Reputable dog breeders need someone to champion their cause.
Big rescue organizations tell people to rescue, don’t buy a dog. They tell you to save a life, and they play on your emotions with their TV commercials showing all of the homeless puppies that will die if you don’t adopt, or cough up a few bucks to help. They villainize people who have the gall to purchase a dog, portraying them as uncaring, insensitive, wasteful and downright evil for not ‘saving a life’.
They tell you to adopt one of their rescued dogs (that they shipped in from another state or country) while their local shelters are full of homeless, unwanted dogs. They solicit donations from individuals by plucking at heartstrings and by showing pictures of abused and neglected dogs. Then when someone adopts one of their ‘rescue dogs’ they charge adoption fees which often amount to many hundreds of dollars. Yes, dog “rescue” is turning into a big, guilt driven, money making, publicity machine…
But think back to the times when you saw a gorgeous, well behaved dog walking with its owner. A dog that made you stop in your tracks and say, “Wow, what an incredible Labrador Retriever, or Golden, or Border Collie, or German Shepherd, or Rottweiler or Shiloh Shepherd... just fill in the blank with your favorite breed. A dog that is well balanced and healthy, one that moved with grace and confidence. A breed that is instantly recognizable, and a dog that is a gorgeous representative of its breed standard.
It takes dedication, hard work and a lot of money to breed dogs properly. I’m not talking about someone who buys two AKC dogs, throws them together in the backyard and sells off all the resulting puppies. I’m talking about someone who spends not months, but years and decades studying pedigrees, researching lines, collecting data, doing health testing for diseases their breed is prone to. Someone who does everything humanly possible to insure that the breeding that they’ve arranged will result in puppies that meet or exceed the breed standard and be even healthier than the generations before.
These are people that breed for the good of the breed, not the good of their wallet. People that jealously guard their puppies and make potential puppy buyers jump through hoops and sit on waiting lists – often for a year or more – to have the privilege of owning one of their puppies. People that lose money on every litter of puppies, but continue to breed because each generation they produce gets just a little bit better and a little bit closer to their perfect ideal dog. They’re the people who spend thousands on testing and x-rays and ultrasounds for a healthy litter. They’re also the people who spend much more on C-sections and supportive care for a litter that runs into problems. They take off from their ‘day jobs’ for days to nurse sick puppies, or for weeks to bottle raise a litter that lost their mother due to complications. They put their heart and soul into everything they do. Their lives and their families revolve around their dogs… handling classes, trips to shows, vets and specialists, training classes and so much more.
So I’d like to say a great big THANK YOU to the people who work so hard, for so little reward… for the good of the breed.
Big rescue organizations tell people to rescue, don’t buy a dog. They tell you to save a life, and they play on your emotions with their TV commercials showing all of the homeless puppies that will die if you don’t adopt, or cough up a few bucks to help. They villainize people who have the gall to purchase a dog, portraying them as uncaring, insensitive, wasteful and downright evil for not ‘saving a life’.
They tell you to adopt one of their rescued dogs (that they shipped in from another state or country) while their local shelters are full of homeless, unwanted dogs. They solicit donations from individuals by plucking at heartstrings and by showing pictures of abused and neglected dogs. Then when someone adopts one of their ‘rescue dogs’ they charge adoption fees which often amount to many hundreds of dollars. Yes, dog “rescue” is turning into a big, guilt driven, money making, publicity machine…
But think back to the times when you saw a gorgeous, well behaved dog walking with its owner. A dog that made you stop in your tracks and say, “Wow, what an incredible Labrador Retriever, or Golden, or Border Collie, or German Shepherd, or Rottweiler or Shiloh Shepherd... just fill in the blank with your favorite breed. A dog that is well balanced and healthy, one that moved with grace and confidence. A breed that is instantly recognizable, and a dog that is a gorgeous representative of its breed standard.
It takes dedication, hard work and a lot of money to breed dogs properly. I’m not talking about someone who buys two AKC dogs, throws them together in the backyard and sells off all the resulting puppies. I’m talking about someone who spends not months, but years and decades studying pedigrees, researching lines, collecting data, doing health testing for diseases their breed is prone to. Someone who does everything humanly possible to insure that the breeding that they’ve arranged will result in puppies that meet or exceed the breed standard and be even healthier than the generations before.
These are people that breed for the good of the breed, not the good of their wallet. People that jealously guard their puppies and make potential puppy buyers jump through hoops and sit on waiting lists – often for a year or more – to have the privilege of owning one of their puppies. People that lose money on every litter of puppies, but continue to breed because each generation they produce gets just a little bit better and a little bit closer to their perfect ideal dog. They’re the people who spend thousands on testing and x-rays and ultrasounds for a healthy litter. They’re also the people who spend much more on C-sections and supportive care for a litter that runs into problems. They take off from their ‘day jobs’ for days to nurse sick puppies, or for weeks to bottle raise a litter that lost their mother due to complications. They put their heart and soul into everything they do. Their lives and their families revolve around their dogs… handling classes, trips to shows, vets and specialists, training classes and so much more.
So I’d like to say a great big THANK YOU to the people who work so hard, for so little reward… for the good of the breed.
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