- Here is a link about dog food and pet insurance that is very help full. I highly recommend reading and passing it on to other dog owners. This is a non bias report on today's dog food and pet insurance industry.
- www.consumersadvocate.org/dog-food
- Pugs are somewhat active and are naturally curious.
- Pugs do shed but with monthly bathing it can be minimized.
Testing and bettering the pug breed is our primary goal at Skyhawk Kennels
Here at Skyhawk Kennels we have done much genetic test IE< PDE, Pug myelopathy, hips and knees. We are very comfortable with our results.
For many years now we have been working with the number one problem with pugs and that is their breathing. Pugs are a brachycephalic breed which means their snout is short with a short airway. This condition is found in Bulldogs, English Mastiffs, Chins Shih tzu and so on.
We found early on in our breeding days that over generations of pugs that show ring judges preferred the pushed in noses of the pugs, so naturally a lot of the pug breeders bred for this.
At Skyhawks Kennels Bill and Lesa are realist and decided to what is best for the breed.
We have read many books on the heritage of the breed and found out that back in the 1800's pugs actually had a
longer snout and were a bit more leggy than pugs of today. I challenge you to google a 1800's picture of a pug and see for yourself. We have been working on improving the breathing now for over 15 years and have made great progress.
The process is simple. We breed a mom and dad with a slightly less punched in snout to one another and then keep back some of the pups with the same feature. Then when those pups get a couple of years old do the same thing with another bloodline. It's working, we really see it with our apricots and the fawns and blacks are close behind. We get many past customers that have adopted one of our pups and we repeatedly hear about how good their breathing is and many comment that their vet has made comments on how well bred their pug is. So in short if you really want a pug that snores because it's cute we may not be for you.
We have the American Kennel Club rep here every couple of years . They can see the difference in our progress and we pleaded our case but so far no action has been taken. The show ring appearance will change someday we just hope that we are still around to see it happen.
The one thing we don't do is breed the so called pugs of color, ie, white, brindle, grey and the new chocolate. While these are beautiful looking pugs we know that the bloodlines have been tampered with somewhere down the line to get these colors. Most have been bred to either French Bulldogs, Bostons and others. The one thing that makes a pug a pug is their personality and we are a bit concerned that by breeding to other breeds that this trait could be altered. We are sure some would disagree but like I said previously, Bill and Lesa are realist and do what we know works.
