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Looking for a Eurasier breeder in the UK, North
America (USA, Canada) or anywhere else in the world?
First and foremost, please find out if a Eurasier is the right
breed for you, by studying good resources and especially by meeting with a few
owners of Eurasiers and by experiencing this breed live. Carefully consider your lifestyle
and the polite reserve of this breed before making your decision. Do you have
the necessary time especially during the first few weeks and months in the life
of such a puppy - for successful socialization, imprinting, bonding and building
up trust? Can you offer
this special dog a loving home and all the attention and care it needs for all
its life, for 14 (and hopefully
even more) years?
Please remember: If, for any reason,
circumstances arise and you can no longer keep your beloved Eurasier,
please contact your breeder ! Your breeder will try and help, and also
knows about Eurasier Rescue, which is run
by dedicated, caring people in the various Eurasier Clubs. Your breeder and/or Eurasier Rescue will help you, either by giving advice, taking
the Eurasier back, and/or looking for a loving, new home. Please never, ever
give a Eurasier into a shelter!
Eurasiers are family dogs, meant to be kept as a beloved pet in
their family for all their life. Accordingly, a Eurasier should only be
bred by its family, with tender loving care, time, devotion and knowledge, on a small scale, and in accordance with the FCI standard.
Please look for
such a dedicated family breeder, who keeps his Eurasier as
a beloved pet in the family, only has a litter occasionally and had all the
required veterinary health checks done, which are - at least - for HD, patella, and an eye
examination (especially for distichiasis, ectropion and entropion). Some
Eurasier breeders will also have the elbows checked. The assessment of TLI values
(e.g. exocrine pancreatic insufficiency) is also recommended. Having a thyroid
panel done from time to time, might also be a good idea. Only such Eurasiers should be bred
that have passed the health checks with fairly good results and have been
assessed by a breed specialist as a good specimen of the breed (health,
appearance and character). For such an
assessment, a judge or "Koermeister" should have sufficient time to
see and experience a Eurasier "live" and also have the possibility to ask
the owners a lot of questions concerning this Eurasier. There are three German
Eurasier clubs (EKW, ZG, and KZG, all three are members of the German
Kennel Club VDH/FCI). In these clubs Eurasiers undergo a special assessment procedure, which is called Zuchttauglichkeitsprüfung (ZTP); this is an
aptitude test that goes into great
detail and gives much more insight about our Eurasiers than a few minutes in a
show-ring ever could.
Concerning breeding, in the
three Eurasier Clubs of the VDH/FCI, HD A or B are acceptable for breeding, in exceptional cases
a breeding board might also allow a C1, in which case a lot of other very good points
back such a decision. In such an
exceptional case, a C1 should be
mated with an A hip. For patella, 0 is preferred, in exceptional cases also 1, whereby 1 should preferably be
mated with 0. In case one partner has slight distichiasis, the
other should be free. Breeding boards can have reasons to grant exceptions as
they have insight into the details of all the relatives concerned and also
monitor the results of the offspring. For sound breeding, it is not sufficient to only know
the health data of the parents :
Sound mating choices can only be made if the data of both sire and dam, their litter
mates, their parents, aunts, uncles,
grandparents and their siblings can be assessed as well. If sire or dam have already
had offspring, assessing these is also important. The more relatives and the
more generations can be included in such an assessment, the better!
All this data is vital for sound
breeding. So, even if you are not planning to breed your Eurasier later on, please be willing
to have your own Eurasier undergo these health checks once your Eurasier
is old enough. Also, please inform your breeder and breeding club about the
health results, as the data of preferably all litter mates is needed. A good breeder
will be happy to show you the results and to
explain more about the background why this mating was planned. Apart from health,
there are many other things that call for attention in breeding, such as e.g.
character, appearance, good pigment, complete set of teeth, correctly set
prick ears, coat, etc., etc. Breeding is all about improving the breed by promoting
many good points and complementing or balancing a few other points that might
need improvement. No dog is perfect and no dog has perfect ancestors. Despite all
these precautions, nobody can
give a guarantee for good health. But, these precautions have successfully
helped to keep the
percentage of health issue occurances at a comparably low percentage. Please accept that Eurasiers are a part of nature, and
that nature has its very own plan at times.
Please make sure both sire and dam (and the puppies!!!) are
properly registered with the appropriate Kennel Club. For example, in
Germany this would be with the German Kennel Club VDH / FCI via one of the
three
German Eurasier Clubs (EKW, ZG, and KZG). Breeding is directed and
controlled in these three German Eurasier clubs. Please beware, there are breeders OUTSIDE of the German Kennel
Club VDH that might try and sell you a Eurasier-mongrel or one of those Eurasiers
that originate from non-controlled breeding. These "dissident
breeders" might even state they will give you "papers". Such
papers are not acknowledged. There are reciprocal agreements between FCI (to
which the German Kennel Club VDH belongs), AKC, CKC
and the Kennel Club UK, and thus only "original papers" from the VDH in
Germany will be accepted. On the other hand, please also be aware
that when buying your Eurasier in another country, mere membership to FCI, AKC, CKC,
the Kennel Club UK, etc., is NOT sufficient and no guarantee. In your own interest, and most importantly in the interest of this wonderful breed, please make sure
that a Eurasier breeder you are planning to buy from, is reputable and that "Ethics", "Eurasier
Philosophy", also called the "Eurasier Way", are not just written
on paper, but are actually abided to.
In
the original Eurasier clubs in Germany (EKW, ZG and KZG) there is usually somebody in
charge as puppy referral, who also keeps a Eurasier puppy waiting list. This is
your point of contact,
here you can get first hand information. They will try and answer your questions,
about their club, their regulations, their Eurasiers, their puppies, their
breeding policy, etc.
Always visit the breeder, the mom and the puppies and see how they
are raised and socialised. Getting to know each other that way is also fun. Please, do not promote "commercial"
breeders, who breed for profit and/or large style.
Also,
please do not promote those who keep dogs in kennels or crates. Eurasiers do not
belong in a crate nor in a kennel. Always
bear in mind that Eurasiers are family dogs who have their very own and special personality.
They are reserved to
strangers, which simply means they would like to keep a small distance to
strangers. They bond early and very closely
to their family, and here they enjoy being cuddled. They want to be a full member of their family and live in a
close relationship with their
family.
If you are interested in a genuine Eurasier, please do not rush
into it, study and learn first. Try to meet and experience a few Eurasiers with
their owners first. There is a book
about the Eurasier by Annelie Feder and other Eurasier experts, including Gisela Aach,
the Head of the ZG Breeding Board (see EKW, Eurasiers
Today: The book is in German, but at the EKW you can get the English translation
separately with the German book).
Additionally, study the websites of the original Eurasier Clubs
in the German Kennel Club VDH / FCI
- ZG
Zuchtgemeinschaft für Eurasier e.V.
- EKW
Eurasier-Klub e.V., Sitz Weinheim
- KZG Kynologische
Zuchtgemeinschaft Eurasier e.V.
Following an initiative of the ZG, a few
very dedicated Eurasier clubs in the FCI joined together
in the
- IFEZ,
the International Federation for Eurasier Breeding in the FCI.
Especially for North America you will find information
here:
- United
States Eurasier Club (USEC),
e.g. Northstar
Eurasiers in the USA ;
- Eurasier Club of
Canada (ECC),
e.g. Mac
Arras Brook Eurasiers and Edelweiss
Eurasiers in Canada ;
For Great Britain you can find information here:
- Eurasier Society of UK
(ESUK)
Eurasiers are a German dog breed. It is worth studying
the history "Origins and History of Eurasiers"
written by Alfred Mueller on the
website of the Eurasier Club Zuchtgemeinschaft fuer Eurasier e.V.
. In this history you will find indepth information how the breed Eurasier was developed,
which people were involved (e.g. Konrad Lorenz, Julius Wipfel, Charlotte
Baldamus) and why there are three official Eurasier Clubs in the VDH in Germany
today. These three Eurasier
clubs in Germany have slightly different approaches, but they all built up on
the same fundament = philosophy.
From
the beginning, Julius Wipfel, the founder of this German breed, wanted to
safeguard the wellbeing of this special dog; and so he
designed a sort of philosophy concerning how to care, keep and breed
Eurasiers as family dogs.
He laid out his far-reaching thoughts and ideals in his book
"Eurasier", which was first published in 1974. Wipfel had also read the books written by
Prof. Dr. Konrad Lorenz, the famous man, who had
once found out so much about animals and their instincts, and who himself got
his Eurasier "Nanette vom Jägerhof" in 1972 from Charlotte
Baldamus. Charlotte Baldamus, with her Jägerhof
Eurasier kennel in Mittelberg, was one of the
most important breeders involved in the creation of Eurasiers. She, too, had clear ideals for this
breed. Of course, time
did not stand still, science and our knowledge have progressed since then. But this philosophy - designed to
safeguard the wellbeing of Eurasiers, physically and mentally - still builds a sound fundament for the
breed. I would like to recommend all Eurasier fanciers in the world to try and learn more about
this philosophy.
Now, if everybody would adhere to the FCI standard and would follow this
philosophy, life would be easy. This
is (mostly) the case in the FCI Eurasier clubs in German speaking countries such as Germany,
Austria, Switzerland, and also the other members who joined the IFEZ =
International Federation for Eurasier Breeding http://www.ifez-eurasier.com/ifezengl.htm .
Via the common language German, a lot of the original ideas
were transmitted into those Eurasier clubs. The quality rules written down by IFEZ
are, of course, only the lowest common denominator between the members.
Just for instance, see the breeding rules in the Zuchtgemeinschaft fuer Eurasier
e.V., ZG, which I summarized in Eurasier
Puppies, Eurasier Breeders, Breeding.
Not all countries or Breed Clubs follow similar ideals. In many
countries there is no directed breeding, breeders are free to do as they like,
health checks are not mandatory, breeders can keep large numbers of dogs, they
use a sort of kenneling, they can have up to ten litters per year (!!!), and so
on ... All this is not in line with the original philosophy.
If you are looking for a genuine Eurasier, turn to a breeder who
fully respects this very unique and special family dog, who fully adheres to the
FCI Standard 291, who appreciates the special reserved character of this breed and
who follows the original Eurasier philosophy as laid out right from the
beginning by the founders.
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