New designer breed/Russia's secret weapon

[onyx'girl]

I'd assume they'd have to have been around for awhile to establish the "breed" and prove they are worthy of what they were bred to do. Right, on that Paula, but if you don't have much control w/ the dog, then it worthless as far as detection or search...

[paulag1955]

Jane, agreed, but my point is that every dog doesn't need to be biddable. And I'm not sure it is an actual breed (i.e. breeds true).

[sit,stay]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

Neither one are known for 'biddability' as far as training goes, I wonder how hard they are to train?
Size-wise, excellent for a SAR dog, as long as they are obedient enough.

It seems that the original incarnations were not very trainable at all, so they introduced new breeds in improve on that aspect. If I am reading it correctly, even after seven generations they were too hard to train? So it was at that point that they breed in more biddable breeds?
Sheilah

[AbbyK9]

I have seen a TV documentary about them and thought it was very interesting. It sounded like the initial generations didn't do well but the more they selected the ones that would work and the ones that did the best job, and bred them based on their ability and willingness to work, the more they started getting what they wanted.

I think, as far as creating a breed goes, this is probably how it should be done. Have a purpose in mind and produce what meets that purpose until you've got a dog like this, that's so driven to search and will initiate the searches.

It's better than trying to create a specific look, at any rate.

[jocoyn]

I think it is kind of how dog breeding originally got started. The idea of purity and closed studbooks were part of the eugenics movement. But I imagine there is a lot of culling over there too - Even the hunters here who breed crosses say "you work, you eat"