If your first inclination when purchasing a dog is to buy an all-breed book and begin flipping through the pages to find "the right breed" for you, you are already making a mistake.
The goal of all-breed books is to fill your mind with a romantic ideal of a brand-name dog.
The danger in doing this is that once you get this picture locked in your head, you have already "chosen your breed," which means you have rejected healthy non-pedigree dogs without even considering them.
It also means you have probably chosen a canine registry.
With breed and "registration papers" occupying the first and second slots in your priority list, gender and coat color typically fill slots three and four.
That means health and temperament fall to level five and six.
No wonder so many people end up with unhealthy dogs!
Remember that all-breed books are the dog market equivalent of a sales brochure; they offer lovely pictures and descriptive puffery, but they are not Consumers Report magazine.
You would not buy a car based on a sales brochure. Why are you buying a dog this way?
As for Kennel Club show dogs, remember the scoring system used by the Kennel Club:
- ZERO POINTS for health
. - ZERO POINTS for temperament
. - ZERO POINTS for work.
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