So, a responsible breeder:
- Belongs to a breed club, national and local and conforms to the club's code of ethics if the club has one
- Participates in activities that judge a dog's worth. Conformation shows, obedience, agility, hunting/field trials, earth dog trials, tracking, lure coursing, to name just a few
- Focuses breeding on health and temperament, not color or size
- Belongs to a legitimate breed registry, like the AKC, CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) and not a "scam" registry like the Continental Kennel Club, America's Pet Registry, etc.
- Enters their dogs in a health registry like the OFA, and checks the quality of hips, knees, elbows, eyes, heart, hearing, and thyroid, to name just a few things. Some tests are done for all breeds, others, like BAER testing for hearing, are not. I'll explain more about this in another post. Even if the dogs they have are not to be bred, they should be tested, because that gives more information about the overall health of a dogs' pedigree
- Besides physical testing, there should be ways that the breeder contributes to the overall health and welfare of the breed, such as supporting rescue
- Breeds a limited number of breeds. Generally, this number is two. It takes a lot of work for a breeder to be competent and up to date with all the issues of more than two breeds.
- Breeds a limitd number of litters. Most, one litter or fewer a year. In some toy breeds, where only one or two pups are born, a good breeder may breed more than once a year.
- Gives a spay/neuter (aka altering) contract, as well as solid, legally enforceable consequences of not altering the dog
- Accepts the return of any of the animals they breed, for any reason, at any age of the dog
- Carefully matches up each pup with the prospective owner
- Is willing to discuss anything about the dogs, show proof of health tests, volunteer information on genetic health problems within the breed, knows the test results on close relatives of the dog they are breeding
- Offers a health guarantee for at least two years (more on this later)
- Socializes the puppies and does not sell them any younger than seven weeks of age. In some states, it is illegal to sell them younger than eight weeks
3 comments:
as said before, don't be fooled just because a puppy comes with a sign off saying it is garaunteed to have no genetic defects! Ask if you can have the puppy see your own vet FIRST before buying!
I have two:
Lets you visit their house anytime -and don't look at their laundry, we all have an off day- look at the pups home and overall condition of their dogs (yes the dog mom will be tired but she should look healthy, and taking good care of the pups, if she doesn't the owners should stop breeding her)
Has a variety of references to previous buyers who will let you visit their grown up dogs.
a girl who lives near me breeds her pet Great Dane twice a year and gets an average of 10 pups each time which she sells unregistered for $1000 each. Thats an income of $20000 from that poor dog alone. Backyard breeders should be banned.
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