I enjoyed this article and  although it was written by a show breeder,  the ethics, points and issues are the same and I thought I would share.

In Search of the Perfect Stud Dog

by Peri Norman

I bought my first show dog in 1971. He became a Champion and attained his CD. He sired two litters. Ttttthat’s all folks! Many years later, I remember when my breeding partner and I started to x-ray our breeding stock for Hip Dysplasia. Our finished bitch was x-rayed by the local vet. “It’s fine”, he told us. “No need to send it in. It’s just a waste of money.“ About two years later, I was devastated when our promising young male pick of the litter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. My partner, however, was in denial. She was sure that this was not genetic. Both his parents had been x-rayed. After all, he did fall off the grooming table that time when he was a pup. The fall must have caused this problem. I was not so easily dissuaded and insisted that we x-ray his littermates. More than one pup turned out to be dysplastic. I bought a copy of Fred Lanting’s first book on Canine Hip Dysplasia and insisted on a second opinion on the dam’s x-rays. Yup, she was dysplastic, too. I had learned a lesson in the value of testing AND the importance of good information. What I did not know and could never have foreseen was how dramatically the world of responsible dog breeding was to change….

Read the rest of this great article here:

http://caninechronicle.com/current-articles/in-search-of-the-perfect-stud-dog/