The breeding of the Spanish water dog
Breed and select breed dogs is a passion, it is a way of life. To breed is not to cross two dogs and achieve a litter, or to collect two pedigrees in the abstract to achieve a better and more complete pedigree with the fashion dogs that win lately in the exhibitions. Nor breed is crossing to obtain economic benefits, much less to rip off innocent and inexperienced people using inconvenient players and sell cute puppies that in the future will be a problem for the unsuspecting who buy them.
To breed Spanish water dogs, or any other breed, is to improve the breeding stock that we are using, that is to say, produce children that surpass their parents in anatomical and functional quality..
To breed is first of all to design a genetic project that results in the selection of the most compatible reproducers based on:
1- Analysis of defects and virtues in detail of the female we are going to cross:
We review and punctuate the virtues we want to set of this bitch in her offspring. And the same as its flaws.
We analyze, if possible, these same data from their previous litters (if any) and from the blood line to which the female to cross belongs.
2- Analysis of defects and virtues in detail of available stallions:
Analyzing the offspring that each stallion has left in the past with different bitches and if we know those previous breeding bitches we can detail the defects and virtues that each stallion transmits, fixes or improves on their offspring.
In certain races there is what is called Koerung’s letter or rapport of the stallion where its qualities as a breeder and the improvements it brings to the breeding are described. This document is widely used in the selective breeding of certain breeds of German origin but unfortunately in our Spanish water dog breed there is no such thing and the breeders are guided more by their instinct, by the titles that the stallions have or by the fashion, that really by a serious and strict analysis of the qualities that those males offer to breeding.
3- Pedigree, bloodlines and consanguinity:
Through its study and use, we managed to establish the qualities of the bloodline in future generations while avoiding defects. Breeding under a bloodline is complicated as crossbreeding should be done by studying a lot of consanguinity to avoid latent defects but it is the best way to set the characters we most want for our dogs.
If you look at the section of females or promises you can see a small file of each of our copies and within it you can see their line of blood and consanguinity acquired from their parents. This is very important to maintain a breeding professional breed.
We do not make open crosses because this practice does not guarantee anything at all the result and we would be destroying all the work of years of breeding selection.
4- Hip and elbows Dysplasia:
A very important point because in addition to that the reproducers are free of dysplasia officially both elbows and hips, the ideal is to study the most of their genealogy to see if their ancestors suffered from this disease.
In the Spanish water dog breed, X-rays of the hips have been done very recently. For some time now, some breeders have analyzed this disease in their breeders. We from the beginning not only analyze the hips but also the elbows of our dogs and perform these analyzes twice for each animal: the first time at 5 months of age (if they are perfect we continue with them) and then officially at 12 months old. All of our breeding specimens have A or B scores in both hips and elbows. We were raised with dogs rated C or D; not with E
5- Temperament and character:
I will not tire of repeating that the Spanish water dog is a working dog and as such should remain. It is a very versatile race that adapts very well to any environment but let’s give it a job to do; Either with obedience tricks, run with us or look for your favorite ball. Any family can have a water dog in a flat in a big city but knowing their needs well and paying attention to the recommendations that we give from the hatchery to all the people who acquire a specimen bred by us.
In addition, the character of the breeding female, which is essential in the first stages of her puppies, is very important. The mother will teach her puppies to be dogs, which is the first thing they should learn. That is why our puppies are delivered at least 60 days old, never before.
6- Health:
The reproducers must be healthy, ideal weight, active, athletic and free of intestinal and external parasites. For this, from our hatchery UBBADAT we have a vaccination and deworming protocol for the breeding bitches that includes the herpes virus vaccine or internal deworming.
Our puppies are delivered with a minimum of 60 days, dewormed internally 2 times and with 2 minimum vaccinations before leaving our house. Obviously they carry with them a written documentation that includes all the guarantees of congenital or acquired diseases so that the family has complete peace of mind in any situation that might happen.
7- P.R.A. y C.H.G.:
The two most important congenital diseases of which every reproductive should be free or carrier are Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) and Congenital Hypothyroidism (CHG).
It is very easy to analyze a dog of these diseases because you only need to take a little blood and send it to analyze.
The results can be in both cases: Free / Carrier / Affected
Obviously no dog affected by one of these diseases should breed (although no one forbids it and only the breeder’s ethics is the one that decides). A “carrier” specimen could only be crossed with a “free” specimen; in this way their offspring would never be “affected” by these diseases.
The breeding of purebred dogs is not an exact science. As responsible breeders we try to do things the best we know and with total humility and transparency
You are many families and also other breeders who trust in our way of breeding. Transparency in doing things and the responsibility that we acquire from UBBADAT with each puppy that leaves our house is enormous, they are our “children” and we want to continue doing things.
It would be very easy to breed without order or criterion, without analyzing all the diseases that we analyzed in our breeders, without giving our dogs a full and healthy life … it would be very easy to do things wrong. But the easy things are not authentic. We prefer to complicate life a little more and leave the skin trying to make each litter something really to remember.
Thank you!
David Colmenero, owner of the Afijo UBBADAT