Breeding guidelines

The goal of the PSM breed community is to have healthy dogs with structure that is fit for function. 

 

Unlike many breeds that are more internationally established with large populations, the smaller size of our community enables us to pay closer attention to the quality of dogs in our population. 

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We have a breeding committee that includes PSM breeders who are also veterinarians and international dog show judges who bring decades of experience and specialised expertise into initiatives such as the Polish Hunting Spaniel Database. 

 

The database aims to help to collect the largest amount of data and pedigrees of Polish Hunting Spaniel Dogs, to have the best knowledge of the breed, to help breeders with planning their litters and the owners with discovering ancestors of their dogs. This database can e.g. be used to plan matings with the help of COI (inbreeding coefficient), Ancestor Loss Ratio, and Kinship Ratio as well as health testing results. 

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Due to the small size of our population, the studbook is not yet closed and carefully planned outcrossings are part of the breeding programme to ensure genetic diversity. Our breed community also works closely with e.g. researchers at the University of Warsaw on the genetics of the breed*. Thanks to the careful selection of founding dogs, preliminary evidence suggests there are currently no known hereditary issues with the breed and as such testing for e.g. PRA is not required. 

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* Research will be made available as soon as it is in the public domain - however, the process of scientific publication is slow. Please ask if you are interested and we will try to find answers!​