How to Make a Miniature Schnauzer
By buffY on Jun 19, 2009 in Education
The Miniature Schnauzer isn’t a dog that always existed. It is a dog that was bred to exist. Are you curious how it was created?
Here are the steps that you would have taken to make a Miniature Schnauzer if you were among the first to get interested in this breed:
- Get a standard schnauzer. This is a larger schnauzer that existed before the mini version came along.
- Get another smaller dog for breeding purposes. There were several small dogs that were bred with the schauzer to create the Miniature Schnauzer. Top choices included:
- The poodle. This is a dog that’s frequently bred with larger dogs to make small dogs.
- The Miniature Pinscher. Breeding with another Miniature Dog is always a good choice.
- The Affenpinscher. This is another small dog that was intentionally bred to be small. It can be bred with Schnauzers to create smaller (or miniature) schnauzers.
- Breed the two dogs together to create a smaller version of the Schnauzer.
There you have it - you’ve created a Miniature Schnauzer. Of course, in today’s world, you wouldn’t do this to get a miniature Schnauzer. You would simply go to the pet store and purchase one. But it wasn’t always that way - they had to start somewhere!
Hayden | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Wait a minute. I’m confused. So any one of those three were used–not all three together over time? How did the bloodline get to be consistent then?
Isabelle K. | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
I didn’t know that poodles were often used to breed small dogs. Would you use a miniature poodle then? Because the Standard Poodle is actually quite large.
Jack Varela | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Now what’s interesting is that one of the choice of breeds you put down is curly-haired, but the other two were not. Were they purposely trying to get rid of the schnauzer wavy hair or enhance it?
Joel | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Very cute article. But if I DID go out and breed two together that you mention, WOULD I get an actual miniature schnauzer, or was the bloodline developed over so much time that it wouldn’t be that simple anymore?
John | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
How is the temperament of this dog? Seems like the breed choices you mention are actually kind of nervous and yippy. But I don’t know about the original large schnauzer.
Kathleen Kennedy | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
There are so many breeds now that were developed over time. Actually, maybe all of them. Is there actually a dog that has “always existed”?
Kayden Smith | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
I’m very interested. Breeding with another miniature dog is always a good choice, you say. But do you mean a breed that was bred to be miniature or just a breed that has always been small?
Kim R. | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
I think that you can breed a miniature anything. But why would you? Who needs a mini German Shepherd or a mini Great Dane? I don’t know why people breed up or down anyway, unless they’re specifically trying to get rid of a bad trait in the original dog.