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In Defense of Reputable Dog Breeders

9/30/2015

2 Comments

 
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.

2 Comments
Shepherd's Lair ... again
9/30/2015 10:15:47 am

I'm all for breed specific rescue groups, in fact I'm a founding member of the Shiloh Rescue network. I am also in favor of people who open their hearts and homes to rescue dogs in need, whether mixed breeds or purebred.

What I'm against is beating up reputable breeders and reputable dog owners because there are homeless dogs out there. It's not their fault and they shouldn't be made to feel guilty because of it.

I'm also very against importing dogs from other countries to local rescue organizations. The Brookhaven town shelter is packed full of pits and pit-mixes, why aren't the big rescue groups working to rehome them? Why are the big rescue websites filled with so many young puppies, often hound mixes and small breed mixes? Because they're bringing them up from the south and Mexico. They're 'adoptable' and easy to rehome (aka sell). In Mexico people have started to puppy-mill breed these 'adoptable' mixes just to sell them cheap to rescue groups. That's the worst sin of all. Rescues are supposed to be rehoming dogs in need, not starting up a whole new industry of breeding more rescue dogs.

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Shepherd's Lair ... just a bit more
9/30/2015 10:16:54 am

It would be like someone trying to tell you that you can't have children just because there are kids in the foster system, or you can't buy a new car because someone somewhere has a used car for sale.

My decision to have a well-bred dog will not be swayed by their desire to rescue and rehome dogs. In my lifetime I've owned more mixed-breed and rescue dogs than anything else, but I won't be shamed into taking in a rescue dog if it doesn't fit into my plans.

My responsibility is to care for my dogs, to prevent them from having unplanned litters (by spay/neuter or management) and to be responsible for any litters that I do produce. Reputable breeders are there for the lifetime of their dogs and they aren't the ones that are filling the shelters and rescue groups. They deserve to be proud of the work they do and the dogs they produce.

Ok, stepping off my soapbox now.

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