becoming a back yard breeder

[akgriffin]

I got a buddy who is wanting to get a gsd for his 3yrd daughter to grow up with and protect her when she comes to visit with him(parents are divorced). As we talked today, he made a comment of maybe getting a pair to mate, and sell the pups for money, since in SE oklahoma, ppl want gsd's, but dont want to pay alot or travel far to get them. I told him please dont, cause the breed the hip problems and unless your doing it for the breed and not the money, dont do this. I also told him, what if a dog you sell does something like attack someone, i told him he probly could be held responsible in selling a mean dog to someone who doesnt know the breed. His reply was after i sell it, im not responsible. I quit the subject after that comment. what else can i say to discourage him from tryin this??

[Superpup]

How about take him to a shelter to look at all the dogs that do not have homes? There are plenty of GSDs in shelters that are abandoned by people because someone wanted to make money, bred the pair they had, got tons of puppies, could not sell them, or someone got a puppy, but the puppy was too fearful, or shy, or aggressive and then they end up in shelters and get euthanized.

How about printing articles about all the health problems the shepherds have and how you won't know unless you do hip xrays and elbow xrays, if they have HD or ED... how about talking to him about temperament and how you won't know a truly good working shepherd unless you train them and title them, usually in SchH.

Just a few thoughts.

[middleofnowhere]

Or track all the GSDs available at pounds in Oklahoma for free. Or all the incidents you can track down about birthing gone bad.

[mkennels]

tell him he is responsible for any health problems most states have lemon laws and he could be sued

[sprzybyl]

Also, maybe you can tally up the cost of breeding- vet bills, kennel, food, vaccinations, etc. and show that he's not going to make that much money for the effort? maybe someone can chime in with these costs? He'd probably have to charge more than he thinks to make a lot of money from it.

[DianaM]

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...e=1#Post711899

How about showing him the thread on breeding nightmares? And then tell him to make sure he has money for an emergency C-section at 3am on an early Sunday morning, then when the bitch dies, make sure he can take two or three weeks off work to nurse a litter of nine around the clock, which also means no full night's sleep for awhile.

[lcht2]

tell him to stick with keeping them as pets................

[middleofnowhere]

And after all that, just back off and let it sink in. People usually aren't willing to admit that you've changed their mind right off.

[akgriffin]

I apoligize, i now realize i didnt write in the whole story, cause his comment through me for a loop. we are both in iraq right now, and i looked up on petfinder.com, found a lovely 5yr old male who's hose broke, and probly some ob training, and also says, but unproven, that his owner was mute and used hand signals to command him, and the owner died or went into a nursing home. I showed him to my buddy, but he isnt suppose to be home till june.
I have a rescure female i got a year ago, before i came to iraq. I will also admit i have thought about breeding, but doing it for the lines, but **** no now...not after what yall wrote. i can see it would be more than i wanted. I would love to have this fella, but i get home from iraq in may, then ill be back here in sept or oct. i dont wanna put another burden on my wife or i might be sleeping in the truck with my dogs. i know this is long, and little off topic but thank you all for more info on how to keep him doin a grave injustice to the breed.

[dreamofwrx]

In my experience unless someone is a true "dog" person, they really dont care, and are going to breed no matter what you tell them. Unfortunately, that is about 90% of people that own a dog. Just present the facts and hope for the best.