When Do You Know There are Too Few...??

I was wondering, throughout history dog breeds have been brought back from the brink of extinction, or thereabouts. When have people realised that this maybe the case And have acted on it and how have they brought breeds back? For instance the St Bernard is one such breed. Or do such detailed records not exist

Not sure about other breeds but here is the Chodsky http://psi.mysteria.cz/about-chodsky-pes.htm
The Official Breed club holds all records of the breeding programme.
http://www.kpchp.org/historie.html

Thanks for the links, will have a proper read later. Here are some pics I found:
http://www.chodskypes.cz/tapety-wallpapers.html

Lovely xxxxx

oooo...they are pretty, i bet i know a few people at my training club that would go ga-ga for these...thanks for the links.

If I'm reading it right these dogs werre not brought back from the brink of extinction...they are extinct and the modern dogs are 'recreations' of the breed.

Having read it I have to agree, they looked for dogs that 'looked' like the extincted dogs and then set about creating yet another designer dog. If the dog died out it obviously had problems so why try to recreate it?

To answer the OP I can't give numbers but if the breeders are all using the same studs or the same lines because there are not enough dogs on the ground to choose from and a large number of the pups bred are finishing up in shelters or with hereditary illness then perhaps the bred should be allowed to die out.

If on the other hand the breeds admirers and breeders are prepared to go to the expense and time to import stock that is health checked and sound to inject new blood and then produce pups that are really wanted then IMO that breed is worth the saving.

A good breed to look at with ref to this is the Chinook a large sled dog breed in the US, i think there numbers went to as low as 8 but they are being brought back . . .

The problem is though no rare breed or in fact endangered Species can be brought back without ALOT of inbreeding. Which leaves the breed/species genetically weakened and vunerable (sp?) to diseases. The Cheetah is a text book example of this . .

Sorry cant see how it is what you term as a designer dog as they have bred true from the begining of the breeding programme. The dogs were choosen not just for their phenotype but also for their temperment which is quite unique in Shepherd breeds. The closest in breed to these are the Gelbbacke Hund from Germany, although this breed is much taller and as a sharper temperment.
All the first 16 litters and all subsequent litters have had the required Black with Tan markings, the required height of between 50-56cms and weight of 18-25kg, pricked ears same coat etc. this fact alone prooves that there were no purebred GSDS or any other already acknowledged breed amongst the closest predecessors of the founders of the breed. The dogs due to their original isolation coming from 1 region in Czech had stabilised before the regeneration started, the registry was not closed untill 2000 to none registered dogs, but those used all had to fulfil the breeding criteria. By 2005 the registry exceeded 2100 entries and all have bred true to phenotype.

Designer Dog = a dog produced to look like another breed or animal (as in this case) or something produced because the breeder can or to line their pocket.

Saving a threatened breed = careful breeding in order to increase the numbers of a breed that is dwindling but still in existence.

Looking for a look alike and breeding them together to recreate a breed is not saving it, it is designing a dog that looks like one that is now extinct.

Where is that definition from?

Most breeds of dogs were created, at some point someone (or a number of people) sat down and agreed what the "type" of this dog was, its original purpose and standard were defined and eventually the breed was established.

Most of these were drawn from established dogs in a region with a particular type or purpose, to say this example is a designer breed is incorrect, what they simply did was gather up dogs from the area to establish a gene pool and stud book etc to save the breed, this has happened with many breeds at some point, just most were a lot further back in time.

It is no coincidence that the majority of pedigree dogs come from this country as the invention pedigree comes from this country.

In relation to the OP to me it would depend how much available gene pool is available (registered or not) to re-establish the breed.

Many breeds we see today reemble only loosley their ancestors as rightly or wrongly breeds do evolve over time.