Dog rehoming after breeding???

[Twoshoesnewshoes]

Is this a thing?
I’ve enquired about rehoming a couple of dogs (I mean a couple of enquiries- I only want one dog!)
I’ve just noticed that one of the advertisers also has two other dogs , different breeds but also four years old, up for sale.
no reason given for rehoming in the advert.
is this a thing, to rehome a dog after she has had a few litters?
he is a registered breeder.
i am just a bit shocked. We had two litters from our family pet, and every pup I’ve bought has come from a similar set up. It’s a given that the mum will just live out her days at home.
but now I think about it I can see that doesn’t work as a business model at all if you’re a breeder, you’d have a dozen older ladies in your kitchen!
does this set up indicate a puppy farm? Should I swerve?
should I report??
help!

I don't think reporting is it worth it unless there is obvious neglect?

Im in two minds, on one hand I think breeding should be severely restricted, same as horses, so many dogs need a home already.

On the other some people want a specific breed and don't want to go through the puppy stage, if the dog has been properly bread and socialised then a new loving home could be perfect. Maybe it's a dog that was returned to the breeder as I know responsible breeders will always take back a dog at any stage for any reason.

Bred!

That's quite common in the breeding world.
The pitches get retired to pet only homes as otherwise the breeder won't have space for the new generation coming through.
It doesn't indicate neglect or puppy farming, just a lack of space. It could also be seen as a positive that the breeder is sensible to recognise that once the bitches would be better placed in a low stress home where they would get all the love and fuss and enjoy being purely a pet rather than somewhere busy, multiple dogs and many many pups.

Very common. They’ve made their money from the dog and happy to chuck out and shirk the burden of an aging dog.

In my personal opinion, people who breed from a dog and then get rid of it are despicable. I don’t think there’s any reason for it. Dogs are part of your family, not to be tossed aside once they’ve ’outlived their purpose’ (as some call it).

I have three bitches, one boy. I have a litter ATM and will keep a puppy from that to breed from in a few years. So I’ll have 4 girls and a boy. I’ve never ever considered ‘rehoming’ one of my girls. And I don’t know any good breeders that do.

Even if you’re willing to deal with the above, multiple breeding bitches of different breeds, all being dumped at once, is such a red flag the guy might as well join the CCP.

They are a business. Like farmers with dairy cows. While they are producing young the owner can make money from they keep them. Once they are too old to breed they get rehomed. Or culled if they are cows. And possibly some dogs.

Thank you, helpful advice.
@Janeeyrre Yes it could be a return. I had a return at three years after the owner very sadly had a stroke. I easily rehomed the dog as he’d been well cared for.
@OverlyFragrant yes that’s true, I hadn’t seen it as a positive at all but unless people are a hobby/home breeder like me then how does it work?
I’ll see if he comes back to me and hopefully suss it out.

Do people really not know this is an issue? It’s incredibly common and utterly despicable in my eyes. We’ve adopted lots of ex breeders, mostly traumatised, under socialised and with health issues. With care, time and medical attention, they’ve all turned into fabulous family dogs 🥰
Breeders make their money out of them then just “get rid”. Have a look at Many Tears dog rescue. They take a lot of ex breeders in an appalling state. They do amazing rehabilitation work though so if you are looking to avoid an unscrupulous breeder, they’d be a good place to start.

There is nothing positive in what you describe.

Horrible!

I was also going to look at Many Tears rescue. They have picked up van fulls of dogs from puppy mills in the UK and ex breeding dogs. Many of whom are in terrible conditions and not been anywhere near a house.

Just don’t breed if you’re not going to keep and love the bitch afterwords!

To all who think selling on a dog after they have finished with breeding:

Unfortunately with the laws around licensing & breeding being tighter, many smaller breeders will have to sell older dogs to make space for younger ones.

Just check their breeding licence, it will tell you how many dogs they are allowed to keep on the premises.

If it is a small business that pays some tax or a show breeder that needs space to get the next winning dog, then they will have to sell older dogs to make space.

This doesn't mean I agree with it, but the licensing laws have destroyed many smaller hobby breeders.

This is the problem now it is becoming unacceptable to have a littler from a family pet.
I think you can only register 3 litters from a bitch and there may be restrictions on how many litters a bitch can have from councils when breeders get a licence. It is a form of puppy farming, even the ones who have waiting lists and vet all purchasers carefully.
Either get a rescue dog or from someone who has an occasional litter. People put a lot more care into the one litter every 5 years or so in the kitchen, than the breeder whose poor bitch is having a litter every year in a heated out building and is mainly on her own. In the area I live under the council rules one person can look after 20 bitches. That’s multiple litters constantly to look after

In my eyes Many Tears facilitate puppy farming.

They are a subsidiary to puppy farmers. Just check out how they get their vans full of dogs...

I hadn’t seen it as a positive at all but unless people are a hobby/home breeder like me then how does it work?

@Twoshoesnewshoes there is no ‘positive.’ Please don’t delude yourself into thinking this is good or normal.

Its very easy to be a breeder who doesn’t dump their dogs once they’ve ‘outlived their purpose’ - being frank, it’s called not being a scumbag.

We rehomed our girl from her breeder but through a breed specific rescue charity. We had to satisfy the rescue and and then the breeder. The only fee we paid was £100 to the rescue. The breeder didn’t want anything as I assumed they had made their money from her.

She’s been a wonderful family pet and I’m still in touch with her breeder.

This is so interesting!
as a hobby breeder I’ve found MN typically prefers registered breeders and posts will often advertise someone to get a KC registered dog from a breeder.
but this is the negative side of that industry that is not talked about.

I worried that this sort of thing would happen when licencing was brought in.

Small-scale hobby breeders are often very good at producing nice, stable, home-reared puppies. It was obvious from the way the licence system was written that it would result in a higher proportion of dogs being born in puppy farms. There needs to be a mechanism to licence and educate people who want to breed once every few years.

ETA It used to be obvious that breeding licence = puppy farm. Unfortunately its not now.

@EdithStourton there is also a secondary issue to the demise of small hobby breeders due to licensing. The overall reduction of breeding stock, this leads to higher inbreeding and therfore more health issues in pedigree dogs.

I've noticed this with my not overly popular breed. It's the same dogs that are used over and over again reducing the gene pool massively. Some very dedicated people import dogs because of this but it's lengthy and costly. And dogs get endorsed without any intentions of lifting the endorsements once health tests are done or the pup has proofen itself in the show ring or wherever. So even imported dogs will not necessarily add fresh blood to the gene pool.
Licensing, the Kennel Club and some snobbery around breeding, the ever increasing puppy farmers and unscrupulous dog imports have destroyed the UK dog population.

I love dogs, but once my lot has walked over the rainbow bridge I will not get another one. Unless something changes fundamentally or I have the knowledge/ cash to import a fit & healthy dog.

Anyone with three 4 year old bitches of different breeds for sale is a puppy farmer in my eyes. Those dogs have only been owned to breed from and make money. Now they have had their allotted litters, they're being tossed aside in favour of the next generation. God only knows what sort of life they have led so far.

Yes, that was something else that really concerned me. I am fortunate that the breed we have is numerous enough in the UK to be in a fairly good place, and is bred by enough gamekeepers and shooters to keep a wide base. There is also quite a lot of contact across the channel, and people prepared to take a bitch to be mated to a quality stud dog in, say, Germany.

Plus they're quite big, and absolute pains in the arse if not properly trained and looked after, so not really puppy farm material.

I asked a breeder if I could be considered for an older dog whenever she was ready to part with a stud dog or bitch.

I knew from her offering holiday boarding that she was a devoted dog owner and she knew, from my old dog who boarded with her, that I loved the breed.

Not every breeder who sells older dogs is evil.

Sorry but I don’t think selling an animal you’ve bred from (and made money from) is ok. Decent breeders actually care for their dogs and wouldn’t want to let them go. They also don’t breed so many litters that they get overrun with dogs.
As an aside a registered breeder doesn’t mean a good one. Neither does KC reg. it’s very much buyer beware. You need to find someone who cares about the breed and what’s best for their dogs.

@Ylvamoon

This doesn't mean I agree with it, but the licensing laws have destroyed many smaller hobby breeders.

I thought people only had to be licensed if they were breeding 3 or more litters a year and running as a business? Only people breeding at volume would be impacted by those laws. A hobby breeder to me is someone who shows or works their dogs and breeds every few years in order to keep a puppy. No need to move older dogs on at all as you wouldn't get overrun from dogs.

Both my dogs came from this sort of setup. I actively avoided licensed breeders.

@CyberStrider any intact dog / bitch you own fall under the licencing laws. So if you own 3 intact bitches and decided to breed one you fall under the licencing laws. Because in theory you can have 3 litters in a 12 months period. That's how my local authority sees it anyway.
And people who show their dogs, for example, will keep them intact and often have more than one or two dogs.
These are the people who actually add to the gene pool through their breeding and these are the ones that have been reduced dramatically since licencing was introduced.

The next step is, they determine how much space you have and how many dogs you are able to keep comfortably in that space....
That's full circle why someone would sell an ex breeding bitch or dog.