Buying a purebred Dog

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ULA Dalmatians
BAER hearing tests
Research Dalmatian specific sites as they have problems unique to the breed, namely kidney stones.

Your country probably has a Kennel Club or Dalmation Society/Club- there you'll find a list of approved breeders. You might be placed on a waiting list, if you contact them ask them if they do all of the recommended health tests for their litters.

>>2450101
Does she know how active those dogs are? They are nuts and are often brought to rescues because of it. Let her know that it may be expensive buying from a reputable breeder, but if she cheaps out on that part she'll pay for it later.

>>2450133
>Let her know that it may be expensive buying from a reputable breeder, but if she cheaps out on that part she'll pay for it later
Good point.
I fostered a few of these dogs during the Disney boom. All of them came from BYBs looking to cash in, all of them were sub par at best.

>>2450101
I hope your gf is a runner because those are high performance dogs when they're bred properly.

You'd be better off just getting a Lab desu

It's a lot easier to find a top notch Lab breeder. You'll pay less and get a healthier dog.

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If your gf tries to settle for anything lower than hobby breeder tell her to kill herself

Health tests health tests health tests

>>2450199
Are backyard breeders really worse than mills?
Mills are pretty much backyard breeder levels of not giving a fuck about quality breeding but with 10x the efficiency at pumping out low quality mistreated dogs.

>>2450203
It depends. Some BYBs will let direct relatives breed for generations and keep selling the puppies

>>2450203
They are technically regulated by the USDA so "technically" they have to hold their facilities to a higher standard but the USDA allows for some hellish standards.

A middle-aged soccer mom who wants her kids to "see the miracle of life" with her cocker spaniel will probably have better conditions than a puppy mill, but ultimately she isn't held to any regulated standard at all and that's probably why BYBs are "worse" on this chart than mills and commercial breeders.

>>2450196
I'm a runner.

>>2450196
I know.

>>2450503
>I'm a runner.
so you're the one who will be stuck taking care of it? if you're not prepared to take care of it, it will turn into a piece of shit. it will be destructive to your home and aggressive to other dogs and people.

don't get a dog, especially a dalmatian, just because your gf thinks it looks cute.

Gunna throw my experience with dals here.

I've had three. All three unrelated, all adopted. Every single one went down the same way:
>horrific hip problems
>tumors
>Eventual cancer
>eventual blindness
>eventual deafness

Granted this all came in older age at 6+. Two were out down at 13 and our first one was out own at 14-15. If it had been my call, I would have had them put down years sooner because let me tell you they were totally fucked and letting them keep living was torturing them with how bad everything got and there was nothing else we could do.

Dalmatians suffered bad with the 101 Dalmatians craze but even before then I'd say they are among one of the most 'unhealthiest' breeds. I've heard them crashing and burning much earlier but at least up until they started getting old they were pretty active and healthy.

>tl;dr have lots and lots of money for their eventual health problems because it costs an arm and a leg

Purebred dogs from reputable breeders are almost always healthier than a rescue mutt. The reason purebreds get a bad rep is backyard breeders who lack the experience to know what dogs are worth breeding.

>>2451056

There's no actual evidence to support that a Disney bump happened.

Reports that talk about it are rarely sourced, or source other unsourced reports. Those that do use interviews talk to low-authority people who conveniently leave out the dog's ages which would indicate whether they were likely bought as puppies in response to a movie or older dogs likely bought during an unrelated uptick in breed popularity. There are also no population numbers from shelters to support a surge in abandonment which would indicate increased BYB activity, locally or nationally. There's only hearsay that this totally happened you guys.

The only numbers we do have on Dalmatians are in AKC registrations. It shows a middling breed around the time the first movie was released. There was no real change until they began to surge in popularity in 1983... 4 years after the 4th re-release of the 1961 original. By the time of the 1996 live-action movie, when papers were reporting that there was absolutely going to be a huge bump in sales because Disney, Dalmation popularity had already been falling for 3 years. The rate that only grew more rapid after the movie premiered, and the 2000 re-release of the original once again did nothing to change the Dalmatian's return to a middling popularity level.

If anything, it seems, the flood of panicky reports explaining why people abandon Dalmatians bought because of a movie might have helped fuel their decline by discouraging new owners.

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>>2450108

This. Dalmatians have a whole host of problems that are inherent just to being Dalmatians, and unless a breeder is specifically acknowledging them and their steps to try and counteract it they aren't worth your time or money.

Also the more black on a puppy, especially around the (base of the) ears, the lower the likelihood of deafness. That's the opposite of the current trend, though, so good luck.

I've been researching purebreds for myself (no firsthand experience so I'm by no means any kind of authority) and from what I've read, it seems that any breeder who breeds dogs before they have buyers lined up is a bad breeder.

The good ones appear to be the ones who do extensive DNA testing, and just don't breed a dog if it has a genetic disease. They rarely make money even with the steep price, it's more about a love for the breed and a desire to make it as good as it can be.

>>2450101
your gf isn't interested in a pet, so much as a fashion accessory. anyone who would rather drop a grand on a shady as fuck scum of the earth breeder rather than help out a perfectly good dog in need of a good home shouldn't be a dog owner in the first place

I am in the U.K. And anfucking love Alsatians/German Shepards but I am also aware of their back problems.

How would I go about getting one that will be less likely to suffer from back problems.

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>>2453415

The US has systems in place to categorize and evaluate health issues associated with the breed (in particular PennHIP), but as far as I can tell the UK is just relying on their (very limited) access to those programs rather than creating their own panels and database. You're looking for X-Rays and family history as far back in the line as you can go, preferably records that have been assessed but this may not be a possibility due to location.

Note that this will only increase the likelihood, not guarantee, a healthy animal. Things like dysplasia tests cannot be run until the dog is at least 4 months old, and that's really the only way to know for sure.

Due to lack of resources and an overabundance of bad breeders, I would honestly aim for a failed military/police dog. The dogs are bred with function in mind, are old enough to run accurate tests, and often have basic training started and possibly completed. Failing the program could mean something as simple as the dog has too jovial a personality to handle protective work, but would be a fantastic pet.

>>2453432
Well I am in the Airforce. I wonder if it would be easier for me to find a failed military dog? I would just be worried it would be aggressive.

>>2453451

Express your concerns to anyone you're adopting through, but it shouldn't happen. Releasing a dangerous animal into the general public would be begging for a PR disaster and so, so many lawsuits.

>>2450101
>So despite my encouragement to get a rescue etc, the gf has her heart set on a purebred dalmatian. She's always wanted one etc.
>It's her money so it looks like it's happening.
>Anyway I have seen a lot of purebred dogs with shitty health so I really want to help ensure that we get one that is healthy.
>What the fuck do you look for in a breeder? If we're going down this path I want to do it right.

You can do all the checks and still end up with one that has loads of health problems down the line, tell your gf to stop being shallow and materialistic and think of the dogs wellbeing before thinking of her image !

>>2453415
>I am in the U.K. And anfucking love Alsatians/German Shepards but I am also aware of their back problems.
>How would I go about getting one that will be less likely to suffer from back problems.

That's like saying
How do I have children that will never have cancer, you fucking dumbass,

Make sure you don't take that dog in public. They hate children and the elderly and will bite unprovoked.

Also ensure you don't take that dog near any open flames. It will run directly into the fire to try and fight it.

>>2453593
Everything in this post is bullshit.

>>2450101
Buy only from a breeder who has documentation on how long the puppy's grandparents and great grandparents lived.

That should filter out most of the shit breeders.

>>2453584
"Less likely" =/= impossible.

They're asking a pretty legit question about how to look for reputable breeders, what health tests might exist to screen out hip/back/joint problems, what lines are known for good health or poor health, etc.
I don't know enough about shepherds to tell them much in that area, but it's a reasonable question. What's wrong with you?

>>2450101
Tell her that you don't want your dog to go deaf and blind before it gets super cancer at age 6.

>>2451162
I can believe that may not have been as bad as I originally thought but make smell wonder what happened to dalmatians. I knew and saw a crap ton growing up and I haven't seen a single one in almost ten years, and I worked at a shelter and a doggy day care. I've noticed that people these days prefer smaller dogs and I don't believe people wised up to health problems in dals enough to discourage buying them but they just don't seem to be around much anymore.

I wouldn't bother with a dalmatian, the breed was ruined thanks to 101 Dalmatians. Aggression, health issues, etc. Hope she is active too.

Why not start with a manageable breed?

>>2451162
There's no actual evidence to support that a Disney bump happened.

>For example, after the release of the 1985 version of the Disney movie 101 Dalmatians, new Dalmatian registrations increased 6.2-fold, from 6880 registrations in 1985 to 42 816 registrations in 1993, followed by a precipitous fall to 4652 registrations 6 years later. Although frequency changes are expected with random drift, by 1988 the yearly changes in Dalmatians
exceed 95% of other breeds (figure 2).
Herzog, H.A., Bentley, R.A. and Hahn, M.W., 2004. Random drift and large shifts in popularity of dog breeds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 271(Suppl 5), pp.S353-S356.

Popularity invariably hurts a breed.

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>>2454832

The issue with dalmations is that they're a constantly-shedding, high-energy breed prone to be loud and destructive. They're stubborn and are considerably prone to aggression, which makes them far more punishing for an insufficient owner than other breeds.

They shot up in popularity mostly because they're just beautiful animals. Their numbers absolutely collapsed once they became numerous enough for the general public to realize that these really, really weren't suitable for casuals.

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>>2454844

Dalmatian popularity had already been on the upswing since 1983, and compared to the insane bump they got in 1990 (5 years later than your cited date) it wasn't much of one. By 1991 the ascent had already begun to slow, by 1992 it was cut to a 1/3, and by the time of the 1996 live action their popularity was plummeting and received no reprieve from a premiere.

And, again, the original premiered in 1961. 1985 was the 3rd rerelease, 1991 was the 4th. Doesn't it seem kind of silly that it was not original film, not the first or second re-release, but the 3rd and 4th that made demand go insane rather than just an unusual but non-related trend?

I'm not saying popularity doesn't hurt a breed, overbreeding absolutely does. I'm just saying that there's nothing in the registration numbers to say that it was Disney, rather than just keeping up with the Jones', that led to Dalmatian sales.

>>2454886

The reason the Disney bump rumor pisses me off so much is not even that it's bad science to cherry pick dates out of a decade-long upswing to prove a point, or how conveniently writers ignore the 2 movies that happened during the decade-long downswing.

The problem is that breeders like to cry 'b-but Disney!' to justify why their breed is shitty and disease-prone. Frankly, even if Disney had caused more interest in their breed, it would still be their own damned fault. They would be the ones to over-produce, they would be the ones to lower their discretion on new owners, they would be the ones turning out sickly animals just to make a profit. These were not statistics coming out of BYB's (because, again, we have no proof of increased BYB activity), these were registered breeders who should have been vetted and responsible enough not to give in to popularity trends but they did anyway and worsened an already sick breed because of it.

Besides that they've had 32 years since the dreaded 3rd re-release in 1985, far longer than the supposed Disney bump, to right the ship. Females generally start breeding at 2, which has given them 16 generations to undo the damage. Let's just say all the breeders don't start breeding until the dogs are 4, that still has given them 8 entire generations to work the problems out and they haven't done it. Considering the AKC's continued refusal to accept LUA dalmatians, and a push towards trends that increase the propensity for health issues like deafness, they don't seem interested in anything but a scapegoat. And, because people love finding new reasons to hate Disney, it works.