Hi There
I must say before anything else that I am breeding one of my Labradors for the first time this year. I am not an experienced breeder. Hopefully I can answer your questions.
"while I know that good breeders care about the health of their dogs, how do you feel about the ethics of creating a demand for particular breeds when there are so many animals that never get placed into homes due to peoples' obsessions with purity and particular breeds? In other words, aren't you still contributing to the overpopulation of pets without good homes (because people will want your dogs at the expense of mutts and pound dogs)? My question is about the ethics of the creation for demand, which you could extrapolate to mean that I'm questioning the ethics of basic supply/demand economics. To be clear, I am, but I'm particularly sensitive about it when it involves the creation of actual sentient beings, i.e. animals."
I'll try and break my answer down as there are several facets to the answer.
Why breed from my dog?
I look at it this way. I love my dogs they are fit, athletic, healthy and happy. I have decided to breed off one of my dogs because in addition to this she has a wonderful temperament, particularly around my 1 year old daughter, she is also very obedient and willing to please and a real joy to have around. My thinking is, trying to step away from any obvious bias, that I have a wonderful dog who is a great family pet and fit to produce wonderful working dogs, I would like other people to have the opportunity of owning a dog like her. The best way to do that is for her to have puppies.
Why breed her with another Labrador to produce pedigree dogs?
What you know is what you get. If taking all the above into account then in order to produce a dog that will be as 'good' as the dog I have then I need to breed her with a dog that will make a good match to produce puppies like her. I.e good looking, healthy, fit, athletic, obedient good temperament. A good breeder has to take all these things into account. 'but what about inbreeding'. Well.. I'll try and address this point here. No good breeder wants to produce inbred dogs because DNA faults can cause issues and damage health and give a dog a miserable life - that's why people are against it. But good breeders know their dogs linage and study possible matches with other peoples dogs to make sure they are not inbreeding. In fact here in the UK the Kennel Club have a tool to help breeder ensure they are not breeding dogs that have close genetic matches. By doing this you ensure you are breeding your dog with a dog that is not related, or not genetically the equivalent of being related - (not the same thing).
So now you have ensured a good genetic match for your dog you still have not completed the task. How do you know the potential match is a healthy dog. In fact, even when you are not breeding pedigree dogs how do you know you are breeding 2 health dogs that won't pass dodgy genetics down to their puppies?
Health Testing and improving the breed
Responsible pedigree breeders take the health of their dogs extremely and also take responsibility, for not just their dogs, but the entire breed. Sad to say, many pedigree dogs breeders don't and give the rest a bad name. This is why I get upset when everyone say pedigree breeders are irresponsible. Its like saying all builders are irresponsible because some don't take precautions and do a bad job.
Labradors historically have flagged health issues. Arthritis in the hips and elbows is the big one but there are also some eye conditions and skeletal issues that exist in the breed. No dog is perfect just like no human is perfect. So we test our dogs, we test then vigorously and it is expensive. Have a look at this dog here, chosen at random from the UKs' champ dogs website. This dog has been DNA tested and proven clear of the following issues that can be found in labradors:
HNPK : Clear - 30th November 2016
prcd-PRA : Clear - 3rd December 2014
CNM : Clear - 21st November 2014
SD2 (dwarfism) : clear - 20th November 2014
EIC : clear - 20th November 2014
Breeding this dog with another dog also clear on all these tests not only guarantees your puppies will never be affected by these conditions it also guarantees they cannot carry faulty genes and pass them onto their puppies. How many people that breed random non pedigree dogs go to these lengths to produce the most healthy dogs they can.
In addition to these this dogs has had it's hips and elbows tested. Hip and elbow dysplasia has been seen historically in Labradors and is a cause of arthritis. So a dog with low scores mating with another dog with low scores is proven to pass these stron genetics onto there puppies
FYI each hip out of 50 and elbows are scored out of 4. This dog has 11/100 for its hips. Very low and 0/4 on its elbows, the best possible score.
This testing has proven to reduce known issues of dysplatia in Labradors. Just imagine if all Labrador breeders did this. Again responsible breeders will not breed their dogs with dogs with poor test results or no test results. Certificates must be produced.
Also breeding dogs should have their eyes tested every 12 months in order to ensure they re clear of any diseases and conditions. There are so many hoops to jump through
Demand
Homeless Dogs (who to sell to)
Networks
Money