In a broad sense, it is easy to be a dog ‘breeder’. All you need is a bitch, access to a stud dog and you are in business. Many people go through life doing little more than this. Even if one does this for a lifetime, one is not a breeder but merely a reproducer of dogs.

In Malta there are those who produce litter after litter of a single breed, preferably breeds that are in demand and that can attract high prices. Such people do not merit the term dog breeder.

A genuine dog breeder is avidly interested in dogs in general, learns all s/he can about the breed, buy and live with the breed, breeds litters occasionally but always doing so for a purpose.

Because of the paucity of dogs in each breed, it is impossible to produce true-to-type dogs in Malta because the gene pool for every breed is far too small. Besides, how can one know the breeding value of a dog/bitch without having bred different bitches of the same type and producing quality offspring typical to the breed standard?

How can one know of the quality and type produced unless one would have seen hundreds many other dogs of the same breed?