# Dogo Breeders 10 Commandments



## Jerry Cudahy (Feb 18, 2010)

I would add that these Ten Commandments can be applied to any Working Dog Breeder

....................................

1. Base your stock on the best possible stud / brood b###h you can get. Study the lines, see how they work. It won't be easy, unless you have tons of money to spare. It won't be done in a short time, unless....it won't be done in a short time. To really know what a dog/b###h gives, you have to see offspring down to 3 or 4 generations, at least (some fenotypical characters surface later and might skip a generation or even two). 

2. Avoid the "outrageous" but otherwise non-correct dog. The best is many times an enemy of the good. Use the most correct dogs you can get, both temperamentally-wise and conformation-wise. Later on, when you are more skilled and experienced,you might want to add a dog that has something you feel your line is missing, even though he might not be perfect in other areas. Bear in mind, though, that his imperfections could throw your breeding program backwards if they surface, *which they most likely will*. So be ready to face the costs. 

3. Never compromise. Be the harshest and most honest critic of your own dogs. Try not to care if you have spent a gazillion dollars raising a dog that goes astray after 1 year of age, or gets killed by a boar. I know it is not easy, but it is a must. Count your losses, regroup, and start again. 

4. Test your dogs, and test them again. Both in health issues, and FUNCTION. Hunt them, and see what they have and what they lack. The Dogo is a very difficult dog to breed. Nowadays most breeds need only to fit into a comformation standard. Not the dogo. You can have the prettiest dog in the city and be full of ribbons, but if it doesn't perform in the field, he is not *(and SHOULD NOT*) be worth a dime and should be excluded from the gene pool. I have met VERY FEW breeders in my life willing to do that. 

5. Be ready to cull ruthlessly, or try to be the most popular guy in town and have 1 million friends to whom you can gift neutered or spayed dogos that do not cut the mustard and should only be kept as pets (even if you have spent thousands of dollars breeding and raising them). 

6. Try to choose future owners for your dogs as thoroughly as you choose your stock. Stand up for your dogs and be ready to deliver above and beyond service, including replacements or reimbursements, if the situation demands it, because no matter how well you do your homework, a 2-months old pup is a sack of genes and yes, you can and will ####-up with a bad dog sooner or later. However, be also ready to assume you've made a mistake in choosing certain owners, and have the necessary thick skin to tell them to go to hell if they do not know what they have in their hands and how to handle it. NO, the blame is NOT always in the breeder, though they will want you to believe that. Genotype + environment, from Darwin onwards, folks. If you do your stuff correctly, you have all the right to feel good about your work and act accordingly. You are providing the customer with a "good" that took you years, sweat, blood and tears to perfect, and will most likely give him and his family 10 or more years of happiness, at the price of an autopart. BE PROUD OF YOUR WORK. 

Telling a customer he is not what the dog deserves when the circumstances deem it necessary demands a certain kind of courage. If you can do it better than me, you will be on the right track. 

7. Give your stock the best possible raising, including food, vaccines, dewormings, training, and adequate socialization. Your idea of adequate socialization *might not and SHOULD not* be the average Joe's idea. As we all know, dogs are dogs and are much better when you treat them like it. Know when to use rigour (and use it sparingly, no matter what your nearest tree-hugger says), indifference, and affection in adequate doses and circumstances, and know what and when those are. These are high-performance, no-bullshit dogs and should be treated as such, so they can become a finely-tuned machine and not a spoiled-brat-couch-potato who runs the house and pisses your shoe. *Try to drill that inside any customer's brain who just "doesn't get it". *Because they might be looking at major surgery if they don't. Or they will be calling you in a year saying "I can't handle him, this dog is mean. Can I send it back to you?". 

8. Be open to hear other people's ideas, but don't just trust anyone. Pure-bred dog's world can be a shithole; try to avoid it and get refuge among hunters, who normally do not have an agenda. Be careful until you know the players and their own "pedigree", and then follow your gut instinct. There is always somebody you can learn from. Just be sure what they are feeding you is not a load of crap, and be sure to always watch your back. 

9. Enjoy what you do. Breeding good dogos is an art; it requires that you like it and know about hunting. Find a soulmate; sharing increases the enjoyment. If you don't hunt yourself, there will be a huge gap in your breeding program, no matter what excuses you can concoct for your own relief of conscience. Many important things are only seen from the perspective of a horse's saddle. It's sad if your supposedly best dog suddenly shows lack of heart or doesn't move well, but it is better to discover it yourself and not somebody else. And when you do, remember to have a firm pulse. Do what it has to be done. 

10. Now, if you comply with commandments 1 to 9, *have it for sure that you will NOT make a dime out of breeding.* If well done, it is simply too time consuming, and the money you will invest is never going to come back. No ROE on this one; sorry, folks. It is not just the food, medications, etc. Add to it your time, the traveling, gas bills, kennel repairs, welding, chewed goods and furniture, vet bills, nights without sleeping, great dogs that ALMOST made it to be considered stock category and suddenly find the wong boar at the wrong time and you end-up empty handed...and then culls, culls, and more culls. 

If you can stand all this and do it and have a smile in your face and your heart full of love when you see your dogs, then by all means, be a breeder.


----------



## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

Considering what dogo breeders produce, I would probably go the other way.


----------



## Jerry Cudahy (Feb 18, 2010)

Jeff are you talking about the American show breeders ?


----------

