does every dog owner have the right to breed? discussion

[Jessiewessie99]

I think people should only be breeding if they have dogs that are titled, certain qualities that they think may help the breed, or try to breed a certain trait out of the dog, I was talking to this one person who was trying to breed aggression out of German shepherds or his line of German Shepherds. I think people who have a good, verified, reasonable reason to breed their dogs. Titled, health tested, certified, qualified dogs should be bred.

People should not be breeding their dogs just because they want to and think their dogs will have cute babies. Molly & Tanner are beautiful and would probably have cute babies, but I don't have the time, money or the room to have more dogs in the house. Just because your dog if AKC registered, comes from a great bloodline shouldn't be the reason for breeding. I think thats why some responsible breeders make their customers or whatever u call them sign a contract or have papers that show the dog has been spayed/neutered. And also its good thing responsible breeders only breed at certain times of the year.

Its sad enough seeing such beautiful dogs of any breed in shelters, especially puppies in shelters. In otherwords: If you don't have the time, room, money, dedication, your dog isn't titled, certified, trained, or any other breed worthy reason, then don't breed.

[robinhuerta]

Unfortunately.....anyone & everyone, has the "right"....

[cliffson1]

I find it amusing that many of the breeders on this list that have a history of breeding very good dogs have the more moderate views on "requirements" for a breeder, and many people who have never bred a litter have the long laundry lists of what breeders should or shouldn't do. I have been in dogs a long time and the dogs with the best health and temperament in general I have seen were crossbreeds/mutts. How is this possible if these dogs and their parents and breeders don't carry all the badges, certifications, statue, and responsibility that ensures temperament and health. I go into any public forum and the mutts and crossbreeds make a seemless transition to being in public...I see many of "OUR" breed in public and I see unsureness, overaggression, unnaturalness, etc. Not always, but more often than the crossbreeds or mutts....And to add insult to injury, when I often see a well adjusted German Shepherd in public it often looks like the god forbid BYB variety. And then i correct my eyes and say noooo! that dog was not responsibly bred and I'm looking at a mirage because I have learned that only breeders with a check list 4 pages long should have the right to breed correct German Shepherds. I don't know whether to believe my eyes or the internet scholars....Its so confusing to me!

[Dainerra]

all I can hear is uncle Ben from the first Spiderman movie: With awesome power comes awesome responsibility.

I probably flubbed the line, but it's still a good idea.

[Samba]

How can puppy mills be eliminated? I would like an easy answer to that!
Had a lady from the ASPCA speak at our kennel club meeting about upcoming legislation targeted at puppy mills. She was basically run out of the meeting. The breeders there are not commercial breeders, but see that much legislation is just not good at addressing the problem. It is difficult to get at some without penalizing others and who is to decide just what is responsible breeding? The definition is a huge conundrum in itself because there is not a simple "recipe" !

I sure would like to support more public exposure of the commercial industry. Education may reach more than regulation. Where we live there are not resources to enforce the regulations already in place anyway.

[LaRen616]

I agree, some of the best dogs out there are mutts.

Wether their mutts or purebred, there are too many dogs in the world and not enough homes for them.

Too many of them get put down everyday, it doesnt matter if they are great purebreds or great mutts, their just isn't a home for them all.

Mistakes happen and litters are born. Stray dogs have puppies, not much we can do about that. But the people that breed their mutts because they are cute dogs and would make cute puppies are in the wrong.

Go look at your local animal shelter, if you can walk in there and not feel anything and not feel bad that you are producing more puppies that might end up in there. Then everything I say will not have an effect on you.

Now if you have GSD's with great pedigrees and you and others truely believe that your dog will bring great things to the breed then I dont see anything wrong with breeding them, as long as you find the best homes possible for them and you are willing to take them back incase their owner can no longer have them

[onyx'girl]

Originally Posted by Samba

How can puppy mills be eliminated? I would like an easy answer to that!
Had a lady from the ASPCA speak at our kennel club meeting about upcoming legislation targeted at puppy mills. She was basically run out of the meeting. The breeders there are not commercial breeders, but see that much legislation is just not good at addressing the problem. It is difficult to get at some without penalizing others and who is to decide just what is responsible breeding? The definition is a huge conundrum in itself because there is not a simple "recipe" !

I sure would like to support more public exposure of the commercial industry. Education may reach more than regulation. Where we live there are not resources to enforce the regulations already in place anyway.

That is the problem, good breeders get penalized for what the millers are doing.
I wish there was an answer.
You are right, about regulations, more isn't better. The next town over is doing away with both of their AC's because they have no funding, so cutting this along with the local community college LE K9 school.

Sorry off topic.

[GSDElsa]

[quote=Samba;1800307]How can puppy mills be eliminated? I would like an easy answer to that!
quote]

The responsibility to eliminate puppy mills lays soley on the cosumer. Simply supply and demand. If they don't make money, there would be no puppy mills.

[LARHAGE]

Originally Posted by cliffson1

I find it amusing that many of the breeders on this list that have a history of breeding very good dogs have the more moderate views on "requirements" for a breeder, and many people who have never bred a litter have the long laundry lists of what breeders should or shouldn't do. I have been in dogs a long time and the dogs with the best health and temperament in general I have seen were crossbreeds/mutts. How is this possible if these dogs and their parents and breeders don't carry all the badges, certifications, statue, and responsibility that ensures temperament and health. I go into any public forum and the mutts and crossbreeds make a seemless transition to being in public...I see many of "OUR" breed in public and I see unsureness, overaggression, unnaturalness, etc. Not always, but more often than the crossbreeds or mutts....And to add insult to injury, when I often see a well adjusted German Shepherd in public it often looks like the god forbid BYB variety. And then i correct my eyes and say noooo! that dog was not responsibly bred and I'm looking at a mirage because I have learned that only breeders with a check list 4 pages long should have the right to breed correct German Shepherds. I don't know whether to believe my eyes or the internet scholars....Its so confusing to me!

I really have to agree with you, if you make dog breeding ( or any species) an elitist attitude with nothing but a plethora of requirements, than you create a situation where dogs become out of reach to the general population, than you create a closed gene pool and more, not less health problems evolve. I personally believe while ideally you would have breeders who generally LOVE the breed and their criteria is to enhance the breed by producing dogs with beauty, brains and functionality, the reality is this will not happen. I personally have purchased 2 German Shepherds from top notch kennels that do all of the above, I also have in the past purchased Germans Shepherds that would be considered BYB puppies, and I had and have not had any problems with them, the people producing them had dogs they loved, with top bloodlines who accompanied them to horse shows or were real working ranch type dogs. I plan to show and title my young male, and yes, I do look forward to breeding him some day down the road. The reality is this breed is more likely to be purchased as a family companion than a working/show dog, and those are the dogs that are seen more often than not by the public, these dogs will represent the breed more than the show dogs, so their place in society is no less important than the exspensive show dogs, in fact it could be argued it is even more. The fact a dog is from a BYB does not automatically make them a poor specimen, the Shepherds I bought from seeing their parents at horse shows demomnstrated great temperament, intelligence and quality, just in a different venue.

I also breed Arabian Horses, that is a breed thats history is one of pedigrees and mares so cherished they were allowed to live in the tents with their people, 2 of the greatest Stallions the breed has ever known were both produced from backyard breeders, with nothing more than a mare and a dream, Kemosabi was born in an alley in Whittier, California, and Bey Shah was bred by pure accident when a trailer his mother was in broke down, they stayed at a well known breeder in California for the night, the great Varian Arabians, and bred their humble little mare to one of the stallions, creating this fantastic stallion. These two genetic masterpieces would never have been created if so many rules or hurdles would have been in place, or being looked down on because of perceived inferior pedigrees.

[sagelfn]

A German Shepherd is NOT supposed to be a lap dog. IMO the general public should not own a GSD because the general public is well not very smart. They are the people we all complain about on here "dog on flexi wearing prong collar" "dog running loose" "dog tied to tree" the shelter/rescue population is the result of the general poplulation.