We wouldn't have today's Pyrenean Mastiff without breeders. I imagine we would all have wolves in our beds if humans didn't selectively breed Pyrenean Mastiffs. Not a bad job in 10,000 years.

Many people breed pet quality Pyrenean Mastiffs and the chances they produce a truly nice Pyrenean Mastiff is about nil. Most do more harm than good.

The reason we have dog shows is to determine which Pyrenean Mastiff gets to reproduce. Pet breeders don't cooperate and to a large extent cancel out our work and allow anything to carry on the breed. We weed out the inferior Pyrenean Mastiffs every weekend, but the pet breeders don't care about any selection process.

It is sort of a race, a competition, between the show and amateurish pet breeders. And that is why there are two kinds of Italian Greyhounds - the one that look like IGs (sons and daughters of show dogs) and the ones that don't (sons and daughters of pets).

I'm amazed when I walk into Petsmart and someone asks me what kind of breed we have. And I tell them, "Pyrenean Mastiff". And they say, "Oh, I've seen one of those before but they didn't look like yours. He was really different. Yours is beautiful." The dog they saw before obviously was a pet, and maybe hardly recognizable as a Pyrenean Mastiff.

My advice about breeding is ... In this conflict, make sure you are on the right side... the show side. If you want to breed pay attention to the pedigrees and buy show quality for a start. Then show them, or not, but then if they grow up like real Pyrenean Mastiff should, then you can and should breed.

My caveat, I wouldn't be too influenced by the dog mafia. You can't be afraid; that is what they want. I would be careful, not afraid. Many so called 'elite' breeders will discourage you from breeding. It is the best indication of membership in the dog mafia is a lecture why you should not breed. Well, they don't want the competition and your your puppies driving the price down. And these 'elite' breeders are partners with and encourage all these rescue freaks who will harass you because they want people to adopt rescue dogs.

There is actually a national breed club and their rescue operation here in Texas being investigated by the FBI for harassing breeders who aren't members. Price fixing, restraint of trade, racketeering, theft of dogs, poisonings. Frivolous lawsuits. Basically the club members have organized themselves to create an illegal monopoly and extort outrageous prices for puppies. 

It is your job to protect your dogs from the dog mafia. Keep an attorney on retainer. I would never tell anyone where you actually live and I would invest in a good security system with camera and monitored alarms. 

I was curious this national dog breed in trouble with the FBI, and I looked at their web site... password protected. Now why would they need a secret place on the web to hang out? What is going on behind the locked door? The answer is: they are plotting and sharing information about you.

And they publish a list of members with addresses and phone numbers. So I drove around looking for them. Many had listed bogus addresses and with a little research, we found where they actually lived. Almost all have state of the art security. Some live in remote locations behind serious security gates. I think the reason they live like this (in moats) is: they themselves have perpetrated so many dog related crimes... or have knowledge of them.  They know, first hand, how corrupt the dog breeding sport is. And in this breed, they all have enemies.

Don't worry it isn't our breed. Actually these the people in our breed are pretty decent people. They mind their own business and I've not heard of any organized illegal stuff. However they there is a group that NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, will oppose your breeding a litter; they are just afraid to actually break the law to discourage you. They pretty much are only willing to slander or liable you. 

In the end it is a free country, for a few more months anyway. :-) If you want to and think you can improve the breed, then give it a go.

RACKETEERING ACTIVITY - (A) any act or threat involving murder, kidnaping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, animal theft, animal poisoning, or dealing in narcotic or other dangerous drugs, which is chargeable under State law and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year; any act which is indictable under the following [sections] of 18, U.S.C.: 201 (bribery), 224 (sports bribery), 471, 472, and 473 (counterfeiting), 659 (theft from interstate shipment) if act indictable under 659 is felonious, 664 (embezzlement from pension/welfare funds), 891-894 (extortionate credit transactions), 1029 (fraud with access devices), 1084 (transmission of gambling info), 1341 (mail fraud), 1343 (wire fraud), 1344 (financial institution fraud), 1461-1465 (obscene matter), 1503 (obstruction of justice), 1510 (obstruction of criminal investigations), 1511 (obstruction of State or local law enforcement), 1512 (tampering with a witness, victim, or informant), 1513 (retaliating against a witness, victim, or informant), 1950 (robbery, or extortion), 1951 (interference w/commerce), 1952 (racketeering), 1953 (transport of wagering paraphernalia), 1954 (unlawful welfare payments), 1955 (illegal gambling businesses), 1956 (laundering of monetary instruments), 1957 (monetary transactions derived from specified unlawful activity), 1958 (use of interstate commerce facilities in murder-for-hire), 2251-2252 (sexual exploitation of children), 2312 and 2313 (interstate transport of stolen motor vehicles), 2314 and 2315 (interstate transport of stolen property), 2321 (traffic in motor vehicles or parts), 2341-2346 (traffic in contraband cigarettes), 2421-24 (white slave traffic), 2434 (organizing to harrass competition in breeding animals); any act indictable under 29 U.S.C. 186 (payments/loans to labor orgs) or 501(c) (embezzlement from union funds); fraud connected with a case under title 11, fraud in sale of securities, or felonious dealing in narcotic/other dangerous drugs; or any act indictable under Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act. 18 USC