Culling

culling

Posted by Ben Jackson on November 2, 2011 at 11:55 AM

This is a subject many do not like to discuss.We would like to think that all of our perfect little angel bulldogs are all "keepers". I guess most of them are because for many breeders, the goal and desire and vision for thier program is sooo low that all they want is head, muscle, and bone. 3 things that are easily attained. "Culling the herd" is a popular term. It is a practice of removing the undesirable animals that dont best represent the breed or species. farmers do it, ranchers do it, breeders do it, scientists do it, mother nature does it, God does it. The reason (IMO) for culling in dogs is that the dogs being removed display traits of health, temperament, stabilty, drive, or conformation that are undesirable in the line or the breed.One bad apple ruins the whole barrel! Culling can only be done by taking the dogs life. Culling is a necessary means of bettering the breed, the bloodline,a kennel, and a communtiy. There are a few, safe, sane, legal, and sanitary ways to do it, which we will not discuss here. By culling, you will be bettering the breed & improving on the the quality of your bloodline by removing the dogs with undesirable traits. As years go by, you will begin to realize that you need to cull less and less. The fact that you breed "the best to the best" and cull those that stand in the way of that goal means that with every breeding and every culling your bloodline is improved. A good bulldog bloodline will not be created in 1,2, or even 3 years. It takes alot of time, alot of patience, and alot of work. Rome wasn't built in a day. However, i believe if we institute culling into a program, we will begin to see marked improvements. There is enough "pet only" dogs out there. A breeders goal should not be to make good looking pets. Our goal should be to improve the breed, thats just my opinion.
Culling should be done on dogs and pups that display negative health or temperament issues that will affect the breed, the bloodline, and quality of life for the dog. Freezing, needles to the heart, drowning, are all inhumane and foolish ways of culling.