The Kennel Club is developing a revolutionary new database that will enable people to find a perfect mate for their dog which will help to improve the health of future generations within the breed.

In a first of its kind, the Mate Select programme, which will be accessed via the Kennel Club website, will allow both occasional and regular breeders to assess the impact that a proposed mating will have on the genetic diversity within a breed.

As new health screening tools are developed, these will also be incorporated into Mate Select so that, in future, breeders will be able to select mating pairs which will maximise the chances of producing healthy puppies whilst having the optimum impact on the breed’s genetic diversity.

Kennel Club Communications Director, Caroline Kisko, said: “People do a lot of thinking about their perfect partner but dogs’ needs are relatively simple - to find a mate that will give them healthy puppies, which will then be matched with loving owners. A lot of science is going into the Kennel Club’s new database, but the end result will be that the computer will help dog owners find a mate for their dog, which will give them the best possible chance of producing healthy puppies. Not only can we help to match the right dogs with each other, but equally important is matching the right puppy buyers to the right puppy and our newly launched Breed Information Centre will help people to find the right breed and the right breeder.”