Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello - have you seen this dogs' parents? Most good pedigree breeders will show you their facilities and animals very happily. They tend to be associated with just one or two sorts of dog. When this doesn't happen, there is always some suspicion - when animals are sold singly from a car, for example -that the they might not be telling the truth and that the puppy is a different sort of dog to that expected, or has dubious origins. My understanding is that some Portugese water dog breeders boast 'chocolate' or near-white variations, but the only way to know where the kennel club stand on this eg for showing purposes would be to consult them. I wonder whether the variations encounter more physical problems later in life? Breed is a strange concept, analogous to race in humans; I understood its purpose back in the days when animals were being bred for particular functions eg ratting or rounding up sheep. However most dogs are now bred as pets and this particular vet beleives that breeding animals for their shape or coat colour, or to have particular bolidily characteristics, is reducing the quality of our canine stock, not enhancing it. We should be selecting dogs based on their health. Therefore it is possible that I am not the right vet to answer this question.
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