RESPONSIBLE BREEDERS: Few & far between

Responsible breeders only breed their dogs once a year, letting the mother fully recuperate from the birthing! A responsible breeder, breeds for the love of the breed and to better the line....not make money off of an animal! They require a contract signed that you will not breed if it is a "pet quality" puppy, which just means that it is not show quality. It does not in any way mean there is anything wrong with the puppy. The difference is that a "show" quality puppy  meets the breed standard for size, type of it's coat color, bone structure (confirmation), head type, etc.  Pet quality puppies are usually sold at a lower price. Show quality Responsible breeders will require that you if for any reason you can not keep the dog, it will come back them. Money is NOT the reason to ever breed a dog....A responsible breeder guarantees their pups to be free of genetic diseases common to the breed and replace the pup if the disease should show up. They consider their puppies to be a life long responsibility and they stay in tough with those who buy them. They will be honest, telling you the truth about "professional" grooming of the breed! This is not a lot of bother....as you might think. It's the proper way to breed an animal. They are protecting the breed.

What to look for in a responsible breeder?

Belong to their regional breed club and/or the local All breed clubs.
Are familiar with the Code of Ethics of their National Breed Club.
Tell you about their dogs' siblings.
They will be  familiar with their line for several generations They have ONE breed for sale. Only one!
They will tell you about their dogs "faults" as well as strengths.
Help you select a puppy that has a temperament that's compatible with you and your handling skills--and may talk you out of a puppy that you like
As stated above they will offer a refund or replacement if health issues develop
Can and will explain genetic defects in the breed
You should be able to see mother and father, or at the very least, mother
All surroundings should be clean Responsible breeders will ask "you" al lot of questions! 
Can you afford the life time care of a dog? Do you realize that animals are not disposable that you "get rid of" when there is a problem...you solve the problem?
ask if you are you planning to breeding?
Are you aware that of the "professional" grooming requirements of this breed?

A bit about 
THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB

   Cost of litter registration is $20; cost of individual registration is $10. AKC registered more than 1.3 million purebred dogs and more than 550 thousand litters in its 145 breeds in 1997. The top 10 breeds (Labrador Retriever, Rottweiler, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Poodle, Beagle, Dachshund, Cocker Spaniel, Yorkshire terrier, and Pomeranian) accounted for more than 560 thousand of the total individual registrations. AKC registration means that the parent dogs were registered. It DOES NOT mean that it is a quality breed. Many people, backyard breeders, lie and commit fruad. No one comes to look at the dogs...it is a from that is filled out.....unscrupulous people will register dogs they don't have and dogs that are deceased! BUYER BEWARE!

   Most people who breed purebred dogs claim some affiliation with a registry as a seal of quality for their puppies. Many use that affiliation as a marketing tool, but buyers often learn the hard way that an AKC puppy purchased from a pet store or a backyard breeder is highly unlikely to be of the same caliber as an AKC registered puppy purchased from a reliable breeder.

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/akc.html

PET STORE PUPPIES

Yes, we all know that you will love it just as much, but the sad truth is that the majority of puppies bought at a pet shop come from commercial breeders or mills (see bit further down the page). This is fact and it doen't matter what the store people tell you....they are lying if they say they don't come from puppy mills....Nine times out ten, they have serious health problems, do not have the physical characteristics of the breed it's supposed to be, and sometimes not even the breed it's sold as and WAY over priced! The biggest problem here is that as long as people keep buying them from "pet stores" the puppy mills stay in business! The pet stores used to hate to see me coming. I could actually see them turning around with the, "OMG...here she comes"  Why!? Because I asked the hard questions;

Can I see papers from the breeders where these puppies came from with proper signatures and registries?
  NOT the papers from the AKC or CKC....from the "breeders" themselves. People don't realize that having papers means      absolutely nothing! I see dogs with papers all the time that aren't even what they are supposed to be!

Can I see photos of the parents?
  They won't have them and you never buy a puppy that you haven't seen the parents

Did these puppies come from the state we're in?
   These poor babies were shipped. How do you know what kind of a breeder they are if you have never seen where they come from? What proof do you have? Because they said so?  Yeah...right!

Please do not buy puppies and/or kittens from pet stores...ever!

PUPPY MILLS

This part is really hard for me....here goes

Behind the friendly façade of these pet shops, web sites, and newspaper ads, often lies a puppy mill. These canine breeding facilities frequently house dogs in shockingly poor conditions. Animals are caged and continually bred for years, without human companionship, ever and with no hope of ever becoming part of a family. After their fertility wanes, breeding animals are commonly killed, abandoned, dumped somewhere or sold to another mill. Most females are bred every single cycle ...into old age until the birth of her last littler kills her. Saw dust is mixed with cheap soft food....to cut the expense of feeding them until they have sore rotten teeth, and receive no nutritional components from the food.  After all they are out to make money, not care about an animal. They are kept on wire cages to minimize cleaning with toe nails growing into the wiring. They get no medical attention, if one gets sick...it's killed. A puppy mill is a business, the facility is designed purely for profit, not comfort.

*CAUTION PICTURES AT THESE SITES. 
It's tough to look at but you need to really "know" how awful these places are!

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/kgaeding/puppy/picsmills.html

http://www.prisonersofgreed.org/

http://puppymillprotest.org/photos.htm

This site has a drop down box of photos, some of which are very graphic and nauseating, I can't look at most of them without feeling sick:

http://www.atourhands.com/pupmills.html

BACKYARD BREEDERS

How can backyard breeders possibly be responsible for 135,000 and more dogs and cats abandoned at shelters and the countless more dumped in public areas?

Most purebred dogs are not breeding quality. If you breed your pet quality dog, you are a backyard breeder, whether you breed the dog in your backyard, garage, living room or an expensive hotel room, the term is still backyard breeder. They usually have no understanding of, or concern about, the breed standard, genetics, socializing the dogs, and maintaining their health. 
A backyard breeder is a person who practices random or ignorant dog breeding on a small scale. 
The term is meant to refer to people who are ignorant of selective breeding goals and techniques, and are not familiar with the breed standard of their chosen breed of dog.
Backyard breeders will swear all of their pups went to a good home. They believe this but it's not true. Some may have been lucky enough to go to a good home but more than half of them will end up dead, in a shelter, alone, on a cold table with a needle sticking out of their leg. Some of those good homes will get tired of the dog and they will just give it away to anyone who is willing to take it. Some of your beloved dog's children will end up living alone in a backyard, barking all night, cold and neglected until the owner gets complaints and then that pups will be dead. Some will be starved and beaten. Some will be bred until they die from it. Some will end up in rescue and I will have to find space for it in my home and I will have to show it that not all humans are bad. I will train it, and feed it the proper food so it can heal. I will take the fleas off of it and I will get rid of the worms. I will give it the shots it should have had but no one remembered to give it. I will do these things because the backyard breeder didn't do it and wouldn't take the dog back when it was 2 years old and full of problems. I hear all the time such ridiculous rhetoric as,

I paid $500 for this dog, I'm gonna get some of my money back.

My friends and family ALL want a puppy from my dog

Do you have cash deposits from all of these 'friends' and 'family'? A puppy isn't taken until the money is produced or agreements signed. Have you assessed their worth as a puppy owner on an unbiased level? Do they have the appropriate lifestyle? Monetary resources? Patience?
What are you going to do if all of these people want a female? And you only have one in the litter of five? Or they are all white? Or fawn and everyone wants brindle? What are you going to do if no one wants the color/sex of puppy that you actually get? Sell it to strangers? 

We want the children to experience the "Miracle of Birth"

You WANT your small child to witness a bloody, watery mess? Why? There are excellent videos you can rent if you need this to explain the facts of life.
Are you prepared to help your child deal with the mother EATING one of those precious bundles right in front of them? How about the puppy that is malformed or dead? This 'experience' can last for 2 days and try everyone's patience. No matter how loving your female might be, she MAY take a dim view of being the center ring in a 'peep-show'; and if you stress her out, she'll reject every last one of those puppies... GREAT experience, eh?
And finally.. what a great experience if your female should DIE delivering those puppies. I'm sure your child will thank you forever for giving them that wonderful experience. You are teaching them to breed also...that's ok.

We want a puppy exactly like its 'mom/dad'

Alright, let's do the math here. Your boxer came from a female and a male. If you breed THAT boxer to ANOTHER boxer, AT BEST you will only get 1/2 the dog you have now? How is breeding YOUR dog to ANOTHER One going to produce a EXACT replicate? The best you can do is go back to the breeder you got your boxer from, but lets be realistic... Have you ever known 2 siblings to be identical? Even identical twins are very different...
The only way to re-produce your dog to a tee is to clone it... Catch a plane/boat to England, they can help you out...they are doing it with sheep even now

I just love her/him so much and she/her is such a great dog.

Of course you love him...does your dog have bad skin? Flakes, dry skin? Disposition problem with strangers. What about hip problem? Any fault your baby has, you are passing on to puppies!

And the Number 1 reason..though NEVER STATED: "We can make a 'little money' by breeding"

Yeah, not if you do it right. Each breed is different, but let's take a boxer....
First of all, if she does not have a solid, traceable pedigree and you can't see her immediate ancestors, you have NO idea of what she will produce (and if you can, it is still a crap-shot)... But, let's say her pedigree is solid and recognizable. To make money, you have to spend a little money... The most recent estimates are that 1 out of 5 boxers in the US have some form of heart problem (genetic)... Yours hasn't had a 'sick' day in her life, I'm sure, but most heart problems do not manifest themselves until the dog is past 5 years of age, and the only way to know if they are susceptible is to do the testing...and it won't even guarantee catching some of it.
Cardio testing - Plan on $500.00. Rental of machine and licensed cardio vet to read the result.
Aortic stenosis testing - Plan on $300.00 EKG, x-ray from qualified canine radiologist.
Hips/spine - Spondyolosis and displaysia, though not common are by NO means RARE. X-rays and OFA/PennHipp anaylsis is $300.00
Now, to keep this easy, we won't even include the standard shots, venereal disease testing and food that it takes to get a dog to breeding age (or the original cost of the dog)
We are up to $1,100.00 and you have to add a stud fee ($500) or if you own the stud, another $1,100.00 for his testing. Let's keep it simple and say we use an outside stud... $1,600.00. (We won't add time lost from work from the breeding & gas money; nor the specialized diets, vitamins etc you need to ensure a healthy female).
Whelping date arrives, and average litter size is 5. If she has to have a C-Section, add $500.00 (surgery, antibiotics, aftercare). Heaven forbid, if she doesn't have any milk (or had surgery), she might not be able to nurse, so you are off work for 4 weeks hand-feeding babies. Last cost estimate for milk replacer was $100 a week ($400)...
We have to have tails/dewclaws done. $25.00 a piece which should include mom's exam. Add $125.00 (total of a 'clean whelp' = $1,725.00)
You will have to supplement mom's diet with a quality food that promotes milk, and keeps her nursing plus the vitamins, plus at 3-4 weeks, switch the puppy's to a gruel...$75.00 (add at $1,800.00)
Every health board requires one set of shots, though if you want to be reputable, you should give two...so add $25.00 per puppy ($150.00=$1,950.00) and the cost of paperwork, litter registrations and health certifications, not to mention miscellaneous costs such as beginning house training supplies, carpet cleaner, bacterial cleanser...$50.00 should cover it..
So Grand total on a 'clean whelp' is $2,000.00. Divided by 5 puppies is $400 each, IF you have them sold at 8 weeks. WHAT.. that is the EXHORBANT PRICES charged by the 'show breeder' for a companion puppy from their dual-champion bred litter? IMAGINE THAT! I thought you were going to MAKE money on this deal..? You can't sell them for more than $300 a piece? I know that you wouldn't want to breed from potential sick dogs, so the testing has to stay.... you can't control the vet costs... you want healthy puppies so the after-care has to stay... MAYBE you ought to re-think your 'money-making' scheme...If you say..."Oh, I don't have to do all that to breed a dog....than you have no business breeding and have no idea what your doing....and you are a Backyard Breeder!

Do NOT buy from back yard breeders and do NOT breed you pet!

"Think ONE litter won't make a difference? A thousand other people think the same thing!"

 

Excepts from 

http://www.adoptarescuepet.org/byb.htm

http://www.boxerworld.com/rescue/top6/

 

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