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Thoughts about dog breeding
Jan. 17th, 2025 03:41 amI've been doing mega research about dog breeding and where to source Next Dog. I'm kind of annoyed, because I had sourced a breeder and all looked perfect for scheduling, but now the breeder had decided they no longer wish to breed Biewers and and concentrating on their breed of first love instead. Five months went from "countdown to next 2025 litter after AKC placements!" to website now defunct, facebook updates nil. DISLIKE. Must start research again.
I want a dog that is portable; hypoallergenic; people focused; smart enough or trainable enough to do agility, scent-work, some type of active human-dog activity of equal interest. I want a healthy dog, or best chances of healthy I can get, knowing just how expensive vet work can get. I expect huge expenses at end of life no matter where I get dog - I just want best chances of solid health for known conditions I can find. B lived for 16 years; hoping to meet or exceed that with next dog(s).
Unpopular opinion: The majority of registered "Best Practice" dog breeders are not actively useful for people looking for dogs. They are ensconced in their hobby space, and sell the dogs that they don't want to keep as part of their breeding program as cast off consequences.
There are four solid reasons dog breeders give to buy from them instead of back yard breeders, rescues, or the pound.
1. "You know what you are getting with a purebred for health/temperament".
This is rationalized by "Good" dog breeders demonstrate this by both health testing and winning conformation titles with their breeding pair.
Thus a dog must be trainable, meet breed standards, and have tested DNA to be bred. I like and approve of this.
The health guarantees mentioned in contract are all suuuper weak though. They are are mealy mouthed as anything, and usually start with offering a replacement dog only if you give back the dog with the health condition. If you have bonded with a dog that has a health condition that was guaranteed against, they should just give you the second dog. What are they going to do with the first dog? Euthanize it? The money or replacement dog is for the heartache your poor breeding program just put the family though, after going through a purebred breeder to avoid it. So many have stupid clauses in them that you must continue to feed your dog some MLM dog food for the guarantee to remain in effect.
2. "Dog breeders breed to better the breed"
OK. Another way of saying this is they breed to choose the best of the litter to continue the line. This means there "pick of of the litter" won't be an open option for anyone who is NOT a breeder. Taking two dogs that meet breed standard will not always produce more dogs that do. You have to deal with recessives and other faults coming out from further back breeding lines. So even having a sire and bitch with clean health testing doesn't necessarily mean your dogs health testing will be solid -- but it's a better chance. I will note that EVERY website lists this as their goal in breeding, most without specifying exactly how they are trying to better the breed. This is one of the questions I ask breeders, and frankly few have any good answer. None have specific goals of breeding on their websites, just "bettering the breed".
3. " Dog breeders don't make money on breeding"
This one is PR as far as I can tell, at least after the first litter. Showing their dogs is frankly a hobby. It's a hobby that builds into breeding, but it's a hobby that lets them travel, socialize, and compete. First vaccines and worming for puppies is a couple hundred of the three thousand plus charged; yes, time spent socializing puppies and cleaning is also billable, and the extended time with mom to three months does cost more. Does it cost 30k more? Not unless that's your business, and by definition, you are making money from your business. All of the breeders that I have looked at charge more for dogs with confirmed proper conformation coloring as well. It's not a set price per effort per puppy, nor is it assumed that all the puppies will have the traits bred for and the faulty puppies listed as discount. It's upcharge, upcharge, upcharge. At least until no one buys the puppies after 16 weeks, then it's discount, discount, discount.
4. You can complete and show with your purebred AKC registered dogs...
Most purebred breeders won't issue you actual papers for your puppies until you spay/neuter and agree not to compete. Many also charge more for non-breed standard smalls rather than charging less and changing their breeding practices to avoid this. Another common practice even in the "AKC or breed recommended" breeders. Except most breeders have contracts saying that you... can't? Because they don't want their kennel to be associated with your showing efforts. It's so weird! If you want to start say, rally, or scent work, you need an AKC registered dog to officially compete in more events. But most breeders have in contract that you won't, unless you pay them additional money? Amounts ranging into ridiculous. So that lowers the requirement to buy from an approved AKC breeder. Go IBC instead and then cross register. Ditto for breeding. All have weird contracts that say they are for the good of the dog, in aggressive fashion. Like... instead of "If you need to rehome your dog, call us instead and we will take the dog back". its... "If you rehome this dog not to us, you must give us $2000 in damages". None of the contracts I've seen are dog focused.
Sigh. I'm just frustrated. The only approved BC Biewer breeder has just opted out of breeding, so it will either be out of province or an IBC registered breeder instead. It was so perfect! The previous breeder had good lines, good form, and was on the way to my parents house for pick up ease to avoid flying. US breeders of good repute are complicated now by the border rules, and the fast tanking exchange rate. Back to the drawing boards.
I want a dog that is portable; hypoallergenic; people focused; smart enough or trainable enough to do agility, scent-work, some type of active human-dog activity of equal interest. I want a healthy dog, or best chances of healthy I can get, knowing just how expensive vet work can get. I expect huge expenses at end of life no matter where I get dog - I just want best chances of solid health for known conditions I can find. B lived for 16 years; hoping to meet or exceed that with next dog(s).
Unpopular opinion: The majority of registered "Best Practice" dog breeders are not actively useful for people looking for dogs. They are ensconced in their hobby space, and sell the dogs that they don't want to keep as part of their breeding program as cast off consequences.
There are four solid reasons dog breeders give to buy from them instead of back yard breeders, rescues, or the pound.
1. "You know what you are getting with a purebred for health/temperament".
This is rationalized by "Good" dog breeders demonstrate this by both health testing and winning conformation titles with their breeding pair.
Thus a dog must be trainable, meet breed standards, and have tested DNA to be bred. I like and approve of this.
The health guarantees mentioned in contract are all suuuper weak though. They are are mealy mouthed as anything, and usually start with offering a replacement dog only if you give back the dog with the health condition. If you have bonded with a dog that has a health condition that was guaranteed against, they should just give you the second dog. What are they going to do with the first dog? Euthanize it? The money or replacement dog is for the heartache your poor breeding program just put the family though, after going through a purebred breeder to avoid it. So many have stupid clauses in them that you must continue to feed your dog some MLM dog food for the guarantee to remain in effect.
2. "Dog breeders breed to better the breed"
OK. Another way of saying this is they breed to choose the best of the litter to continue the line. This means there "pick of of the litter" won't be an open option for anyone who is NOT a breeder. Taking two dogs that meet breed standard will not always produce more dogs that do. You have to deal with recessives and other faults coming out from further back breeding lines. So even having a sire and bitch with clean health testing doesn't necessarily mean your dogs health testing will be solid -- but it's a better chance. I will note that EVERY website lists this as their goal in breeding, most without specifying exactly how they are trying to better the breed. This is one of the questions I ask breeders, and frankly few have any good answer. None have specific goals of breeding on their websites, just "bettering the breed".
3. " Dog breeders don't make money on breeding"
This one is PR as far as I can tell, at least after the first litter. Showing their dogs is frankly a hobby. It's a hobby that builds into breeding, but it's a hobby that lets them travel, socialize, and compete. First vaccines and worming for puppies is a couple hundred of the three thousand plus charged; yes, time spent socializing puppies and cleaning is also billable, and the extended time with mom to three months does cost more. Does it cost 30k more? Not unless that's your business, and by definition, you are making money from your business. All of the breeders that I have looked at charge more for dogs with confirmed proper conformation coloring as well. It's not a set price per effort per puppy, nor is it assumed that all the puppies will have the traits bred for and the faulty puppies listed as discount. It's upcharge, upcharge, upcharge. At least until no one buys the puppies after 16 weeks, then it's discount, discount, discount.
4. You can complete and show with your purebred AKC registered dogs...
Most purebred breeders won't issue you actual papers for your puppies until you spay/neuter and agree not to compete. Many also charge more for non-breed standard smalls rather than charging less and changing their breeding practices to avoid this. Another common practice even in the "AKC or breed recommended" breeders. Except most breeders have contracts saying that you... can't? Because they don't want their kennel to be associated with your showing efforts. It's so weird! If you want to start say, rally, or scent work, you need an AKC registered dog to officially compete in more events. But most breeders have in contract that you won't, unless you pay them additional money? Amounts ranging into ridiculous. So that lowers the requirement to buy from an approved AKC breeder. Go IBC instead and then cross register. Ditto for breeding. All have weird contracts that say they are for the good of the dog, in aggressive fashion. Like... instead of "If you need to rehome your dog, call us instead and we will take the dog back". its... "If you rehome this dog not to us, you must give us $2000 in damages". None of the contracts I've seen are dog focused.
Sigh. I'm just frustrated. The only approved BC Biewer breeder has just opted out of breeding, so it will either be out of province or an IBC registered breeder instead. It was so perfect! The previous breeder had good lines, good form, and was on the way to my parents house for pick up ease to avoid flying. US breeders of good repute are complicated now by the border rules, and the fast tanking exchange rate. Back to the drawing boards.
