Day 5: Evaluating the Girl

Pearl’s win that completed her CKC Grand Championship in July 2021.

Before I can start looking for studs to breed to my girl, I have to make sure I have an accurate picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the dog in front of me. It’s not quite as simple as looking at Pearl’s traits that I can see, though - I also have to consider her traits in context of her pedigree (her parents and grandparents).

I also never forget that Mother Nature takes no prisoners. I’m pretty lucky to still be able to breed Pearl right now, especially after missing her last 2 seasons! I often refer to breeding as a “crapshoot”, where, just like the rest of life, even the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry 🤷‍♀️. When I evaluate Pearl (or any dog) for breeding, I follow a checklist to go over the following aspects:

Health Tests - Pearl has OFA Good hips and OFA Normal with breeder options eye results. For eyes, this means I should ideally be breeding her to a stud with no eye concerns. Persistent Pupillary Membrane (PPM) is a finding where the membrane covering the iris fails to dissipate during early puppyhood. Pearl has strands remaining on her iris, which won’t affect her vision in any way - but I should be trying to breed that out of the next generation.

Genetic Tests - Pearl is fluff free (2x short coat gene), clear of vWD genes, and a DM Carrier. There’s nothing stopping her from being bred, genetically, to most studs. She will never produce fluffies, never produce any puppies with von Willebrand’s disease, and has a 50% chance of not passing on a DM gene to her offspring!

Temperament - Pearl has incredible drive (energy and focus and the ability to work)…but it can be a bit much at times. She’s quite dog picky (as female dogs can be), but she is possibly the sweetest dog i have ever seen to people. Ideally I would breed her to a more laid-back male still with good workability.

Structure - Pearl’s biggest flaw is her size: she’s T I N Y (ha). I would like to see a bit more ribbing and length of neck on her, as well as underjaw. However, I love her topline, overall balance, and proportional substance (she’s got good bone despite being cupcake-sized).

Pedigree - a dog’s pedigree lets you go back and check the identity of dogs behind them. In this case, I can check both the appearance and health test results of many dogs that are “behind” Pearl. Breeding is an art and a science. Some tools available to breeders are linebreeding (breeding together dogs with some relatives in their pedigrees) and outcrossing (breeding together dogs with no relatives in at least 3 generations of their pedigrees). However, in order to do this properly the breeder needs to have an excellent mastery of structure, a flawless memory (because there are yet to be any good tools available to do this research), and overall experience and time spent in the breed. Read: not me! I don’t feel particularly pedigree-wise, and am still in the process of learning names, and matching dogs to kennels!

Titles & Workability - Pearl has attained her CKC Grand Championship, indicating that she’s a good representative, conformation-wise (structurally), of the breed. I unfortunately have yet to take her out for any performance/sports, but she will definitely be exposed to more activities after she’s spayed and retired. I have no doubt of her ability to herd cattle (I worry she might overwhelm them, if anything)… lol!

If you have any questions, comment below or send me an email at capricciocorgis@gmail.com!

Cheers - Jenny