@Kazel, I understand what you’re saying about the need for more ethical breeders out there, and you’re right, everyone has to start somewhere. But while health is important, temperament and drive are just as important. You can have an incredibly healthy dog, great elbows and hips, and that dog can still have weak nerves. Be fear aggressive. Be a resource guarder, have too much prey drive for the typical dog owner. I could go on, but I’m sure you get what I’m saying.
I had that experience with Lyka. She was a breeding bitch. Her health is and was crap. She was never socialized, with either humans or animals. She was rescued from the breeder by an 18yr old girl who couldn’t handle her, and couldn’t handle the aggression towards her own dogs. The day I was supposed to pick her up, she sent me a message saying she had decided to keep her. I later found out it was because she knew Lyka was pregnant and she wanted the pups so she could sell them. The thread is around here somewhere, but long story short, Lyka had the puppies, and as soon as she could, the girl finally handed over Lyka. Then puppies started dying and I ended up with the litter as well. They eventually all passed from distemper.
The same girl, who went through all the lies and games to sell off a litter started breeding her own bitch as soon as she went into heat. No health testing, and she said the sire was an important. By that, she means that her two dogs, also purchased from a BYB, and siblings (different litters, same parents), were bred together and sold. She next started claiming the male was an important, and started studding him out as such.
I’ve meet plenty of her litters in town. Weak nerves, fearful, aggressive, many don’t even look purebred. One bitch she studded out to had such bad hip problems, she was PTS after her final litter. You know, when she was no longer a use for her in the owners eye.
That’s what you’re mainly going to end up with. People who know the correct way to breed, but don’t want to spend the kind of money it takes to breed ethically. They prey on the people who know nothing about puppies, or lines, or health, and send the puppy out the door with them after letting the new owner pick there own pup.
The 18yr old is still breeding, but she’s 23 now. She’s knows all about health and temperament testing, but doesn’t do any of it, and doctors papers to make it look like she has them health tested. Again, the average pet person wouldn’t know what to look for.
As far as starting out, and selling the pups for cheaper, you’re going to get less quality owners. Sounds sad, but people are willing to pay $500 without papers just to tie them up outside as a “guard dog.” Or to breed another generation of weak nerved and poor health dogs.
When you ask for $1,500 (which I still consider cheap), you’re much more likely to get serious owners who know what they are doing with the puppies. You’re less likely to end up with a nerve basket full of puppies, and the health testing and titling that goes into the dogs before being bred are expensive as all get out. The breeders need to recoup cost somehow, and more often than not, the money that goes into each litter doesn’t even break even for the owner. So they are spending money breeding quality than they are getting back from the litters.
Anyway, not a breeder, so anyone that breeds, correct me if I’m wrong ?
