Our Breeding Ideology
- Breeding dogs is a hobby (hobby: a pursuit or interest engaged in for relaxation or enjoyment); Breeding of dogs is told by some to be an art or science, these serious subjects are taught in schools, dog breeding is not, hobbies are learned by doing them
- We don’t breed dogs to make money, it is our hobby, breeding to make money makes it a business and puts your priorities and objectives in the wrong place
- We don’t breed dogs to become famous, no one becomes famous for dog breeding except in their own mind
- We breed to make a beautiful animal that we can give to someone else to love and cherish, as a breeder once made one for us
- Since breeding dogs is a hobby, we feel it is our right to breed as WE see fit, not how someone else thinks it should be done; no one has the right to tell anyone else how to do their hobby and we do not want to tell anyone else how to do it either; when it is your turn to make rules enforced upon others it may be grand, but when it is someone else’s turn to make the rules, you may not feel so good; since dog breeding is a personal hobby, we all have the right to make our own rules, not have someone else’s forced upon us
- We do not breed for gunshot resistant dogs, this is the Mudi, not a police dog or hunting breed, the Mudi was not selected to be unafraid of gun shots as the shepherds did not have or use guns during the years of selection, if you want this feature in your Mudi, you can try to breed for it, but you take a very large risk for changing the rest of the breeds characteristics, and once again breeding two gunshot resistant dogs together does not guarantee the puppies will be resistant or have herding ability, good health or good temperament; breeding for any one factor never makes positive effects on the rest of the characteristics, it is the dogs bred for both looks and performance that have the best chance to retain the true breed characteristics, it should never be a one trait over another selection process; dogs are not the only thing to prove this is true, the rose industry has also developed into separate worlds, the garden roses and the cut (florist-exhibition) roses, breeding for certain traits required in the florist-show rose industry has created a long lasting, thicker stemmed single rose, but the odor has been lost as well as the ability to live in the garden, these roses have to be grown in greenhouses, this is what happens when you selectively breed for any feature or features over others, you change or lose what are vital traits; we breed whole dogs, not parts
- The standard for any breed is a guideline for the basic outlook of a dog, it should not be used as a lawnmower to remove all but the very best “standard-like” dogs from breeding, to do so would limit the gene pool in a very restrictive way from which serious harm (to any breed) will result; we breed dogs, not standards
-The standard makes no mention of herding instinct retention, health, temperament or working ability; as these items are more important than the outlook of a dog, the standard for any breed which leaves these out is critically lacking what is truly important and should not be used as the main guideline for breeding
- A Mudi should be more than just a pretty yard or room ornament, the prettiest dog in the breed is hardly a joy to live with if it is sick or behaviorally unsound no matter how much it mirrors the breed standard
- If you only want a pretty dog, then choose a companion breed, don’t choose a herding breed which should be bred for working abilities, not exterior beauty alone
- We do not breed for size, we breed for overall quality in every aspect that makes a dog useful to its original purpose and today’s need for versatility as well, the Mudi was a versatile dog from the beginning of the breeds selection, if having a sure midi-size class competitor is important to you, choose another breed; nothing about the Mudi is size oriented, why should today's breeding goals focus in that direction, what purpose does a smaller size Mudi fulfill that a larger cannot also achieve
- We do not breed with the latest contrived breeding notions , we cannot save the breed by implementing many of the very radical ideas introduced into other rare breeds by implementing them into the Mudi; these radical theories have no scientific basis nor have been proven to solve any problems in a closed gene pool; the only thing that can save any breed is an open gene pool, not closed registries, this is what has been substantiated by science and how we choose to base our breeding principles
- Every puppy that is born is placed to our website and gets a pedigree, we do not cull puppies unless they are malformed, we do not give puppies away without pedigree, you can see all we have produced in every litter, not just what appears in the show ring or what we choose to “report” as born; we microchip every puppy born for identification purposes since our second litter (when microchips became available, our first puppy was only tattooed)
- We do not dock tails, we never have, we do remove all rear dewclaws and we do breed for natural born short tails as possible to keep this trait in the gene pool
- Breeding of dogs is not a natural process, we choose the mates, the times for mating, the places they will mate and the places they will whelp the litter; we do not let nature take its course in the whelping box either, we help puppies to survive after they have been born, we do not take heroic measures, but we do at least give them all a fighting chance; breeding dogs is not natural, why should the puppies be left to survive or not according to “nature”, we think this is cruel and pointless
- We place puppies into active companion homes, not just competitive sport homes as we feel the Mudi is a wonderful companion most of all and fits the lifestyle of many active people, regardless of age
- We do not keep alot of dogs at home, Mudis especially are not good in packs, nor in kennels or confined areas; Mudis need to spend most of the day with you and have your individual attention and affection
- We feel the dog is a family member, not a tool that can be replaced when it does not perform as you planned especially since a dog can only perform as well as it has been trained which is the sole responsibility of the owner
- We encourage and help our puppy owners (and anyone that asks us for assistance) to do health, herding and temperament testing of their Mudi so we can develop a statistical base of data for our breeding program and the breed
Breeding may be our hobby, but we do it conscientiously as living animals are involved. Since Mudis develop strong owner bonds, extra care needs to be taken with them. This is not a casual breed and not a breed for everyone or every purpose. Breeding and owning a Mudi needs a great deal of thought and planning and should not be done on a whim.
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom:
the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
Walter Lippmann
- We may not like how other people breed dogs, we all have the right to form an opinion of others methods, however this only means that you do not have to recommend them to people looking for puppies, or breed, buy or sell with them, it does not mean you should force them to breed as you do with mandatory rules
- We do not have any males at home at this time, the easy to breed with male you have at home is most times not the best one for the female you also have at home; we breed to the males that complement our females attributes and do not double up on their faults; we do not want accidental breeding either
- We breed for:
Health, EVERY dog we breed with has at minimum an official hip check, on the dogs we own we have all the health tests performed that are commonly done in herding breeds - orthopedic and eye checks, and we use only official orthopedic associations and eye specialist vets for results, not the local vet
Temperament, every dog we own has taken at least one temperament or behavior test, our present 3 Mudis have taken 2 or more, we meet every male and spend time with him before we breed with him to learn his temperament with us and other dogs before the female comes into heat which affects his mind and everyday temperament
Herding Instinct retention, every dog we own has been officially herding instinct tested, some on sheep and cattle, we try to breed to males that have also passed the test
Working Ability, our dogs have been trained in different areas such as obedience, agility and herding, they may not be superstars, but that is our fault not theirs as we do not wish to be superstars, we simply enjoy these things and enjoy being with our dogs
Beauty and Conformation, our dogs have either competed in dog shows or passed breeding exams making them acceptable breed examples, most important for us is a dog that is well built and pretty to look at, they may not win the current fashion in the show ring, but we are not show breeders, we breed for overall quality, not winning show ribbons, several of our puppies have done very well in the show ring and many have passed breeding exams
Low Inbreeding, we do not linebreed, inbreed or outcross, we look for low COI percentages and males that complement our females; inbreeding and linebreeding do not better your chances of making the perfect show dog, only in making the breed unviable
- There is no perfect dog, even the current show and sport winner has some fault, we are aware and honest about the imperfections of our females and we breed to eliminate them as much as possible
- You can breed the two most nearly perfect dogs together and produce a litter that is nothing like their parents; you can breed the two most unattractive dogs and have a litter filled with near perfect puppies, this is why breeding is not science or art as if it were this would not happen, breeding is simply luck and chance of the genetic combinations that can occur
- You can repeat a successful litter a second time and have far less success, or more, again it is the chance of the genes, every puppy is a unique individual, not a representation of his parents, any puppy can retain more characteristics from one parent, while the littermate has more features of the other, rarely is any puppy a clone of one parent, usually they favor one but still have attributes of the other, in best case scenarios they have all the best and none of the worst, but this it not what usually happens and breeding only the most standard-like dogs does not guarantee you will beat the odds as it is chance, not science or art, what is born into any litter
- Breeding for any particular trait, even health or temperament, is not guaranteed by breeding only excellent parents, breeding two parents with A hips does not guarantee all or any of the pups will have A hips, genes are only part of the final adult representative, environment and keeping conditions also play a major factor in health, temperament and ability; we breed dogs, not hip scores