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This post generally refers to dogs but can encompass unethical breeders of any kind of animal. I come at this from the standpoint of an animal lover, rescuer, and breeder.
That's right, I'm a breeder. I breed society and lady gouldian finches. I'm a member of the NFSS (National Finch and Softbill Society). I do everything I can to ensure my birds are healthy and happy, breed on a very low scale, have a full sales contract, interview potential buyers extensively, and maintain contact.
I understand that most people don't fully realize the scope of the problem with most dog breeders, that they are generally good at heart and simply uneducated or naive about the way things work. So let me address some common points and myths about dogs and dog-breeding.
Breeding, when done correctly, will almost always cost you money, NEVER make it for you. A breeder should be only be breeding females that are two years or older (most breeds), so there is the cost of the female, and the cost of feeding her for two years. Not to mention the cost of the full series of shots. And that's just the beginning. A good breeder will usually have their dogs certified in any 'working' area that dog is bred to do...i.e. a spaniel breeder will usually have their dogs field and gun certified...a doberman breeder would likely have their dogs Shutzhund certified...an aussie breeder would have them herding or agility certified. More importantly, the breeder will have their dog up to their conformation championship, to insure that the dog is a solid representative of their breed.
A lot of people will pass off conformation championships as unimportant...a usual excuse is 'but everyone says my dog could be a show dog!'. Unless they're qualified judges familiar with every inch of the particular breed standard, it doesn't matter. If you continuously breed dogs out of the breed standard, you eventually add up with puppies that look nothing like their breed. A german shepherd with a high back and floppy hound ears, for example... or a stocky, short nosed doberman. Conformations are crucial to preserve the integrity of the breed as it is meant to be.
And conformation championships cost money...so that's more down the tube before a single pup is ever produced.
So now they also have health tests on top of it. And no, I'm not talking about a vet listening to a heart under a stethoscope and declaring the dog sound. A vet is no more qualified to discover hidden genetic ailments in this manner than a doctor is determining your predispostion toward diabetes and cancer simply by doing the same to you. Hip certifications, eye certifciations, heart holter testing, burcellosis testing, are just a few tests that a breeding-possible dog should go through, depending on breed, before they are considered for parenthood. Some of the tests need to be done yearly, and NONE are cheap.
I have a co-worker who breeds Burnese Mountain dogs. They are some of the most beautiful dogs you would ever see. All his breeding dogs have their champions in conformation, all are hip, eye, elbow, and heart certified. Some have their drafting championships. He is EXTREMELY picky who his dogs go to, knows each and every pup that he's produced by name and owner, and keeps in contact with each. He requires every person who purchases one of his pups to have them hip, elbow, eye, and heart certified as soon as they are old enough...even the pet-quality, speutered pups who are in homes as nothing more than loved companions...so he knows any and every single genetic problem possible that crops up in his lines.
He and his wife both work full time. They make NO money on their dogs. They are doing it right.
Any breeder that focuses on more than two breeds of dog is sacrificing quality for quantity. Breeding one breed of dog properly is a full time job. If your potential breeder has three or more breeds you're looking at a breeder that is sacrificing something for money. The dogs will likely not have their health certs, the breeder will not likely be able or even interested in keeping contact with purchasers to insure their pups never end up in a shelter or abused, the puppies will not be properly socialized (if it is a full time job to properly socialize a single litter of eight pups...imagine if you've got fifty or sixty on the ground?). The breeder is sacrificing SOMETHING in the name of production. So keep that in mind.
Then there's my favorite point...the designer dogs.
No, all dogs did not start out as mixed breeds. Way back in the dark dawn of time, all dogs looked the same...much like a dingo. Over time, people began to breed dogs with certain characteristics together to enhance those characteristics into a trait needed by man. A puppy born with a mutation for longer legs and faster running was bred to other puppies with a similar mutation to enhance the trait. Eventually dog breeds started to form. And eventually, breeds were cross-bred to create a more fitting breed...bulldogs and mastiffs were created to develop the bull-mastiff...a dog that had the tenacity of a bulldog and the size of a mastiff, to serve as a better guard dog.
Our current designer dog phenomenon has nothing to do with this. It started nobly enough...with labradoodles. They were first bred to create a guide dog for the blind that was low-allergenic. Very swiftly, those doing the breeding discovered that it was a dead road...the results were too varied and it did not work as well as they had wished.
Since then, labradoodles have changed little. They are still labs bred to poodles...a cross breed, no matter the name given them. Some breeders have managed to create f2 labradoodles...that is puppies born of two labradoodle parents, but they are little like their parents. It takes many generations of selective breeding to lock in a standard, and the AKC won't even look at a breed of dog unless it has several generations of same to same breeding and a working standard. There are dog breeds that have been around hundreds if not thousands of years who are still not recognized by the AKC. Any breeder who tells you their mixed breed designer 'breed' is on the cusp of being recognized is very probably either grossly misinformed...or downright lying.
But at least the labradoodles had an initial purpose. Puggles, morkies, yorkiepoos, miniature boxers, bugs, shnoodles, and all the other designer breeds have no purpose save this...to make their breeders tons of money by slapping a cute name on a mixed breed dog.
No, they're not hypoallergenic. There is literally no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog...unless you have a dog without skin. Most people allergic are allergic to shed skin dander. All things with skin shed dander. Some people may find certain breeds less irritating to their allergies. Some people can't live with ANY breed of dog whatsoever. There are low-allergenic dogs, but hypoallergenic is impossible and is basically a buzz-word to charge more money for something.
No, they're not hybrids. Breeding a dog to a dog is not a hybrid...its a dog. Breeding a wolf to a dog, or a coyote to a dog, would make a hybrid. Breeding a horse to a zebra would make a hybrid...a horse to a horse just makes a horse.
No, there is also no such thing as a non-shedding dog. All dogs shed. All things with fur or hair or feathers shed, even people. The difference between 'shedding' breeds and 'non-shedding' breeds is the coat. A labrador sheds, the fur goes on your floor. A poodle sheds, the hair falls out and simply tangles in the rest of its hair. This is why poodles must be brushed constantly...to remove the shed hair from the rest of its coat and to prevent tangling and matting that it can cause.
All dogs shed. Even 'hairless' breeds have some fur or hair, and shed. It's simply a question of if you want the fur on the ground to be vaccuumed or in its coat to be brushed.
All those wonderful designer dogs have been languishing and dying in shelters for years. My mother adopted a puggle from the shelter who was about to be euthanized...shortly before all the puggle hype. She calls her what she is...a pug-beagle mix. But stick her next to a 'puggle' that was purchased from a breeder for nearly $1000 and you can't tell the difference. So why do people shell out thousands of dollars for a mixed breed with a cutesy name when the same dog is sitting at a shelter, ready to die, for less than a hundred bucks?
You got me.
There's more that I could go on about but this is a discussion, not just a 'me' rant. So I open the floor now.
That's right, I'm a breeder. I breed society and lady gouldian finches. I'm a member of the NFSS (National Finch and Softbill Society). I do everything I can to ensure my birds are healthy and happy, breed on a very low scale, have a full sales contract, interview potential buyers extensively, and maintain contact.
I understand that most people don't fully realize the scope of the problem with most dog breeders, that they are generally good at heart and simply uneducated or naive about the way things work. So let me address some common points and myths about dogs and dog-breeding.
Breeding, when done correctly, will almost always cost you money, NEVER make it for you. A breeder should be only be breeding females that are two years or older (most breeds), so there is the cost of the female, and the cost of feeding her for two years. Not to mention the cost of the full series of shots. And that's just the beginning. A good breeder will usually have their dogs certified in any 'working' area that dog is bred to do...i.e. a spaniel breeder will usually have their dogs field and gun certified...a doberman breeder would likely have their dogs Shutzhund certified...an aussie breeder would have them herding or agility certified. More importantly, the breeder will have their dog up to their conformation championship, to insure that the dog is a solid representative of their breed.
A lot of people will pass off conformation championships as unimportant...a usual excuse is 'but everyone says my dog could be a show dog!'. Unless they're qualified judges familiar with every inch of the particular breed standard, it doesn't matter. If you continuously breed dogs out of the breed standard, you eventually add up with puppies that look nothing like their breed. A german shepherd with a high back and floppy hound ears, for example... or a stocky, short nosed doberman. Conformations are crucial to preserve the integrity of the breed as it is meant to be.
And conformation championships cost money...so that's more down the tube before a single pup is ever produced.
So now they also have health tests on top of it. And no, I'm not talking about a vet listening to a heart under a stethoscope and declaring the dog sound. A vet is no more qualified to discover hidden genetic ailments in this manner than a doctor is determining your predispostion toward diabetes and cancer simply by doing the same to you. Hip certifications, eye certifciations, heart holter testing, burcellosis testing, are just a few tests that a breeding-possible dog should go through, depending on breed, before they are considered for parenthood. Some of the tests need to be done yearly, and NONE are cheap.
I have a co-worker who breeds Burnese Mountain dogs. They are some of the most beautiful dogs you would ever see. All his breeding dogs have their champions in conformation, all are hip, eye, elbow, and heart certified. Some have their drafting championships. He is EXTREMELY picky who his dogs go to, knows each and every pup that he's produced by name and owner, and keeps in contact with each. He requires every person who purchases one of his pups to have them hip, elbow, eye, and heart certified as soon as they are old enough...even the pet-quality, speutered pups who are in homes as nothing more than loved companions...so he knows any and every single genetic problem possible that crops up in his lines.
He and his wife both work full time. They make NO money on their dogs. They are doing it right.
Any breeder that focuses on more than two breeds of dog is sacrificing quality for quantity. Breeding one breed of dog properly is a full time job. If your potential breeder has three or more breeds you're looking at a breeder that is sacrificing something for money. The dogs will likely not have their health certs, the breeder will not likely be able or even interested in keeping contact with purchasers to insure their pups never end up in a shelter or abused, the puppies will not be properly socialized (if it is a full time job to properly socialize a single litter of eight pups...imagine if you've got fifty or sixty on the ground?). The breeder is sacrificing SOMETHING in the name of production. So keep that in mind.
Then there's my favorite point...the designer dogs.
No, all dogs did not start out as mixed breeds. Way back in the dark dawn of time, all dogs looked the same...much like a dingo. Over time, people began to breed dogs with certain characteristics together to enhance those characteristics into a trait needed by man. A puppy born with a mutation for longer legs and faster running was bred to other puppies with a similar mutation to enhance the trait. Eventually dog breeds started to form. And eventually, breeds were cross-bred to create a more fitting breed...bulldogs and mastiffs were created to develop the bull-mastiff...a dog that had the tenacity of a bulldog and the size of a mastiff, to serve as a better guard dog.
Our current designer dog phenomenon has nothing to do with this. It started nobly enough...with labradoodles. They were first bred to create a guide dog for the blind that was low-allergenic. Very swiftly, those doing the breeding discovered that it was a dead road...the results were too varied and it did not work as well as they had wished.
Since then, labradoodles have changed little. They are still labs bred to poodles...a cross breed, no matter the name given them. Some breeders have managed to create f2 labradoodles...that is puppies born of two labradoodle parents, but they are little like their parents. It takes many generations of selective breeding to lock in a standard, and the AKC won't even look at a breed of dog unless it has several generations of same to same breeding and a working standard. There are dog breeds that have been around hundreds if not thousands of years who are still not recognized by the AKC. Any breeder who tells you their mixed breed designer 'breed' is on the cusp of being recognized is very probably either grossly misinformed...or downright lying.
But at least the labradoodles had an initial purpose. Puggles, morkies, yorkiepoos, miniature boxers, bugs, shnoodles, and all the other designer breeds have no purpose save this...to make their breeders tons of money by slapping a cute name on a mixed breed dog.
No, they're not hypoallergenic. There is literally no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog...unless you have a dog without skin. Most people allergic are allergic to shed skin dander. All things with skin shed dander. Some people may find certain breeds less irritating to their allergies. Some people can't live with ANY breed of dog whatsoever. There are low-allergenic dogs, but hypoallergenic is impossible and is basically a buzz-word to charge more money for something.
No, they're not hybrids. Breeding a dog to a dog is not a hybrid...its a dog. Breeding a wolf to a dog, or a coyote to a dog, would make a hybrid. Breeding a horse to a zebra would make a hybrid...a horse to a horse just makes a horse.
No, there is also no such thing as a non-shedding dog. All dogs shed. All things with fur or hair or feathers shed, even people. The difference between 'shedding' breeds and 'non-shedding' breeds is the coat. A labrador sheds, the fur goes on your floor. A poodle sheds, the hair falls out and simply tangles in the rest of its hair. This is why poodles must be brushed constantly...to remove the shed hair from the rest of its coat and to prevent tangling and matting that it can cause.
All dogs shed. Even 'hairless' breeds have some fur or hair, and shed. It's simply a question of if you want the fur on the ground to be vaccuumed or in its coat to be brushed.
All those wonderful designer dogs have been languishing and dying in shelters for years. My mother adopted a puggle from the shelter who was about to be euthanized...shortly before all the puggle hype. She calls her what she is...a pug-beagle mix. But stick her next to a 'puggle' that was purchased from a breeder for nearly $1000 and you can't tell the difference. So why do people shell out thousands of dollars for a mixed breed with a cutesy name when the same dog is sitting at a shelter, ready to die, for less than a hundred bucks?
You got me.
There's more that I could go on about but this is a discussion, not just a 'me' rant. So I open the floor now.
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