Dog Breeders

[girlfriend44]

Aibu to ask is the only reason people breed and sell puppies is to earn money?

Awww!
And then they age and pale gracefully, and lose the bright red of youth until you can practically date them by how much red is left on their faces.

I had a very similar experience when looking for my Lakie in a Nordic country. First I sat for an hour-long phone exam where the breeder questioned me about my life, routines, my previous dogs etc. Then I had to travel for four hours to go meet potential pup and there was another hour-long "conversation". After a 48-hour wait period I was finally accepted and then had to do a second four-hour trip to pick up the little furricane. The little monster comes from a line of BOB at Crufts and I wouldn't expect anything less from a serious breeder of a vulnerable breed. There's no comparison between the ethical professional breeder working to maintain and improve historical lines of great, healthy dogs and unscrupulous backstreet breeders out for a quick buck!

I know someone who breeds dachshunds and Connemara ponies. It's their life - totally devoted. Their animals are show quality and their dogs live in their home. I think the females only have two litters before being 'retired', and mostly they have stud dogs. The health and testing is a priority. It's not a profession to make a lot of money, at least not on the scale they do it. They have family money so they do not do it as main source of income, they just love the breed and want to promote healthy dogs and ponies.
Good breeders do exist.

I love all these stories of dedicated breeders who do it properly!

Of course breeding dogs is a business. For some they think it’s easy money, and for others it’s their dedicated life passion.

We rescued a beautiful puppy who the breeders abandoned because he had a medical issue. They didn’t want to pay to fix it for him so the rescue did instead. I can’t get my head around that. Either way we’ve ended up with a wonderful dog. But that doesn’t imply someone who is doing it for the love of the breed.

But it's also the show breeders who breed dogs to an unhealthy extreme.

The same applies to genetic testing- it was the show breeders who introduced genetic deformations by breeding dogs that are to closely related.

To say that show breeders care about their dogs because it's an expensive hobby isn't true.
And that's before I get started on the conditions some show dogs have to live in.

We got our dog from a breeder who loves the breed and wants to see it continue. I purposely chose a breed for health and temperament that isn't highly bred (actually looks like a mongrel to people who don't know the breed) and has no rigid colour standards (they come in all sorts of colours). The breeder was listed as one of only six on the kennel club website.

Our other dog is a rescued French bulldog - the last kind of dog I would ever choose...but she was homeless after she was used to produce three litters in three years and the "breeder" no longer wanted her. My husband took pity on her and came home with her (without consulting me first). She is a total pita in all the ways my other - carefully chosen - dog isn't. But we love her and so we just get on with it.

My point is there is a difference between a responsible breeder and a person who is only after making money. There is also a difference in purchaser. I would never have purposely chosen a breed that has poor health and is bred for looks, but sadly many do.

There is also a difference in purchaser. I would never have purposely chosen a breed that has poor health and is bred for looks, but sadly many do

yep. Buyers have to shoulder some of the blame.

if there wasn’t the demand for dachshunds, pugs, doodlydoos etc because of “fashion”- dachsies and pugs got incredibly popular when the likes of paperchase made them into a design trend- then there wouldn’t be a market for these dogs. Especially when the buyers don’t know dogs and can’t recognise a puppy farm, or don’t care that it’s a puppy farm etc.

merles for example. So many people just think they’re pretty. Basic google will tell you that some breeds should not be merle because it is associated with genetic issues. They don’t care though.

or they talk themselves into a cross breed poodlydoo being “healthy” because it’s a cross, with no regard to whether the parents have had genetic or any health tests, or been raised in a healthy environment.