Thoughts on WPG breeding practices
For those of you who don't know, the WPGCA (Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Club of America) has some pretty strict breeding practices. In the 1980s the WPG, as a breed, was in some "trouble". These gundogs were becoming overly shy and losing their "birdiness" (or desire to find game). Many of the breed's fanciers became increasingly concerned about these issues and after consultation with other breeders both in America and in Europe (the breed is Dutch in origin, but developed mainly in France) they decided to outcross to "save the breed."
Aside from causing a split in the community, the AKC stopped registering these out-crossed dogs. That meant no more conformation shows, field trials, or hunt tests for these dogs. The WPGCA took this seriously. They developed a set of their own hunt tests and conformation shows and formed a "breeding committee" for the breed. In effect, there are no breeders of non-akc WPGs, and there are most definitely not any kennels of non-akc WPGs. The WPGCA, as a club, is one large distributed kennel. The breeding committee looks at lines, health, temperament, and hunt test results for EVERY dog and then mandates which litters are to be bred.
""To us a griffon is a dog that has performance and conformation standards that meet what the dog should be," Lehrer says. "And in breeding we want to repeat that. That's a griffon, not a pedigree." Puppies from every litter must pass rigorous natural and intermediate hunting tests. Conformation, temperament, and coats are evaluated, hips x-rayed (Penn-hip). Records are scoured seven ways from Sunday and breedable dogs are selected from a small list. Furthermore, anyone who buys a WPGCA puppy is presented with a contract stipulating that he or she will agree to all of the above, will breed their female (if it passes the club's stringent qualifications) at least twice and furthermore that he or she will agree to abide by the dictates of the club's breeding committee, which includes the selection of a specific mate."
No one person is allowed to own a breedable male and female to avoid ooops litters or BYBs. And if the breeding committee tells you that your female is to be bred to a male across the country, guess who's shipping their dog out there? That's right, you are.
I have some mixed thoughts about this, so I thought I'd throw it out for discussions. What do you guys think?
Aside from causing a split in the community, the AKC stopped registering these out-crossed dogs. That meant no more conformation shows, field trials, or hunt tests for these dogs. The WPGCA took this seriously. They developed a set of their own hunt tests and conformation shows and formed a "breeding committee" for the breed. In effect, there are no breeders of non-akc WPGs, and there are most definitely not any kennels of non-akc WPGs. The WPGCA, as a club, is one large distributed kennel. The breeding committee looks at lines, health, temperament, and hunt test results for EVERY dog and then mandates which litters are to be bred.
""To us a griffon is a dog that has performance and conformation standards that meet what the dog should be," Lehrer says. "And in breeding we want to repeat that. That's a griffon, not a pedigree." Puppies from every litter must pass rigorous natural and intermediate hunting tests. Conformation, temperament, and coats are evaluated, hips x-rayed (Penn-hip). Records are scoured seven ways from Sunday and breedable dogs are selected from a small list. Furthermore, anyone who buys a WPGCA puppy is presented with a contract stipulating that he or she will agree to all of the above, will breed their female (if it passes the club's stringent qualifications) at least twice and furthermore that he or she will agree to abide by the dictates of the club's breeding committee, which includes the selection of a specific mate."
No one person is allowed to own a breedable male and female to avoid ooops litters or BYBs. And if the breeding committee tells you that your female is to be bred to a male across the country, guess who's shipping their dog out there? That's right, you are.
I have some mixed thoughts about this, so I thought I'd throw it out for discussions. What do you guys think?
Comments
I woudl imagine an owner of such a breed who agrees to these arrangements must be a sufficient fan of the breed and understand why this must be managed thusly, though it sounds dictatorial, I think as long as owners know going into it what the responsibility is to the breed and the club they join, then it is what it is.
It'd be good to be ON the committee if you were so involved in the breed. No one says you have to sit on your hands. No doubt there are dogs not wanted for breeding you could own (for a price) who you could enjoy hunting with and wash your hands of the committee entirely?
Chrstal has some good questions I'd like to know the answers & I think, would better help form opinions
Now that may be the point. Maybe they only want a select few out there and want to be very picky about who owns these dogs. I'm not sure what the mission or the underlying guiding principles are of the breed club.
Since I really have no interest in these dogs, I think that yes these practices seem a bit over the top. But if I bring them back to a scenario with a breed that I adore, then I would be willing to play along with the breed club to be able to own one.
If this were a Kai scenario, and because of breeders breeding the same lines into a corner in the US, the breed club needed people to import dogs or help assist on importing dogs, then I would be all there. If I imported a dog and they asked me to breed her twice, then I would do it. I would get all the checks done because that's responsible breeding practices. Yes it would probably cost a few thousand dollars, but my passion for the breed would guide me into finding a way to be able to commit my resources into preserving the breed.
In return, I would like to be an active part in the decision making process of the breed club. But that's just my personality.
The method of testing, shipping, mating, raising, and placing doesn't necessarily have to follow the model of other breeds whereby the individual owner/breeder is in charge (and can mess up due to inexperience). The club can be the one paying for testing, shipping, and placing pups, and relieve the burden from the individual owner.
1) Breeding costs: @Wryly Brindle ask what happens when you co-own a dog with a breeder? The answer to that is, EVERY owner is a breeder in this breed (at least for WPGCA dogs, there is a sister organization that didn't outcross and is still recognized by the AKC and run much more like a traditional community). So by purchasing a dog, you are agreeing to raise, train to hunt (that's right, no non-working homes for these dogs), evaluate at one of five locations where breed-specific hunt tests are conducted (which may be hundreds of miles away), and possibly (only if you're asked by the breed committee) to produce a minimum of two litters. You know the costs and time involved in breeding going into the arrangement because they make sure you do before placing a puppy with you. You don't get control over the breeding, nor do you get control over puppy placement, but you do keep most of the money from the litter to offset breeding costs.
2) The mission of the breed club, as I understand it, is to create true-to-working-type WPGs. That's a conformation and temperament standard, not a pedigree. (I personally really like that sentiment.) They promote healthy breeding practices using "science" and exert significant control over all breeding operations to ensure a no obviously bad breeding practices creep into the breed. You can think of their mission like the google of dog breeding. It doesn't matter how many good homes they exclude, as long as no bad ones ever receive one of their dogs.
3) I'll also mention that this breed is extremely rare. I've read estimates as high as 250 WPGs imported, bor in the US, or lived in the US but is now deceased. The actual number of living dogs I've seen estimated around 150. But, something only like 75 of those are associated with the WPGCA's breeding program.
Does that change any of your opinions?