And this is why, if you want to be a breeder, you have to like people a whole lot.
If people buy an office chair, and it has a mechanical failure, and they call the manufacturer. The manufacturer looks up the warranty information and then sends them a new part. They do not let you keep the old chair, and send you a new chair. they do not give you your money back.
With any half-way decent breeding situation, the $600 dollar puppy purchase price does not cover the cost of vet care, training, and food for their dogs. And there are a ton of other expenses, training, trialing, licenses, registrations, supplies, and the tons of time that goes into all of it.
So when the OP calls up and says, "My vet says my puppy has mild HD, I want my money back." Well, so sorry. If you bought a bicycle and after a year you bent the rim, are you going to want your money back? And keep the bicycle???
Breeders and painted with a pretty negative brush. If you charge ANYTHING, you are money grubbing and selling family members, and doing it for the money.
If you do not have the breeding stock tested and trialed and not too old and not too young and not too many breedings, then you are irresponsible.
If you have only had this litter, then you are inexperienced.
If you have more than one litter per year, you are a puppy mill.
If you have less than 20 years experience, you don't know what you are doing and no one should trust you.
If you have more than 20 years experience, than you are old school probably not doing everything that people expect you to.
If you have ever produced a dog with an issue, you are the scum of the earth.
If you find out that somebody wants to give up your dog, you better be prepared to buy back the dog -- not just take it back, and to pay what they want, including their costs for training, vet care, and heartguard. I mean REALLY! And to buy their other dog too, that has nothing to do with you. And to pay for its training, vet care and heartguard.
You must be available around the clock, taking care of puppies full-time, but you MUST NOT make a living by doing so.
But I ask you, what do breeders get from their puppy buyers? What guarantees do they make to us?
While HD is a polygenic condition, it can be seriously affected by the environment and feeding, and possibly early neuter/spay. We can make suggestions and even put it in the contract that the dog will not be spayed or neutered until after it reaches 2 years, but people will do it anyway.
People will let the puppy jump off of decks because it is cute and then complain if the dog develops a limp.
They will call and tell us proudly that the 4 or 5 month old puppy is now running three miles with them every morning.
They will let us know how well he is doing on Purina, or Iams, or Science Diet.
They will totally ignore what we say about adult food and put the dog on puppy food and keep it on puppy food.
They will let the puppy get run over by a car, or electrocuted, or poisoned.
They will forget to bring the health record to their vet and allow their vet to re-vaccinate the puppy month after month.
They will take a brand new puppy, en route to home for the first time, and stop at a pet store and let the puppy walk around on the floor and sniff other dogs.
They will let the puppy be overweight, looking like a coffee table.
There are some really awesome people out there purchasing puppies from us, who call and give us updates, not just call to tell us about what horrible thing happened to the dog, that actually read through the paperwork we prepared for them, and actually hear our advice and make a conscious decision to follow it or not. People who train and socialize their dogs. They do exist, but they are not necessarily the norm.
Maybe the breeders SHOULD have told them up front what the hip guarantee said and why. But to tell the truth, I am trying to get the people through the first few days without overwhelming them. Telling them NOT to take them to the pet store, what to feed, NOT to let the vet re-vaccinate the dog too soon, and on and on.
I mention my hip guarantee, but I really doubt that the people actually HEAR what I say about it.