I have received numerous breeding questions over the years about how to determine or better predict what breeding matches will produce. While there is no magic ball or perfect formula to tell you the future, common sense and ethics can help to eliminate many of the breed's health, temperament, and structure problems. Yes, even temperament is genetically encoded with the majority statistics influenced from the mother, with a small balance shared by the father and environment.

No matter how much you want more puppies just like your wonderful dog, no matter how well your show dog performs, breeding is not a requirement and should be considered with an enormous sense of responsibility. You are intentionally creating a living creature that is completely at your mercy. Please make it something worth contributing to the canine community, not just something that looks cute or pretty.

When I was actively showing, I had a three strike rule to my breeder dogs, in other words, they couldn't have three same or related problems. Of course, there were exceptions to this rule, depending on the severity of the problem, but if both mother and father had three or more undesirable traits or problems, I wouldn't even consider using them for breeding. Financial losses should never outweigh proper choices. The breeder should take ultimate responsiblity for every puppy, and be prepared to keep those get (or offspring) unsuitable for placement.

However you choose to determine your kennel program is your choice, but please don't breed with unrealistic expectations. As the saying goes, "You can't get blood out of a turnip," any more of a chance than you can produce healthy, friendly dogs out of unhealthy, unfriendly dogs. Research is the key to responsible breeding. Knowing your bloodlines can help prevent many unhappy surprises or disorders.

Last, but not least, please be aware of what I call "paper tigers," or those puppies that look like a good investment because of their wonderful pedigree i.e. champion to champion background. Just because a breeder actively shows their animals and have proven them trainable, this does not guarantee you will like the dog's personality, or that the genetic personality is suitable for your particular family or multi-pet lifestyles.

Dominant dogs with a "look at me" personality may be a successful show dog, but dominant dogs are not a personality that average home facilities can easily manage in a typical lifestyle. This issue is most important regarding small time or home based breeders since many of these dogs also serve as the family pet as well. Personally, I also do not believe that an intact or dominant animal should be around young children unsupervised. We see dominant dog aggressive personalities in rescue all the time because the owners weren't forewarned of the added liability and responsibility of owning such a pet. Click here for more information about getting started with a responsible breeding program.

Here is a basic statistics chart that can estimate what percentage your chosen pair of Shar-pei will produce the same health, temperament, and structure:

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