Shiba breeding in Slovakia


author: Tibor Tóth

The Shiba breed in Slovakia is under the auspices of the Slovak Club of Nordic and Japanese breeds (abbreviation in Slovak - SKSJP), which is a social, interest organization. The address of HQ is Krčméryho 146, 038 21 Mošovce. The club was established at the constituent meeting on November 23rd in 1991. The club brings together breeders, owners and friends of Nordic and Japanese breeds. The aim of the club is to breed pure-bred dogs, while maintaining biological health, characteristics and breed-specific characteristics. Also improving, popularizing, training, presentation of Slovak offspring abroad, informing members about breeding and use of breeds in our country and abroad. The club is responsible for breeding breeds under their patronage in the Slovak Republic and determines the conditions of their breeding while adhering to the standards and their updates. In Slovakia, more than 460 individuals are registered in stud book - most of them are Slovak born puppies in Slovak kennels, a minority are import dogs from abroad. It is a considerable disproportion to our neighbors in the Czech Republic - there are more than 2900 individuals registered in the stud book. Even in relation to the representatives of breed Akita are Shiba "lagging" - Akita representatives registered in Slovakia (puppies + imports) are already more than 1,700.


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Photo: Dominika Paučová, male:  Urayasu Wakizashi of Tianito


Club annually organizes Club and Special dog show, two bonitations, dog sled race, issues Club Yearbook, which receives each member of the Club. Bonitation (when dog/bitch becoming a stud dog/bitch) takes place after club / special show. The club annually awards the prizes of Slovak Beauty Champions, Slovak Junior Beauty Champions, organizes, evaluates and rewards the competition for Club Champions, Club Young Champions and Ranking winners. The Club Code of Conduct controls and directs the breeding of Nordic breeds, ie. Alaskan Malamute, Greenland Dog and Siberian Husky, as well as breeding Japanese breeds such as Akita, Shiba and Hokkaido. It directs the development of breeding dogs of the breeds mentioned in accordance with their FCI standards. These statutes are compulsory for all breeders of Nordic and Japanese breeds with a pedigree issued by a stud book recognized by the FCI (Slovak Stud Book). Anyone who is breeding these breeds is obliged to acquire the breeding rules of the club, ignorance is not justified. The breeding adviser, elected by the club committee from experienced and professionally competent club members, has an important role in breeding. The breeding adviser ensures proper management and guidance of breeding. His responsibilities include the processing and archiving of all breeding documents, such as copies of pedigrees and bonitation cards. In addition, it also issues and archives recommendations for mating, as well as making suggestions for decommissioning of non-conforming representatives. Adviser breeding is also obliged to check the litter, up to 6 weeks of puppies’ age. Adviser also draws attention to various shortcomings and mistakes of the breed representatives. He is intended to help novice breeders and provide them with useful and practical advice. His duty is to remind the breeder how to remove deficiencies found on puppies or bitch. It should also check the implanted chip numbers. Chiping is carried out by a veterinarian selected by the breeder and who confirm the chip numbers in the application for entry puppies in the stud book.


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photo: Saskia.photography


In the breeding of the Nordic and Japanese breeds, including the Shiba, it is applied purposeful breeding, which implies that the breeding is managed and directed by the club through the breeding adviser. Only breeding representatives with a pedigree that meet all the conditions laid down in the club's statutes may be used. There are two types of breeding. The first is controlled breeding, in which Shiba successfully passed the breeding test, at the club or special show got the award "excellent" or "very good" and reached the age limit of 15 months. The second is selective breeding, for which there are similar criteria, with the difference that the bred dogs of the kennel received the title "interchampion". In this case, if the breeder decided to choose to mate such individuals that could seriously endanger the breeding, the breeding adviser is obliged to notify him of this fact.

During breeding, club members are strictly forbidden to breed a Shiba that the club has removed from breeding or which has been bonitated in another country. The term stud dog or stud bitch refers to an representative of a breed that is enlisted in a stud book recognized by the FCI as a stud dog / bitch. Of course, the main conditions for the inclusion of Shiba in breeding include purebred representative, which is confirmed by a pedigree issued by a stud book recognized by the FCI registration number SPKP. The representative should successfully complete bonitation from the age of 12 months. If the bonitation was successful, the bonitation committee confirms the inclusion of an representative in breeding by “Breeding card” and is subsequently entered the word “stud” in the pedigree. Excluded or suspended from breeding are those representatives of the breed, which often and demonstrably occur substantial exterior and character errors such as atypicality, cryptorchism, lack of teeth, deafness and so on. Bitches on the day of reaching the age of 8 are excluded from breeding. However, the breeder may apply for an extension of the breeding by 1 year.

Exclusion of the dog or bitches or suspension of their breeding shall be carried out by the Club Committee on a reasoned proposal by the breeding adviser. The Club Committee shall notify its decision in writing to the stud book and the owner. Individuals on which surgery has been performed to remove or mask an anatomical or exterior defect may not be included in the breeding. The prerequisite for the admission of a dog or a bitch to bonitation is first of all to obtain the prescribed show valuation, i. from special or club show with excellent or very good rating, regardless of the age from 12 months of dog and bitch. The individual must also receive a show award from an international show with a rating of excellent or very good, regardless of the class from the age of 12 months.

It is also important to reach the prescribed age limit, which is 12 months for Shiba. DNA test performed in UPZ SR Nitra or Vetgene / Medgene s.r.o. For Shibas, the Club requires hip dysplasia X-ray (grade A and B are acceptable) and knee joint examination (grade 0 and 1 are acceptable).


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photo: Tibor Tóth, kennel Wakizashi of Tianito


Slovak Club of Nordic and Japanese breeds is one of the few that takes a sample of blood, hair, saliva into the DNA database of breeding individuals. Objective control of the origin of animals is a prerequisite for an effective breeding program, therefore, worldwide diagnostic methods are given particular attention. Their aim is to determine or to unambiguously confirm the animal-related family relationships reported by the breeder. Until recently, questions of identifying and verifying parenthood have been addressed by classical testing of blood groups, serum proteins and isoenzymes, but in many cases the application of these types of polymorphism did not allow definitive conclusions. The International Society of Animal Genetics (I.S.A.G.) has been established to control and exchange information between laboratories carrying out verification of origin. One of the advantages of this association is the development of a uniform method for the identification of animals, which entails the possibility of buying and selling animals from abroad. Our laboratory of genetics is registered in ISAG and is an active member. Adviser breeding issues a permit, which is the basic breeding document. The permit must be filled even if both breeding representatives belong to one owner. If the mating has not been authorized, the owner is obliged to return the admission permit to the breeding adviser who issued it not later than 14 days after the end of the heat of the bitch. Without this document, mating cannot take place. The breeding adviser is obliged to check the records of the breeding conditions in the copy of the pedigree certificates of the breeding individuals before it is issued. The same applies to both breeding bitches and breeding dogs.

A very important step in breeding is mating. It is inadmissible to mate one stud bitch with two stud dogs during one heat. Puppies from this litter will not be entered in the stud book and disciplinary proceedings against the breeder will be initiated. Natural coverage may be replaced by insemination. It must be transferred by a specialist veterinarian who will record this in the admission permit. (Insemination can only be performed with a stud bitch that has already had litter after natural mating.)

A stud bitch may have three litters within two calendar years, but after two litters, the breeder is obliged to skip one mating. After the birth breeder is obliged to notify the registered litter to the breeding adviser within 5 days. Adviser will carry out litter control in terms of compliance with the provisions of these breeding rules. In addition, breeder is obliged to report the birth of the puppies to the owner of the stud dog within 5 days after giving birth, stating the number of puppies born and their sex. If the mating was not successful and a stud bitch don’t give a birth, the breeder should inform the owner of the stud dog and the breeding adviser no later than 14 days after the date of the expected litter. In principle, one litter control is required up to the age of 6 weeks of age.


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photo: Saskia.photography, female: Uma od Troch tabiel


The breeder will register the litter by the age of 6 weeks of puppies at the latest. The litter must be registered all at once, additional reporting of puppies is inadmissible. The stud book then enroll the litter and issues puppies' pedigree. They must be at least 8 weeks old at the time of handing over the puppies to the new owner, be able to eat independently and be vaccinated at least once. If some of the pups do not meet these requirements, the breeder cannot give such a puppy to the new owner. Control committee of breeding activities, selected from the committee members has the right to carry out litter control at the breeder up to the age of 7 weeks of puppies without a pre-agreed date with the breeding adviser and breeder. The breeder is obliged to allow the litter control to the commission. Disciplinary proceedings will be initiated with the breeder in case of deficiencies and non-fulfillment of breeding duties as well as offenses against breeding rules.

Only individuals after the age of 15 months, Shiba breed 12 months, can be bonitated. As regards the age limit for breeding use of Shiba, the minimum age required for both controlled and selective breeding is 15 months of age after all the required breeding conditions are met. Participation in bonitation is one of the conditions for Shiba to become stud in SKSJP. The aim of bonitation is to gain knowledge about the exterior and character traits of dogs presented, their shortcomings and errors compared to the breed standard. The judging of dogs on the bonitations can be performed only by a judge with the necessary qualifications, delegated through SKJ (Slovenská kynologická jednota). The evaluation committee, which is at least three members, consists of a delegated referee, breed advisers and a committee member. All members of the committee evaluate the dog at all times, cooperate and determine the evaluation and decide on the inclusion of the dog in breeding.

The evaluation of the exterior and nature by means of breeding codes is entered into the breeding card, indicating whether or not the individual fulfilled the breeding conditions. In case that all breeding conditions are fulfilled, the dog / bitch becomes stud. In the event of a disqualifying defect out of breeding, the exact reason shall be given and the statement shall be non-stud. The result of the bonitation is confirmed by the signatures of all members and the stamp of the SKSJP. Successful completion of bonitation is a prerequisite for the inclusion of a dog or a bitch in breeding. Only healthy individuals can participate in bonitation and is performed once in the life of the animal.

The result and decision on the breeding of an representative is irrevocably valid. The bonitation code is based on the rating in the bonitation card and characterizes the representative in all respects. The representative is rated by numbers from 0 to 9. For inclusion in a dog can have a rating of 0 to 4, if it appears 5 and above, he is rated as non-stud. It is important to highlight that cryptorchism and monorchism are a disincentive. In the case of bitches, a score of 0 to 6 is accepted. If it appears 7 and above, it is decommissioned from breeding.


 
 

Photo: Tibor Tóth, CHS Wakizashi of Tianito