The foundation of our breeding program is health. We understand that there is never a more heart wrenching experience than health issues. Because of this, we have developed a Miniature Schnauzer breeding program devoted to genetic health testing and reducing the health issues that often affect the Schnauzer breed. Through generations of responsible selective breeding, our Fernweh Miniature Schnauzer bloodlines represent the excellent health standards that our adopters have come to expect.
The Fernweh Miniature Schnauzer Promise – Fernweh Miniature Schnauzers is devoted to testing every adult male and female Schnauzer within our breeding program for a healthy heart, eyes, and patellar tendons as well as additional health tests. If one of our Schnauzers does not pass its health inspection test, it is not introduced into our breeding program.
A common belief among Schnauzer breeders is that health testing is a one stop shop that will fix all the potential genetic health issues within a bloodline. We understand this view to be shortsighted and ignorant to the reality of genetic behavior. Because genetics are both dominant and recessive, a perfectly healthy Schnauzer adult can pass its physical health exam or otherwise be healthy from a phenotype perspective and still carry recessive health issues within its genotype; passing these issue off to its offspring.
The true key to producing consistently healthy Mini Schnauzer Puppies is to reduce and eliminate both the dominant and recessive genetic health issues within a bloodline. This is achieved through several very important steps. Yes, certainly health testing is the beginning of healthy bloodline development. Fernweh Miniature Schnauzer’s starting point is that we know our adult Schnauzers are healthy and do not outwardly suffer from a phenotype health issue. The next step is identifying and tracking the potential for unhealthy recessive genes that each adult Schnauzer might carry. The best way to do this is to record and track the health of the offspring. If two adult Schnauzers both carry the same recessive health issue, they will not physically display the health problem, but they will pass it on to their offspring. Once we know a potential health issue, this information is recorded and action is taken to begin breeding out the recessive gene from our simply schnauzer bloodlines. The successful improvement and eventual elimination of a health issue can take several generations. Gradually over time, Fernweh Miniature Schnauzers has been able create what we know as some of the healthiest Schnauzer bloodlines that exist.
Greetings from the Wysongs! We are currently accepting deposits to join our waiting list for future Healthy Miniature Schnauzer puppies. If you are interested in adding a Fernweh Schnauzer to your family we would encourage you to reach out to us via an email or phone conversation. Please be advised that we are known through the country as a breeder of high quality Miniature Schnauzer puppies and are in high demand. Be sure to reach out and plan in advance when considering a future Fernweh addition. Adopters who plan ahead and join our waiting list are preferred and treated as such during the adoption process.