The Never Ending Dog Mission?
We are aiming for preserving many generations of healthy, characterful, beautiful and breed-typical White Swiss Shepherds. Dogs, which people are happy with and which guarantee the continuity and survival of the White Swiss Shepherd (WSS).
The Never Ending Dog Why?
The breed is in trouble. With a closed stud book the % of inbreeding is rising (average coefficient of inbreeding- COI - is 27%) and the diversity within the breed decreases rapidly. Most breeders in the USA are doing nothing about it. They just keep breeding with the same studs over and over again. Even if the studs are dead they are still studded because their frozen semen is still available.
Since 2018 the average age of this beautiful breed also decreased from 12-14 years to 11-13 years today. How is that even possible? With better medical care, food, information, etc the average age should increase, like with humans, not decrease. We also see that the average number of pups per litter are down, especially here in the USA. Research shows that inbreeding and lack of diversity is a mayor cause of this phenomenon.
It's time that some one stands up and puts a stop to this. And that some one might as well be me. I want to put my time, my energy, money and love in preserving the breed. Into making sure that the breed will be here not only coming decade, but also in a 100 years, 200 years maybe. Because this breed deserves it; heck we deserve to keep this breed as a companion, a family friend even over 100 and 200 years!
Since 2018 the average age of this beautiful breed also decreased from 12-14 years to 11-13 years today. How is that even possible? With better medical care, food, information, etc the average age should increase, like with humans, not decrease. We also see that the average number of pups per litter are down, especially here in the USA. Research shows that inbreeding and lack of diversity is a mayor cause of this phenomenon.
It's time that some one stands up and puts a stop to this. And that some one might as well be me. I want to put my time, my energy, money and love in preserving the breed. Into making sure that the breed will be here not only coming decade, but also in a 100 years, 200 years maybe. Because this breed deserves it; heck we deserve to keep this breed as a companion, a family friend even over 100 and 200 years!
Water management in The Netherlands
The similarities between our breed and living under sea level are becoming clear when I think about the Dutch Watersnoodramp in 1953.
In the Netherlands we live below sea level. Below sea level? Who does that, you might wonder? Well almost 18 million people decided it is a good place to live. These 18 million people are not afraid of the water, they don't go to bed every night with the thought that the waterworks like the dykes, storm barriers, dunes, locks and sand barriers might 'break' and they all will drown. And why is that? Because since people started to live below sea level, energy, money and effort was put in preventing that the water from the sea flows into the land. Like what happened in 1953, the Dutch Watersnoodramp with a little less than 1900 casualties.
Since then the Dutch have put even more money, effort and energy in making sure a disaster with such a devastating consequence will never happen again.
The similarities between our breed and living under sea level are becoming clear when I think about the Dutch Watersnoodramp in 1953.
In the Netherlands we live below sea level. Below sea level? Who does that, you might wonder? Well almost 18 million people decided it is a good place to live. These 18 million people are not afraid of the water, they don't go to bed every night with the thought that the waterworks like the dykes, storm barriers, dunes, locks and sand barriers might 'break' and they all will drown. And why is that? Because since people started to live below sea level, energy, money and effort was put in preventing that the water from the sea flows into the land. Like what happened in 1953, the Dutch Watersnoodramp with a little less than 1900 casualties.
Since then the Dutch have put even more money, effort and energy in making sure a disaster with such a devastating consequence will never happen again.
And so if we don't do anything about preserving the White Swiss Shepherd, this breed will, just like the people in The Netherlands will without water management, cease to exist. Something we have to prevent at all costs.
