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Showing results for tags 'price vs health/longivity'.
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Recently talking with some breeders and trainers, there seemed to be an attitude that working dogs don't make it past 4-5 years so why bother with health testing of dogs? don't know about them, but I want my working dog to live a bit longer than 4-5 years. And I want to be sure that dog can hear, move without pain, see where it is going and live to a ripe old age. Now, I would NEVER advocate selection for health over working ability, but if all the really good working dogs are not tested then where will the breed end up in 20-30 years from now? Yes, testing will increase price on pups, BUT if that dog lives longer and is useful for 2-3 times the cheaper dog, then isn't it worth it? And it can take 3-4 years to get a dog trained up to a high level of usefulness, so I would not want to have to discard a working dog just as it hits it's peak, nor would I want the dog to die just as it is getting good. Additionally it seems if people were more willing to pay more for a working pup then they might consider better care for the dog and it might make it to a ripe old age.
