Unlike with some other animals with Presa Canario when we’re referring to bloodline we refer to ongoing work of one breeder who maintains said bloodline and his or hers breeding work can be seen through multiple generations of consistent work to improve their stock, and breed for the qualities they find most important. We do not refer to bloodline based on one famous dog from the past because in dog breeding after few generations they don’t have tremendous (if at all) impact on the puppies produced. On the contrary breeder and his vision are easy to see in their bloodline, and often times we can look at dogs and have an idea from who the might have came because of certain characteristic of the bloodline
A breeder is a person who bred two dogs. But even after many years of breeding not every person will develop a bloodline. Some breeders prefer to stick to lines with are popular at this moment and only breed on imported stock (bought dogs) never pursuing to make a line of their own.
At Rey Gladiador I believe in my own dogs and dogs I’ve bred throughout the years. Using strict selection and hand picking best puppies of each litter, and improving them generation after generation, having a goal in my head of what I want from my Presa Canarios I slowly developed a bloodline and behind most of the dogs I currently own you will see years and multiple generations of hard work and strict selection. Within the line I try to keep dogs with different traits, less related creating strains of the bloodline that can be combined together in the future.
I do believe in inbreeding as a great breeding tool but I also believe we need to preserve diversity, wider genetic pool and in case of unwanted traits that might show even many many years later in the future, to be able to keep the bloodline alive and not have this unwanted traits spread through all of the dogs. With more advanced genetic testing available this days, and better understanding of recessive genes (recessive genes appear under special circumstances: usually when
two carriers of the gene breed) I believe we breeders can keep the breed in better condition, healthier, and with brighter future a head, not just for future generations of our own breeding program, but also for future generations of people that will come after us and fell in love with the breeds that hopefully we will live for them in good shape, health, character and form that we met them years ago.
What are the main goals for Rey Gladiador Presa Canarios bloodline? Trying to preserve as much as possible of old traits of Presa Canario both in terms of look as character. But this is just one piece of the puzzle. The most important part is to be able not only reproduce typical Presas but have great companions for their owners. Longevity, good health and good structure – as what it’s worth to have a beautiful dog when their personality isn’t that great, when their health is falling or when their structure makes them prisoners of their body incapable of doing things dogs should be able to do with no effort at all.
I believe in maintaining diversity and find it beautiful in Pres Canario that we could meet with friend to see each others dogs, have very different dogs at the same time and all of them would be considered typical and of good quality. Even with all the differences between them! This is the beauty of Presa Canario for me. And breed having ruts mostly on two distinctive Islands, with things done a little bit differently can’t and shouldn’t be uniform in a copy-paste type of way. Preserving traits requires dogs that have different traits. Dogs that will allow to fix something when needed, and go back to a different patch when focusing on one thing led to eliminating of something else in package, something else that sed to be very important.