The web technology used is still experimental and subject to change and a certain degree of instability. These are times when the browser is slow, or non-functional when tests are being run or changes made.
Pictures are included in the pedigree display when they are available.
These pictures are supplied by individual owners and breeders on an ad-hoc
basis. They arrive as JPEG email attachements and are trimmed, resized,
and copied to our server. Website users are able to add information
and comments to individual dogs. This information is stored separately
from the main database file, and is displayed and published to the world
as soon as it is entered.
How do I get my breed included?
Having a breed be part of breedbrowsers.com requires that there be a database file containing all, or at least a good fraction, of the breed. Such databases are often maintained by breed clubs, who may or may not want to make them available.
If you represent a breed club with a database, and you want to publish it on breedbrowsers.com, we want to work with you. As long as you are able to convert or export your data into a plain ascii text file, we can probably write an importer to read it into our system. (You will of course need to be prepared to handle complaints and requests for updates and new additions to your database from dog owners and breeders: We just put the database up on the web, we can't maintain it for you.) Contact us for more information.
If you don't represent a breed club, and you don't have a database of the breed you'd like to see, your best bet is probably to contact your breed club and see if you can interest them in the project. Encourage them to contact us and we will work with them to make the breed available.
If you are an individual who has compiled their own breed database file, we want to work with you. If you can send your database to us in almost any sort of ascii-text format, we can probably use it. To be effective in the breedbrowsers.com format, a database needs to be fairly complete (so there aren't too many holes in the pedigrees). It is a lot of work to maintain such a database, even for a small breed. And, you have to be prepared for the fact that once it is published on the web, people will start to find errors and omissions. You need to be prepared to handle these complaints and update your database accordingly. Because we are a free, volunteer based organization, you will need to be prepared to do most of the work yourself: We can publish your database, but we can't maintain it for you. If this sounds like something you'd like to be involved with, contact us.
We charge no fees of any sort for listing a new breed, and have no particular commercial aspirations for the site. However, we reserve the right to, at some point, begin placing banner ads on the pedigree display pages, as a way of offsetting the cost of servers and maintainance. If we ever do this, we will discuss revenue sharing with those who are supplying databases. Any database supplier is of course free to withdraw the database at any time, if they no longer want it published on breedbrowsers.com: You retain ownership of the database.
A brief note on legal issues. Because these databases contain information (for example health clearances) that can cause people grief if there are errors, there is the potential for people to get upset. Indeed, there has been at least one legal threat already (which went no further than a polite letter in reply). It is the firm belief of the administration that there is absolutely no basis for any legal claim against either breedbrowsers.com or the database supplier. All databases contain errors of one sort or another, and as long as the information is presented in good faith (and probably even if it weren't) there is little or no basis for any legal claim. In any case, the only realistic remedy would be an order to correct or remove the data, which has of course already been done for all cases of complaint. All the data is public information made available by organizations whose mandate is to serve their members, the public, and the animals: No objections have been received from any such organizations concerning the use of "their" data on the site, nor are any expected.