Teeth

[jay123]

Hi I am. New to this forum I am a hobby breeder, I recently bought a working cocker 13 weeks old and have just noticed she is about 1mm undershot but only slightly on the left to, right side to front is ok. Does antone lnow if this is likely to correct? As I wanted her for breeding.
Also how does the breeding standard differ from show cocker and working cocker?
Thanks for any advise Jay.

[JohnW]

I would think long and hard about breeding from a dog with an undershot Jaw, even as you say its only very slightly, Have you had this problem confirmed by your vet? ...... Have you had a word with the breeder of your pup?, this may be a hereditary problem. There is no real official breed standard for working lines, however many working breeders do breed for different aims and like working cocker's to be of varying sizes, probably why some working cocker's are huge and some are tiny. And varying amounts of working drives. However most breeders will only use breeding pairs that are from healthy dogs with no physical defects...... and I am sorry to say an undershot jaw is a defect.  It may correct in time but a word with your breeder may be the best action and find out if this is hereditary.  

As a future breeder you dont want to labelled a bad breeder as knowing you have past this problem down to new generations of pups.  

[Helen]

Jaw aside, I'm not sure why you're considering breeding from this pup if she's an unknown quantity..surely the intention for breeding is to improve the breed so you would need to at least know she's a proven worker in the field before considering a litter?

[Jane S]

At 13 weeks, it's really too early to say for sure the bite is incorrect - bites can and do change with age so you'd need to wait until adult teeth are through and check again then. If still undershot (and sadly undershot bites are probably the least likely to come right although it does occasionally happen), then you should not breed from her - faulty bites usually are genetic in origin and will pass on to subsequent generations (which is why once you have bad bites in a line, they are v difficult to get rid of) However this won't prevent you training her up etc as presumably you did not buy this puppy just for breeding purposes.

[Eve]

Totally agree with all that has been said. Also, you need to study breeding lines of good quality dogs, see what lines gel. It's something of a bee in my bonnet as the idea is to create a good breeding line that people want your puppies.

Eve

PS I've only bred in golden retrievers but our code of conduct is very strict on this.

[JennyBee]

Another definite no here, I'm afraid, as my girl has an undershot jaw - it was going to be so much a problem that she had to have some teeth removed. The vet said if this wasn't done there was a big chance of her jaw twisting when she was older . It still affects her to the point where she doesn't like picking up anything heavy or too big and one of her canines is stunted. It can have a big effect on a dog's health, so IMO it's just not worth it