Dog Breeders

From LoveToKnow Dogs

There are plenty of legitimate dog breeders to choose from. Unfortunately, there are many puppy mill operations and irresponsible breeders in business only for the money. Responsible and knowledgeable business owners are dedicated to their breeds and care about them, ensuring that the dogs they breed are healthy and find safe, loving and happy homes. Evaluating a breeder is not difficult but requires knowing the qualities of good ones and legitimate breeding practices.

Puppies

Limited Litters Each Year

One or two litters a year is the maximum any responsible breeder should anticipate taking care of each year. Careful breeding requires a lot of time and energy. Puppies are a lot of work, requiring constant time and attention during the first few weeks of their lives. If a breeder tells you he has more than two litters a year, ask if he has help with the puppies.

Dedicated breeders generally work with just one breed. Your radar should go up if the breeder works with several breeds.

Breed's Club or Organization Association

A responsible breeder will be active in their breed's local, regional or national clubs. Most work with rescue groups, providing financial, foster, training or placement assistance.

Applications, Contracts and References

Expect to go through a detailed application process, including an informal telephone interview and meetings with your family. Responsible breeders require a written contract with duties and responsibilities clearly spelled out for both parties. Don't be surprised if the breeder even askes to come to your home and to stay in touch after you have taken your puppy or dog home.

Ask the dog breeder to provide client references. If the breeder hesitates, be wary.

Evaluation and Puppy Placement

Good breeders know how to evaluate puppy temperaments to ensure each puppy is placed in the right environment. Aggressive, dominant and submissive puppies should be placed with families who have experience raising and caring for dogs. The dog breeder should match placement with temperament and discourage novices from breeding their puppies. A responsible dog breeder will insist on taking any dog back that an owner cannot keep, no matter the reason.

Responsible dog breeders will not separate a mother from any puppies less than seven weeks old, preferring to keep puppies until they are 12 weeks old. Puppies should also spend time with their mother inside a breeder’s family home, learning how to socialize with people. Those raised in pens will lack the skills needed to fit in with human companions. Puppies should be socialized with male and female adults, children and other pets.

Books and Training Recommendations

Breeders will know the best books written by breed aficionados. Some may also provide written materials for those who acquire a pup from them. These materials may include:

  • Vaccination and health history
  • Dietary requirements
  • Training procedures

Quality dog breeders want your relationship with your new pup to be successful and can recommend quality trainers to ease the transition.

Vet Care

Vaccines, heartworm and flea preventatives should have been administered according to the age of the pup. Many families don’t intend to breed their dogs. Responsible breeders will insist on the spaying/neutering of the pup within a specific timeframe in their contracts and they will follow up to make sure the surgery has been performed. Sires and dams should also have been tested to ensure they do not pass on genetic disorders. Ask to see the test results. There should be no problem with this request. If there is...

Dog Breeder Support After Placement

A responsible dog breeder will make herself available to adopting families by telephone or email, answering questions and needs as they arise.

Lineage

Ask for information about the mother and father of the litter, and if you can meet them and other offspring. A good breeder will be able to provide background information about the litter’s mother and father, as well as the grandparents and even great grandparents. There should be no problem with meeting both parents, unless of course the sire is not owned by the same person as the dam, and lives outside of reasonable driving distance. This is often the case when choosing a popular champion stud to sire the litter.

A responsible breeder does not breed a dam until she is at least two years old and not more than once a year; less often is even better. Breeders who care about their dogs see them as family members, allowing them to spend most of their time in the family home.


 


Comments

Thanks Kathy, I'm glad you provided the extra details. I agree that this breeder doesn't seem to be making sound decisions based on what's best for the dogs. One thing you might consider is alerting the Humane Society to the situation. They may be willing to do an investigation.

Do let us know what happens.

-- Contributed by: Kelly

HI Kelly,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. Yes, I think all of what you have suggested may have contributed to the this breeders this decision. The breeder says she is downsizing due to a personal situation which she shared with me, which is why we offered to keep her whole at our personal cost. It is also true that she had received a deposit on the dogs.

Cir...stances contributing to this dilemma for us include inconsistencies in her actions that alarm us and make us question her sense of responsibility. Her investigation of the breeder in Mexico was superficial at best as she does not speak Spanish and he spoke no English. As she says she is downsizing in one email, she also has said in subsequent emails that she is looking to buy another breeding dog and will get another pet as a mate for a different breed of dog she recently purchased as a pet. The girls she sold -one of which she had for 8 mos (3.5 yrs old), one of 18 mos (3 yrs old), the other for 4 years (4 yrs old) - also had some issues - for example, she wasn't sure one of them could be bred safely as she had an unusually hard, long labor last whelping, a C-section from a prior breeder and had scarring of the uterus which was of concern to her vet. So why sell this dog to a breeder? With the breeding dogs she has now (4 soon to be 5) she plans to breed them as often as possible and expects to get 7-10 litters a year so downsizing won't affect her income as much. In any event, she believes that she is being a responsible breeder as she claims she can't take care of all the dogs any longer and they had to go right away. As much as being a responsible breeder includes understanding your own goals, we think it also includes ensuring that the dogs you do have also go to homes that are in their best interest.

How would someone know this if you are not so intimate with the details as we are? I guess it is important to ask a breeder what happens to the breeding dogs when they no longer work for her "program"? How long does she keep her breeding dogs? Where are the parents of the breeding dogs she has of her own breeding? What are the right questions to ask? I'm not sure how someone who cares what kind of breeder they are buying from would know about these situations if it is not out there. Maybe just writing about them here may help to build a little awareness.

Even though the review sites I am referring are specifically for reviews of local businesses and recommendations as well as negative reviews are posted, you are right we should check to see about liability. We are still coming to terms with how to handle something we see as, at a minimum, irresponsible, and perhaps unethical. We have information we don't know what to do with and are trying to figure out what the responsible thing to do is. Our goal is not to create unnecessary drama, but to make sure that through complacency we don't contribute to the problem.

Thank you for sharing some other things we should take into consideration. I'll let you know what we decide to do.

-- Contributed by: Kathy

Hi Kathy,

I agree that it's unusual that this breeder would consider selling these dogs to a breeder in Mexico that she hasn't sufficiently investigated to make sure the dogs are going to a good situation, but she may be having a personal problem/issue that she hasn't shared with you. Also, she may have already received partial payment from the Mexican breeder and therefore feels contractually obligated to complete the sale.

Should you post reviews about this breeder? That's a decision only you can make. However, you do want to consider whether doing so can leave you vulnerable to a lawsuit for libel or slander.

-- Contributed by: Kelly
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