How do you define a
‘Breeder’? I will use the extremes to compare here: a ‘Breeder’
is a person for whom it is more important to perform a specific
breeding of one special ‘right’ dog to a specific bitch, rather
than a person who will breed any male of the same breed to their bitch
in order to produce puppies. A Breeder doesn’t breed at a specific
time of year for better puppy sales. A Breeder breeds for him or her
self, because they are breeding to an ideal and not the
"market". A Breeder may hold onto the puppies for longer
than 8 weeks so that they are certain they have made the right ‘pick’
of which puppy to keep or to sell as a show dog, and by definition as
a breeding animal.
A Breeder goes
through absolutely hellacious torment every time a puppy is shipped by
air. A Breeder makes you justify just why you think you deserve a
puppy. On the other hand, a non-breeder, in the case of the worst
puppy mills, breeds any dog which looks like it may belong a certain
breed to whatever specimen of the same breed they can pick up. A non-
breeder doesn’t choose the ‘best’ male for a given female. A
non-breeder ‘lets nature take its course’ rather than doing
everything within their power to ensure that the mother and the
father, and eventually the puppies, are healthy, so that the breeding
will be successful, so that it won’t seriously affect the health of
the mother, and so that the puppies will be robust and healthy. A
Breeder will perform all necessary tests to ensure that the mother and
father of a litter are genetically healthy, and free of inheritable
diseases to the best of their ability to check.
A Breeder will only
register puppies with the correct pedigree. A puppy mill will use any
set of ‘papers’ they can get their hands on, and which may not
actually be the true pedigrees of the sire and dam. A Breeder will
stay awake and with the litter for as many 24-hour days as are
necessary to insure that no puppy is lost to ‘fading puppy syndrome’,
or is squashed or misplaced by the new mother. A non-breeder will ‘let
nature take its course’ - again.
A Breeder will
handle every puppy several times every day, and help supplement the
puppies feeding if necessary to save excessive drain on the dam. A
Breeder will chart daily weights on the puppies, and identify each
puppy in some way, so that they can keep track of each puppy’s rate
of gain, so a puppy which is falling behind the others can be
supplemented.
A Breeder will give
the expectant mother Breyers Ice Cream, or pickles and peanut butter,
if they are requested, and will sleep with her on their pillow, to
reassure her she is special. A Breeder will stay home from work for as
many days as necessary, in order to whelp the litter, help the bitch,
and get the puppies off to a good start. A Breeder will supply the
mother with a whelping box which keeps the mother and the puppies
comfortable, and gives them a feeling of protection and safety. If the
bitch chooses, however, she is allowed to begin the whelping process
on the Breeder’s own bed, and to move to the whelping box once
anxiety cools and the bitch is ready to keep at her job in another
location. A puppy mill simply ‘harvests’ the puppies from wire
bottomed cages like rabbit hutches when they appear to be about the
age of consent for the airlines.
A Breeder will
skillfully interview all applicants for adoption, and will provide the
new puppy owners with a healthy, well adjusted, well vaccinated and
wormed puppy. I know I could go on about this for a couple more pages,
but the impression I want to give, is that breeding a litter and
whelping and raising and placing puppies entails tremendous sustained
effort, education, money and a good knowledge of applied genetics. It
is anything but a casual undertaking. A breeding undertaken without
this kind of effort may produce healthy, sound puppies, or it may not.
One has no way of predicting, since the deck wasn’t ‘loaded’’
as good Breeders try to arrange it.
After selling the
puppy, a good Breeder will follow up with all needed assistance to the
new owner. A Breeder will be prepared to take a puppy or adult dog
back into their own home if needed - for whatever reason. This means
that a good Breeder must be able to provide for an extra dog or two at
a moments notice, and inconvenience isn’t an admissible excuse. A
good Breeder considers him or herself the "parent" of a
puppy from birth to grave. The responsibility for bringing new puppies
into the world includes making certain, to the extent possible, that
these puppies will go on to have happy lives, and never become
homeless. All contracts for puppy sales must include that any transfer
should occur through the breeder, or be approved by the breeder.
The bumper sticker
proclaims that "A Puppy is for Life", and that’s true, for
both the buyer and the breeder. While ‘back yard breeders’ may not
be guilty of the sins of puppy mills, neither are they, by definition,
cognizant of the procedures and efforts necessary to earn the title
‘Breeder’.
