Breeding golden retriever can be reputable; breeding white tigers never can be.
I’ve been perusing the message boards and youtube comments to see what people are saying about dog breeding.
I keep seeing what appears to be a concerted effort to demonize all people who breed dogs. If I see “There is no such thing as a reputable dog breeder” again, I think I’m going to puke.
There are people who breed dogs for stupid reasons. They don’t do health checks. They breed in mass quantities to make large profits (we call these people puppy millers or puppy farmers for a reason.).
However, we cannot paint so many people with such a broad brush. The truth is dog breeders, who are actually serious dog people who occasionally have a litter, are an important part of the solution to the various problems plaguing dogs.
Let me define a reputable breeder. A reputable breeder is a serious dog person who occasionally has a litter.
A reputable breeder does lots of genetic testing to ensure health in his or her dogs. They are concerned with soundness in temperament and body. They test their dogs abilities in some way to assess quality (although I think we need a better system of assessment besides the conformation show). And they carefully plan every breeding.
Further, most of these people are in breed rescue. Breed rescues reduce the number of dogs in shelters. If only the shelters were more receptive to breed rescues, the number of purebred dogs needing homes would be greatly reduced.
Finally, a reputable breeder will not sell his or her “fur children” to just anyone. The breeder sees the potential owners of his or her puppies as very important part of the breeding program. Which owners will bring out the best in my dogs? Which owners really fit my dogs well? A reputable breeder will ask a bunch of questions to answer these questions.
Reputable breeders are not the problem. Don’t let the poorly considered comments of the self-righteous fool you. It goes back to one of my rules: don’t trust anyone who speaks in slogans.
BTW, as for the caption in the picture, breeding white tigers is never a reputable activity.
I had one litter this year. I have retained two of the three pups.
Both are on the fence, both are beautiful but both are on the fence. They will be on the fence until probably age 3.
I fully expect to wash one or the other out in the next few months in terms of breeding/showing. but in the interim they get house trained, basic obedience, lots of socialization etc… and when and if they leave, someone will be getting a very nice young dog.
I have a growing list of young dogs and bitches who were either pointed or finished with their championship who ended up altered and placed, or altered and hanging out in a new “full time pet” capacity.
The rewards for being willing to cut deep are not insubstantial. the two youngster I took to the vet yesterday passed a basic once over with flying colors, including an overview and manipulation of knees, hips elbws eyes and a cursory upper airway exam. So OK, for now.
The big issue in the ring is that for generations the judges education for bulldogs was this:
“What’s wrong in every other breed is right in a bulldog”
I still hear that. That single little pearl of wisdom has done more damage and harm to bulldogs than almost anything. It has allowed for the disappearance of angulation, tolerance of bad eyes, feet, tails. Permitted fat little over-done furry toads to win, seen the disappearance of neck length and arch, the loss of desired length of skull and the proliferation of heavy ropey wrinkles.
Combine that with a lack of historic understanding of dogs in general. When the AKC recognized bulldog standard was crafted to include words like massive, extremely and very, it was using other breeds from the late 1800s to compare too. And the dogs then were simply not as massive, over engineered and heavy boned as those commonly seen today.
There is no such thing as a reputable breeder. Sorry.
http://bowwowblogger.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/but-my-breeder-is-reputable/
LOL. You haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. The pet overpopulation problem is largely a hoax.
http://www.astraean.com/borderwars/2012/06/now-only-2-of-dogs-die-in-shelters.html
2 percent is a pathetically low number for any species.