When you are buying a puppy whether pedigree or crossbreed it is worth making sure you know about the parents. This is quite important especially in a sport where purpose bred dogs are becoming more and more popular.
So why is this important?
It is important because genetics is complicated – very complicated! The biggest problem within pedigree breeds is the use of stud dogs. The pedigree world is usually influenced the most by the dogs that win in the show ring, though you do see this across sports as well! The dogs that win are the dogs that are used, even though those that win are the smallest percentage of the breed. Within a single breed, only a handful of males are used, this means that when you follow the lines, a few generations later health problems will pop up. This is going to happen – it can’t be avoided because though all breeds have these odd genetic mutations that can cause health problems, if the same couple of stud dogs are used this means that those mutations, that on their own are harmless, will double up in individuals and then there will be health problems that otherwise could have been avoided.