Breeding Information

The decision as to whether or not to breed your purebred dog is not one made quickly or casually. Most breed clubs attempt to influence the behavior of their breed fanciers by a Code of Ethics which includes emphatic instruction on how to breed. For the most part, this instruction can be boiled down to the dogma: “Breed only to improve the breed.”

We have been guided for well over forty years by the eminent good sense of that instruction. We hesitated at first, out of concern that we didn’t know enough about the breed, and later by the concern that our dogs did not measure up to the “standard” produced and protected by the national breed club.

Eventually, we decided to take the plunge: We looked for a nice male of good conformation and disposition, nearby, and owned by folks willing to mate their male to a bitch of decent, but mostly unknown, pedigree. We could hardly go wrong with the ethics of the situation, since the male, being an AKC Champion could hardly fail to improve upon the “conformation” of our little bitch. We were correct, as it turned out, and in our first litter we found our first home-bred Champion: CH Topsy’s Mr. Magistrate…”Judge.”

To undertake breeding with as little information as we had at the time was risky, but we were lucky. Not everyone is. Most of us are blind to faults in our own much loved dogs, and all too ready to try to recoup some of the expense of dog ownership by selling puppies…particularly when the pups are of a relatively rare and very appealing breed.

It helps when you begin to consider breeding if you have started showing your dogs competitively. In addition to its attraction as a sport, showing your dog competitively has been one of the few ways breeders could have the quality of their dogs “ratified” by independent and objective experts: the licensed AKC judge. At least that’s the theory.

We have spent the better part of thirty years pursuing the valued and sometimes elusive AKC championship title for those dogs we considered worth breeding. For the most part we have been successful. But In recent years, the quality of judging seems to have declined. This and the expense and effort of showing regularly has forced us to make our own judgments as to who and when we would breed.

We will continue to be selective in breeding our black Schipperkes to fit the U.S. breed standard in every possible respect. Our cream Schips are not eligible for the breed ring in the U.S.--under AKC rules-- but we have exported several specimens to the British market, and they have done very well in the breed ring there...as well as serving to strengthen British lines by providing excellent out-cross opportunities. We have recently convinced the United Kennel Club to recognize our purebred cream Schips in UKC events, with good results.

Our cream specimens will be held to the same exacting standards of structural soundness and equable disposition as we always have observed...and we are delighted to have influenced the modest increase in understanding of these wonderful dogs.