The only AKC dog i ever bought was from a
breeder. Abbie was an Afghan Hound who died at 3 yo to cancer. Abbie
was inadvertantly bred by an AKC Golden Retreiver when she was bred as a
year old. We kept one of the litter, Tippy 2 who died at 9 yo due to
cancer. I'm not saying it was because of a line bred breed, but thru all
my experiences w/ dogs i have never had a history of any cancer from my pound
puppies, mutts or cross breeds. Thats just my experience and i'll go to
the pound if i ever want another dog rather than an AKC breed. But as
Frank once said about me and Jose...."we were 2 mutts".
Some of the best of all time Endurance horses to me
were Rio and Cash and they never fit the mold of breeding or body
types. Bezatal did, but there are so many others i think the really good
ones are flukes and luck and only maybe sometimes thru selective breeding, and
finding the right owner to get the most out of them. To me thats as
important as breeding, resting heart rate, cannon bone or any of the other
variables one thinks important. And thats not to say some lines do better
than others, and one should not go to breeders, but i have seen so many good
horses come from the sales lot or classifieds do good i would look at the horse
and nothing more. ts
