>>We have a standard male standard poodle who will be 2 years old this nov. We did not intend to breed him, he was strickly a pet. Arley, his name, has the best personalty I have ever seen in a dog. He is smart, loving not to aggressive yet not to shy. He barks at the door bell but not a yelping or nervous poodle. We got a call from our son who's neighbor has a female standard for sale and we are thinking about bringing another pet into our home so we can breed Arley and keep his gene going, and so he has a buddy.
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>>Do puppy's temperment and personalties take after their parents or is most of it due to they way their themselves are raised?
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>>Also, if we don't decide to breed Arley we will have to get him fixed soon. I understand he has more of a chance of getting prostate cancer if we don't, now by breeding him does that decrease this in anyway?
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>>A pic of Arley and his best friend Jacob, my son's Godson. Our kids are grown and out on their own although we have a new grandaughter which we babsit daily, am I taking on to much at this time with a new puppy and grandbaby?
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>>Thanks,
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>>Pam
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Breeding would certainly be taking on too much, since that requires proving the dog with health tests and conformation showing, plus keeping him intact. An intact male dog is statistically higher risk of biting a child. Add having a breeding female in the home, and the risk of aggression that could affect your relationship with your grandchild and her parents in a negative way.
If he's got that great a temperament, I'd want to preserve it by neutering him NOW. Don't wait any longer, because the risk of aggression just keeps going up the longer you leave him intact. Age 3 years is bad news with some dogs.
Prostate infections are common in intact male dogs as they get older, and the cure includes neutering the dog. Do him a favor and help the safety of your grandchild at the same time by neutering him now.
Keeping to just one dog may make it much easier for now to spend plenty of time with your grandchild. It's all a matter of your priorities. In order to breed, you would have a LOT of homework to do first, it would be a major lifestyle change for you, and most people who do it once do not do it again. But a lot of the damage would have already been done by then to your dog's temperament and you having two possibly sometimes cranky dogs to manage around your grandchild, rather than one happy-natured one as you have now.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series at www.veterinaryforum.com
