One of the most difficult aspects of choosing a dog is not the dog himself but the dog breeders. It is often quite difficult to find the right dog breeders or a breeder associated with the Kennel Association of a particular country like AKC for the US.
The question is how do you choose the right breeders? Dog breeding is a lucrative business and most of it is unregulated. You might find a lot of dog breeders out there but a huge number of breeders are probably not even associated with the kennel Club and are running their business illegally which they should not be doing, and which could effect the health of the dog. This is an aspect that you need to be cautious and careful about when choosing large dog breeds. According to the Humane society, any dog that is over 50 lbs is considered to be a large dog. According to AKC, there are 167 large dog breeds in the US and their height range from 14 inches for a Shiba Inu to 32 inches and even more for a Great Dane. The minimum weight for large dog breeds is 45lbs and the maximum is 150lbs. Some of the most common large dog breeds that you can find at registered AKC dog breeders include:
1.Afghan Hound
2.African Wild Dog
3.Airedale Terrier
4.Akbash Dog
5.Akita
6.Alano Espanol
7.Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog
8.Alaskan Malamute
9.American Allaunt
10.American Bandogge Mastiff
11.American Black and Tan Coonhound
12.American Blue Gascon Hound
There are different types of dog breeders out there and when choosing a dog from a breeder, you should ideally do a background check to understand if the breeder is operating illegally or not. To ensure that you get a pedigree and not a mix especially for large dog breeds, you should always check with the American Kennel Club for a list of authentic and reputed dog breeders. The top quality dog breeders will make an extra effort to get the best dog lineages and those who have good genetic traits. Good dog breeders will not breed any dogs that have 'bad' genetic traits like hip dysplasia, which is fairly common with large dog breeds like German Shepherds.
One of the important things that you need to check when buying from dog breeders is the breeding information of a particular dog. Authentic dog breeders will have this information readily available while those operating illegally will not be able to provide you with information regarding their lineage, genetic or hereditary characteristics and traits etc. You should also ask a lot of questions to dog breeders related to their association with AKC, copy of their code of ethics, the different types of dog breeds they have, health problem information of different dogs, information on their breeding facility and others. This information will help you to choose the right dog breeders for you especially while buying large dog breeds, which can be the hardest to choose.
