy farms or puppy mills pump thousands of large, coarse-looking pom pups into the market each year. Some people de-sex them, many don't. In the earlier years of this phenomenon, backyard breeders found people coming to see the pups they had for sale would object to the Poms of Unusual Size, so they started to make up sub-breed descriptions like "toy" and "miniature" which... actually don't apply to poms. There are no formally recognised size grades like that for pomeranians. And I've noticed that people still use the terms "miniature" and "toy" inconsistently; almost interchangeably, to mean "bigger type" or "smaller type" but it always meant we have the "bigger type" not that other "smaller type".
The two size extremes are very difficult to interbreed. The tiny dogs require a step-ladder to mate with the large-sized females and the tiny females (whose valuable fertility is normally guarded from such things) have great difficulty giving birth to the offspring of the larger males. So due to physical obstacles, poms have almost diverged into sub-breeds.
So the pomeranian population in the broader community consists of itty-bitty de-sexed show breeder rejects at one end of the scale, and at the other end, rather enormous and by-default fertile specimens, the appearance of which are far removed from the pomeranian breed standard.
There is nearly no middle ground. I could take a chance on a random pup from the Trading Post, but I can see the signs; the big feet, the tall ears, the chunky muzzle... they are not the pom I am looking for.
If I want to go out and buy a pom[2] of the sort that my parents bred for thirty years, I cannot find them. I'd like a pom that's a bit larger and more robust than the egg-shell boned show poms. I want it to be obscenely healthy and have a loving and sensible personality, to be gratifyingly smart and keen to please. I'd like it to have enough coat to look great, but not so much that it is deeply uncomfortable in the heat, or terribly difficult to keep groomed. I want it to be pretty, sturdily built with sound legs, small ears and a little muzzle, but with properly arranged teeth. And not weepy eyes. Please not weepy eyes.
But when I was searching for my dogs, all that was available were the foolishly tiny de-sexed choking hazards or the rangy, dingo-cross looking things. Eurgh. The breed has been hollowed out.
And this is why I find it irritating that "Backyard breeders" are generally regarded with contempt among the middle classes.[1] In my experience they have been the pool from which people who want a pet of a particular breed can draw. In the days when my parents bred poms, they would only consider buying nice looking poms, but nice looking, sensibly sized poms made up so much of the pom population that to reject a dog based on appearance was unusual. Once they were home, the dogs were selected primarily for temperament and health. Failure of either was a ticket out of there; the simplest way to offload a snappy or structurally unsound dog was to sell them to the local puppy farmer. (Yeah, I know.)
Over the years, people came to know my parents as a source of nice, healthy pom pups which would reliably grow up to be sturdy, sweet-natured pomeranians. As time passed, council pressure and social pressure reduced the number of middle-class people who were prepared to breed their nice family pets, so the gap between supply and demand was filled by puppy farmers who keep many dozens of dogs in little concrete runs for the purpose of harvesting the puppies for sale when they looked old enough to send off to the pet shops.
And people buying a "pomeranian" puppy because they wanted a pet that resembled the sweet pom that their grandparents used to have would end up with a gangly young dog which did not meet their specs! So they would sell it, quite often to a puppy farmer, sometimes to a low-income person who, desperate for income, was prepared to be a "backyard breeder" without much regard for breed quality.
Purveying the meme that breeding pets is flat out wrong does not stop pets being bred, it just causes responsible, capable people who consider themselves to be ethical to cede that activity to people who are less aware of the issues, or to less ethical people.
I believe that there is merit in relatively well off, well educated people keeping healthy, well bred pets and feeling free to breed them with due care and consideration. I would rather buy a pet from someone who had bred them with more of a mind to love of happy, healthy poms than money. Or show prizes, for that matter.
*sigh*
[1]I know there will be people who read this and see a chance to groove on their "but what about all the dogs who get euthanased!" outrage, but that is only a tangentially related argument, and probably not in the way you think. (Hint: I am anti-puppy mill, remember?)
[2] And I know people will get thingy about the question of wanting a particular breed of dog. Please just take it as axiomatic that it's valid to want to avoid playing "dog-lotto", as knowing roughly what your pup will grow into, or knowing by looking at a dog what its care requirements are likely to be reduces the amount of re-homing and euthanasia of dogs. Recognisable breeds really help with this.
This entry crossposted from http://tangent-woman.dreamwidth.org/549876.html with
comments. Please comment there if you feel inclined. You too can have a Dreamwidth blog. Ask me how!
Natural selection has been largely subverted by humans in this case, to create the types of dogs which suit our purposes. I believe the pomeranian is subject to "commercial selection" and "cosmetic selection". Both of these selection modes have an impact on other breeds and other species, but especially breeds which are not "working" types.
The breed standard for pomeranians requires that the dogs be built in a particular way, and as with other breeds, the stud breeders who often show their dogs in formal competitions aim to have their dogs comply most intensely with the standard, or at least with dog breeding fashions based around the standard. This means that "show poms" are tiny, fine boned, intensely fluffy, have tiny muzzles and ears, tiny, tiny feet, short legs, short bodies and so forth. Averaging out the photos of poms found in a Google Image search for "pomeranian" provides a general idea of what a "good example" of the breed looks like.
That is the type of dog bred by registered breeders of show poms. Unfortunately, as with other breeds, there are drawbacks to breeding so intensively for "type". Health problems and deformities crop up. Temperament is not selected for as much as appearance. The functionality of the dog is compromised. These are not "pets". These are "show dogs" and "stud dogs".
The puppies which are not regarded by the breeders as being suitable stud animals are de-sexed or sold on the condition that they will be de-sexed. And fair enough.
However, there are pomeranians being bred for sale. And it's not surprising, because there are few things more appealing than a pomeranian puppy. (Dawww!)
However, the breeders who are most prolific in providing the market with not de-sexed animals are the puppy farmers. Whether they are registered or not, puppy farmers who breed pomeranians are strongly inclined to choose larger, more vigorous specimens to breed from. A 'Show pom' is likely to have litters of one or two pups, with great difficulty, and often delivered by cesarean section. So a larger bitch who can carry and give birth to four or six pups is preferable. To ensure that the large bitches conceive, an even larger male is selected to breed with them. The puppy farmers are not that interested in breed quality. Their objectives are to sell puppies. The buyers don't get to view the parents to see what their pup might grow up like, so all they need is for the puppy to look reassuringly healthy, plausibly pomeranian and be appealing enough to sell.
Now, as the pomeranian breed has been bred down from larger Spitz types over the last couple of centuries, it requires careful selection to maintain a line of poms which are as small as the breed standard requires. In almost every litter, there will be a great big lump of a pup, or a tiny wee one, or both. Selecting mostly the healthy, well formed tiny ones to breed from maintains the breed at the small size. Left to their own devices, the large ones breed most effectively, and the breed reverts to a size and type more suited to the breed standard for the Finnish Spitz from which I believe poms are largely descended. (though I note that, probably due to the Australian climate, there is also a tendency for the larger, commercially selected poms here to have less of the fluffy undercoat)
So the puppy farms or puppy mills pump thousands of large, coarse-looking pom pups into the market each year. Some people de-sex them, many don't. In the earlier years of this phenomenon, backyard breeders found people coming to see the pups they had for sale would object to the Poms of Unusual Size, so they started to make up sub-breed descriptions like "toy" and "miniature" which... actually don't apply to poms. There are no formally recognised size grades like that for pomeranians. And I've noticed that people still use the terms "miniature" and "toy" inconsistently; almost interchangeably, to mean "bigger type" or "smaller type" but it always meant we have the "bigger type" not that other "smaller type".
The two size extremes are very difficult to interbreed. The tiny dogs require a step-ladder to mate with the large-sized females and the tiny females (whose valuable fertility is normally guarded from such things) have great difficulty giving birth to the offspring of the larger males. So due to physical obstacles, poms have almost diverged into sub-breeds.
So the pomeranian population in the broader community consists of itty-bitty de-sexed show breeder rejects at one end of the scale, and at the other end, rather enormous and by-default fertile specimens, the appearance of which are far removed from the pomeranian breed standard.
There is nearly no middle ground. I could take a chance on a random pup from the Trading Post, but I can see the signs; the big feet, the tall ears, the chunky muzzle... they are not the pom I am looking for.
If I want to go out and buy a pom[2] of the sort that my parents bred for thirty years, I cannot find them. I'd like a pom that's a bit larger and more robust than the egg-shell boned show poms. I want it to be obscenely healthy and have a loving and sensible personality, to be gratifyingly smart and keen to please. I'd like it to have enough coat to look great, but not so much that it is deeply uncomfortable in the heat, or terribly difficult to keep groomed. I want it to be pretty, sturdily built with sound legs, small ears and a little muzzle, but with properly arranged teeth. And not weepy eyes. Please not weepy eyes.
But when I was searching for my dogs, all that was available were the foolishly tiny de-sexed choking hazards or the rangy, dingo-cross looking things. Eurgh. The breed has been hollowed out.
And this is why I find it irritating that "Backyard breeders" are generally regarded with contempt among the middle classes.[1] In my experience they have been the pool from which people who want a pet of a particular breed can draw. In the days when my parents bred poms, they would only consider buying nice looking poms, but nice looking, sensibly sized poms made up so much of the pom population that to reject a dog based on appearance was unusual. Once they were home, the dogs were selected primarily for temperament and health. Failure of either was a ticket out of there; the simplest way to offload a snappy or structurally unsound dog was to sell them to the local puppy farmer. (Yeah, I know.)
Over the years, people came to know my parents as a source of nice, healthy pom pups which would reliably grow up to be sturdy, sweet-natured pomeranians. As time passed, council pressure and social pressure reduced the number of middle-class people who were prepared to breed their nice family pets, so the gap between supply and demand was filled by puppy farmers who keep many dozens of dogs in little concrete runs for the purpose of harvesting the puppies for sale when they looked old enough to send off to the pet shops.
And people buying a "pomeranian" puppy because they wanted a pet that resembled the sweet pom that their grandparents used to have would end up with a gangly young dog which did not meet their specs! So they would sell it, quite often to a puppy farmer, sometimes to a low-income person who, desperate for income, was prepared to be a "backyard breeder" without much regard for breed quality.
Purveying the meme that breeding pets is flat out wrong does not stop pets being bred, it just causes responsible, capable people who consider themselves to be ethical to cede that activity to people who are less aware of the issues, or to less ethical people.
I believe that there is merit in relatively well off, well educated people keeping healthy, well bred pets and feeling free to breed them with due care and consideration. I would rather buy a pet from someone who had bred them with more of a mind to love of happy, healthy poms than money. Or show prizes, for that matter.
*sigh*
[1]I know there will be people who read this and see a chance to groove on their "but what about all the dogs who get euthanased!" outrage, but that is only a tangentially related argument, and probably not in the way you think. (Hint: I am anti-puppy mill, remember?)
[2] And I know people will get thingy about the question of wanting a particular breed of dog. Please just take it as axiomatic that it's valid to want to avoid playing "dog-lotto", as knowing roughly what your pup will grow into, or knowing by looking at a dog what its care requirements are likely to be reduces the amount of re-homing and euthanasia of dogs. Recognisable breeds really help with this.
This entry crossposted from http://tangent-woman.dreamwidth.org/549876.html with
comments. Please comment there if you feel inclined. You too can have a Dreamwidth blog. Ask me how!