09/02/2026
Preservation Dog Breeding- Part One
What is it?
The practice of protecting and sustaining rare OR purebred dogs so their specific traits, health, and history survive for future generations.
To practice preservation dog breeding, the breeder needs to understand:
1. The history of the breed. Whether it is a purebred breed developed from crossing several breeds or landraces, or one from a landrace, to preserve the breed it is essential to know the history of the breed.
For the HMD or the registered and standardized Tibetan Mastiff it is important to know the original purpose, use, climates, and study historical images of the breed. History is not found in the breed standard. History is found in multiple sources of books and writings, the history of the regions, knowledge of how the people who kept the dogs lived and used the dogs, the climates, and the topography.
2. Protect health. Testing of breeding pairs for known genetically inherited disabilities and other health issues.
3. Preserve traits. Understanding what traits need to be preserved goes back to the history and use of the dog. It also includes understanding and having knowledge of the recent history of the breed. Who are the founders? What did they look like? How were their traits useful? What has changed in the breed that benefitted, detracted, or changed the breed?
Preservation Breeders practice:
1. Protecting the Genetics: Preservation breeders have a basic working knowledge of genetics and uses that knowledge to prevent the loss of essential genes that maintain a healthy and diverse gene pool. Maintaining a diverse gene pool means avoiding inbreeding and multiple line breedings.
2. Maintaining the Purpose of the breed: The preservation breeder understands the physical structure that allows the dog to do the work it was originally intended for and how to breed to maintain it or restore it. This is where a knowledge of structure is important, as well as the history of the breed. Not only are the physical traits important, so is the appropriate temperament. The preservation breeder understands the temperaments within the breed and how they were useful.
3. Make Health a priority: The preservation breeder tests its breeding stock and makes the results known and accessible. The preservation breeder researches pedigrees to identify any other health issues.
Part two coming soon.
