Many people have a simplistic idea about breeding dogs. You have a bitch, it comes into season, you find a dog from down the road to mate with her and the rest is history. The mother has a litter of puppies and after 8 weeks you turn them into cash. If only!

In my opinion regarding the breeding of wire haired fox terriers, you firstly look at the reasons why you think the breed would benefit. Have you done your due diligence in ensuring that a good temperament, stature and health would be imparted to any resulting puppies?

It is essential that before mating is considered that both dogs inbred coefficients are checked on the Kennel Clubs Inbred Coefficient Calculator. Ideally no mating should take place where the projected puppied coefficient score is above 8%.

It doesn’t matter how lovely and well tempered your dog or bitch is, you need to check that possible genetic issues aren’t present in you dog. It is important you have your dog DNA tested for conditions such as PLL and VDEGS and other canine sexual health diseases such as Canine Brucellosis, Chlamydia, Herpes and others. BOTH parties should have their dogs checked for these conditions before any mating takes place.