Any breeders here? Can I ask a question?

[Applecottage1234]

So me and my husband are looking for a dog. He works from home and I work part time so there is nearly always someone home. We have a average size home, smallish garden however we are really lucky that we live semi rural so have a lot of green space all around us.
I am experienced with dogs and have worked in a vets for 25 years.

We are going to look at a Labrador pup this weekend.
The breeder also wants to do a home visit which is all fine.

Both me and my husband have put on weight over the last 2 years. I’m a size 18/20.
Would a breeder take a look at us and think we are too fat for a dog?

I used to have a Labrador and she would be walked 2 hours a day (less as she got an old lady)
So although we don’t look very active we love walking

If your a breeder- would it put you off selling a pup to owners that were over weight?

If I was rehoming a dog, your dress size wouldn’t put me off you having him/her. My requirements would be that as long as you’re healthy and active enough to walk him/her and can offer her a loving safe home would be enough, taking into account of affording any vets bills and other essentials.

Have you considered going to a rescue centre and rehoming a dog in kennels. I and my family only have rescue dogs and they make lovely pets, no matter what there past life, they adapt and know when they can trust someone, and become your best friend in return.
Personally I don’t agree with breeding more dogs when there are so many in kennels but that’s a different topic.
Good luck though, and hopefully something to consider?

I have tried time and time again to re-home and just get rejected.
I’ve got young children
A cat
Not a high enough fence

I’ve always had rescue dogs in the past (2 rescue labs and 1 lab x) but I’ve never had a pup.

I’ve decided that with young children I’d like a young pup. I’ve tried re homing a pup via dogs trust but not getting anywhere.

So 2 years later we’ve decided to buy.

Thank you for your comment about weight

More than likely the breeder will not be a size 8 so do not give it another thought. Good luck with your search

Your weight wouldn't cross my mind as long as I believed you would be doing the right amount of walks. I would have fencing and the age of your Child in mind though.

Fencing up but because we are on a slope the right hand side fence was only 5ft not 6ft - that’s why they said no

How old is young children? A puppy is a nightmare any breed. Labradors as you know like to carry stuff in their mouths so you will need to be able to be on it constantly with preventing them picking up the kids toys. Personally I wouldn't do it unless kids are school age +

Bit of a pointless question in that you could ask a number of different breeders and it does not mean the breeder you are going to will think or feel the same as any of them. Unless the breeder has a massive waiting list I don't think they will be too choosy as long as they believe you will provide good care to the pup you're size is unlikely to stop the sale.

Age 7 and 9

I’m going to go a little against the grain here and hopefully won’t cause offence.

While I wouldn’t care if I was breeding cavaliers or pugs or other stereotypically placid breeds, if I was breeding a stereotypically active breed, like border collies or Dalmatians or working labradors etc then for me personally, I would wonder if it was the right home tbh.

@HotnSunnyRainbowRoses

I’m going to go a little against the grain here and hopefully won’t cause offence.

While I wouldn’t care if I was breeding cavaliers or pugs or other stereotypically placid breeds, if I was breeding a stereotypically active breed, like border collies or Dalmatians or working labradors etc then for me personally, I would wonder if it was the right home tbh.

Thank you for your honesty I used to be a size 12 but since having children, PND and lockdown I’ve piled on the lbs.

One way I kept my weight down was walking my labs miles everyday.

I’m just so anxious about meeting a breeder and they take one look at me and say no

I wouldn't expect it to be an issue for many breeders, I'd only expect it to be an issue if you were a size where mobility is impaired and you're nowhere near that. Walking and training doesn't require a huge amount of fitness (and you may still be fit even if carrying extra weight). Most of the gundog training I do with my lab involves standing round in fields, I let the dog do the running!

A size 18 is hardly massive. I'm a dog walker and know several who are roughly your size and they cope just fine.

Please don't let it worry you.

Good grief, no.
It would be a very strange breeder that thought your size was an issue.
Being home all day is a big plus in my book. Not many breeders are eight stone svelte athletes you know. Especially those of us who are getting on in years & have been showing forever.

Re the rescue - the last two years have been mental. I've heard of the big rescues getting up to 20,000 rehoming enquiries in a month, a large portion of those being families. Many dogs are signed over with either no background or a background too risky for families, and no rescues have had 20,000 dogs at any one time. This is why you're getting rejected, because they are overwhelmed, still, by families with kids and cats but any compatible dogs will be adopted within a day and have a queue of 50+ applications, many of whom may have older kids, no cats, and 8ft walled gardens.

A rescue's priority is to try and find their dogs the right home, not find applicants the right dog. And they have their fingers burnt ALL the time by people who overestimate what they can take on, or just plain lie to the rescue :(

For breeders, especially for such a popular breed, you may be joining the end of a long waiting list for a pup.

Growing up as a child we had rescue dogs, and we always had cats.

So child with cats.

Rescuing dogs isn’t as straightforward anymore - that’s why people buy pups. I wouldn’t judge anyone that buys a pup.

We’ve started looking 2019 -pre pandemic

We had the same experience of trying to rescue and we have no kids, no cats, 2 adults full time at home. After 2 years of signing up to some breed specific rescues and enquiring about various dogs looking for homes we gave up and got a puppy. Lots of the rescues wanted experience of owning a dog or were looking for households that already had a resident dog or needed you to live within 30 minutes of the centre.

I am size 22 and regularly walk 5 or six miles and more on walking holidays. So any breeder would be a bit stupid to wonder whether it was the right home in that regard (or assume that I would feed it from my 5 macdonalds a day or whatever else it is they would presumably assume I eat).

@Applecottage1234

Growing up as a child we had rescue dogs, and we always had cats.

So child with cats.

Rescuing dogs isn’t as straightforward anymore - that’s why people buy pups. I wouldn’t judge anyone that buys a pup.

We’ve started looking 2019 -pre pandemic

Rescuing isn't straightforward for good reason. 30 years ago it was different, a more relaxed culture, no social media trolling, there were a lot more stray dogs as well. Now we live in a much more next-day-delivery culture which is NOT what rescues do.

Now rescues have to be cautious, I mean as we've seen in the last few weeks, reports of dog attacks are all over the shop. If one of these dogs who had killed someone had been from a reputable rescue, that's it, that rescue would be in an utter nightmare right now.

I have heard of so many stories from the rescue side of people lying on applications just to get the dog they deem right for their family, even though they've never met it and it could easily end in disaster :(

You could nail some trellising along the top of your fence to give extra height. ( if not too costly)