Pleasant Meadows

Dogs bred from a health tested family line allow a breeder to have comprehensive knowledge of the traits, characteristics, and potential health concerns in their lines that exist outside of testable diseases as they see the results from each highly selectively bred line through multiple generations.  Traits that were desirable in the great, great, grandparents can still be seen in the great, great, grandchildren when selective multi-generations of dogs are bred together.  

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To be *CLEAR*, dogs bred from a family line are *NOT* inbred dogs.  Any breeder in-breeding their dogs whether pure or mixed-breed should be considered highly unethical as doing so creates health issues and is what compounds health problems within breeds.  In fact in-breeding is what has caused so many of the health concerns in the *purebred Cavalier King Charles Spaniel* because too many breeders have bred for demand and not for health.

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A family line is selecting a healthy dog of sound body, mind and temperament that displays the traits and characteristics wanted for the future which is then bred with another unrelated dog of comparable traits or ones that compliment or improve the other dog in some way (all after appropriate health screening). A breeder would then keep a puppy back for breeding from that pairing that displayed or improved upon those desirable traits and after completing further genetic health screening to ensure each generation is healthy, that dog would then be bred to another unrelated dog that displayed the correct desirable traits and further health screening would be completed.

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A family line refers to breeding a Cavapoo to breeding dogs from that particular health tested and trusted line to other unrelated dogs (whether Cavapoo or Poodle) over several generations in order to balance both between the ratio of Cavalier and Poodle while keeping healthy dogs back and still adding in new blood into the lines to retain genetic diversity and *avoid and never* inbreed.  Remember the goal is not to create a breed, but keep a balance of health and temperament.

 

This would be done repeatedly over several generations which creates consistency and predictability of temperament, health, demeanor, energy, and so much more!  Traits and characteristics that we personally chose to breed for over a decade ago can still be seen in our puppies being produced today.

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We have personally chosen through further educating ourselves to ebb and flow between adding in more Poodle influence and more Cavalier influence (a lower generation Cavapoo from health tested line) in alternating generations founded on breeding strategies to minimize diseases within a breeding line as referenced by the afore mentioned scholars.  This method allows for new bloodlines to be added into an established genetically healthy line by keeping back dogs from the established line to retain all the advantages of the health, temperament, traits and characteristics bred into that line along with breeder knowledge of that lineage / family tree and therefore maintain predictability for future out-crosses.  The new bloodlines being introduced should ideally be clear, but through breeder knowledge of their bloodlines (also verified through genetic testing) a dog that is a "perfect specimen" in every way except for one or two carried faults could be added to the established family line to avoid narrowing of the genetic gene pool *if the established family line does not carry for those faults*, thus allowing the breeder to improve genetic diversity while retaining specific traits and maintaining a healthy lineage. 

 

The following comment has been made by corresponding author Dr. Lindsay Farrell regarding the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute's published review on Canine Genetics and Epidemiology:

 

“Although carrying a specific genetic variant may raise the likelihood that an animal will suffer from the associated disease, it is not guaranteed. When making breeding decisions, genetic testing needs to be considered alongside health screening and family history. That will help to keep as much genetic diversity as possible in our pedigree dogs and, at the same time, reduce the prevalence of inherited diseases.”

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It has never been our goal here at Pleasant Meadows to make the Cavapoo cross-breed into a "breed", but instead provide a healthy alternative to the *purebred* Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (because it is a *very unhealthy* breed).  This is done to provide a balance between the Cavalier and Poodle as maintaining both purebred parent breeds is still very important. We have focused on the health and temperament of our lines and have post secondary education and credits in Animal Sciences and have studied genetics and disease inheritance in order to apply that knowledge to breeding the healthiest dogs within our ability -- and we will never stop striving to learn more or trying to improve!

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Benefits of the a health tested Cavapoo from a trustworthy family line:

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• An extensive health history based on a minimum of 3 generations and breeder knowledge of the lines 

 

• The assurance of several generations from health tested and cleared dogs resulting in a healthier Cavapoo puppy from a trustworthy lineage that has been selectively bred for betterment of health through proactive health-screening (not reliant on the "fake" hybrid vigor)

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• Better predictability in temperament from a selectively bred lineage for traits that compliment each other to better the mixed-breed

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• Knowledge of traits, characteristics, and health from a committed breeder that has spent over a decade committed to bettering their dogs.  The time, passion, and research needed to achieve this goal can only come from those who love their dogs, and ultimately the proof will be in the puppies they produce.

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• Less chance of "wild card" mishaps in temperament or health issues. When a lineage has been bred for several generations for better temperament -- these traits are cemented in which creates predictability.  All testable disease and conditions are ruled out through health screening, and any un-testable diseases or conditions have a better chance of being exposed in prior generations over multiple years of breeding thus allowing a breeder to correct the issue by breeding away from that issue through out-crossing to different dogs.

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• A balanced family line also includes out-crossing from the established Cavapoo lineage (out-crossing means breeding to unrelated lines) to breed to either the Poodle or other Cavapoos to create health diversity within the line.  Two unrelated Cavapoo lines are often established, and any breeding dogs kept back for breeding are then bred to unrelated Poodles or the opposite unrelated Cavapoo line.  New Cavapoo and Poodle lines do also need to be periodically added, but those unrelated dogs can be bred back to the established Cavapoo family lines helping to maintain and refresh the long lineage of the family line while continually selecting breeding dogs for desired traits and good health.

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All in all, the established family line, being mostly devoid of the testable health issues associated with the *purebred* Cavalier King Charles Spaniel through selective breeding of health-clear dogs, is ethical compared to untested Cavapoos too closely related to the *purebred* Cavalier.

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The downside to untested first-generation crosses as it pertains the poor health in the *purebred* Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (not referring to other cross-breeds):

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• With each new purebred Cavalier added to a breeding line the risk of untestable diseases linked to the purebred Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is renewed with each first generation cross, regardless of the Poodles health.  It has already been proven through breeding studies done in the 2000's that untestable diseases like heart-disease in the purebred Cavalier (there are disease-detection tests through ECG's or auscultation for heart-disease and not disease-prevention tests) cannot be "fixed" by breeding healthy Cavaliers to other healthy Cavaliers as over 50% of the Cavalier population is affected by heart disease by six years of age (covered in material below).

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• Each new generation, which is every F1 puppy produced, is a genetic "wild card" in terms of both health and temperament.  There is no predictability of type as new purebred Cavalier King Charles Spaniels need to be used all the time whenever a female or male can no longer be bred, and this is also true for the Poodle once that dog is no longer able to be bred.  This is effectively, "starting over" with every pairing made or every few years once a female or male can no longer be bred and there is no stability in the resulting puppies.  From our personal experience from over a decade ago, back when we still bred F1 and F1B Cavapoos -- every single litter was different health wise, temperament wise, personality wise, and trait wise ... why? ... because the gene pool is wide open for everything to go horribly wrong or perfectly smooth.  Yes, "good" F1 and F1B puppies can be born in a litter, but you wouldn't want to be the person or family that received the puppy with all the health issues or all the temperament issues out of a litter of cute puppies.​

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The difference is ...

 

With the F1 or F1B Cavapoo there is the necessity to *start over* and add new Cavaliers or Poodle breeding dogs every time they are created, or every few years when breeding dogs are finished breeding, which means starting over and once again adding all the health risks from the purebred Cavalier, starting over with temperament traits because a new dog with entirely new variables is being bred, and opening up the gene pool for any and all of those unpredictable health and temperament traits from both the Cavalier and Poodle side that some breeders claim will be resolved by "fake" hybrid vigor.  Starting over means removing all predictability, period.  Even if a breeder keeps back health tested *purebred* Cavaliers from their own personal lines, studies done in the early 2000's show that heart disease is not resolved from Cavalier to Cavalier pairings no matter what disease prevention protocols are suggested or put in place. Only out-crossing to add new genes to fix the "faulty genes" in the Cavalier by out-crossing (breeding) to another breed who is absent of those "faulty genes" over multiple generations will allow breeders to breed away from disease.

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OR IN COMPARISON TO ...

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A family line where genetic health has been proven through genetic health testing and breeding away from undesirable traits and diseases has been established.  There is *no starting over*, but instead a trustworthy and predictable dog is kept back from that family line that displays the desirable traits the breeder is wanting to produce (good health and temperament) which provides stability based on the health and temperament history of that line, and then that dog is bred to another unrelated health tested Cavapoo or Poodle that displays the same traits that the breeder want to see in the continued future.  And when new unrelated blood by way of a health tested Cavapoo or Poodle is added, the dog is selected from another line with a lineage that has breed-appropriate health screening to maintain a continual level of health-cleared dogs to where it can be verified that there are no shared diseases or undesirable traits on both sides.  And consistency and balance of temperament and health is retained throughout the continued generations as the breeder selects for desired traits and quality of health by only pairing unrelated dogs that match their breeding goals with their established family line.  It is a balanced ebb and flow which requires an immense amount of time, education of genetics, a love for the dogs being produced and a commitment to only breed healthy dogs in order to produce the healthiest cross-breed Cavapoos possible and ultimately avoid heart-ache for families in the future. 

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And to be clear, this is not referring to any other breed or mixes outside of the Cavapoo, and is only based on approved breeding strategies to as it pertains to the poor health of the *purebred* Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Each breed or mix needs to be treated separately according to the health concerns within the parent breeds.