DEFINITIONS
If there were a caste system within
the dog world, the breeders would be at the top, followed in descending order
by puppy-raisers, design-a-doggers, backyard
breeders, and puppy mills. The danger to
the public is that any one can call themselves a ‘breeder’ without having done
more than put two dogs together with resultant puppies. Education is the key. Hopefully, more and more people will stop and
think about where and who they are getting a puppy and, more importantly,
why.
BREEDER: Technically,
any person who mates two dogs and causes the production of offspring is a breeder. In the respected world of dog ownership, a
breeder is someone who breeds only when she breeds for the betterment of the
breed and intends to keep one of the offspring.
The betterment of the breed considers the entire standard and not just
any one characteristic of the standard.
The primary difference between puppy raisers and breeders is “awareness of responsibility; responsibility
to her breed, to her goals, to the dogs she has bred and to the dogs she hopes
to breed. She also has a never-ending responsibility to the people who
have bought her dogs, to the people who are about to buy her dogs and to the
public image--not only of the dogs she has been producing but of the breed
itself.”[1] A breeder is a creator; she works toward a
goal of perfection in her mind’s eye.
She does not allow herself to be deterred by others’ views or by what is
currently popular; she doesn’t breed to fill a market of what will sell. A breeder takes the time to mentor, to share
her philosophy and help those who ask over the rough spots. She instills
within those who have purchased her puppies a sense of belonging, a pride in
ownership. Breeders are there to answer
questions, to encourage training, to teach critical assessment before
breeding. She takes responsibility for
the dogs that she produces for the life of the dog, always willing to take them
back if necessary. Breeders are not
motivated by money or supplying a market.
She does the necessary genetic testing and assures that the dogs she
breeds are free of genetic problems.
Breeders are those who have paid their dues, studied, learned, been
mentored and now are also mentoring. A
breeder will have earned and continue to earn the right to be respected. Even
some of the 'big-name' breeders are not what should be considered as breeders and actually are puppy-raisers who no longer put the same amount of effort into thinking
about the future of the breed.
PUPPY RAISER: Refers
to any person who breeds without at least attempting to understand the genetics
behind the two dogs being bred, think about what they desire the puppies from
the combination to be like, have a clear cut plan (or at the very least some
plan) for the future of the breed, hasn't considered all the possibilities
concerning whelping, done the medical checks and at the very least the minimal
health checks for hips, eyes and whatever else is recommended for their breed,
and proven their stock in some way -- whether in the show, field, obedience,
etc. realms. Puppy-raisers simply put two dogs of the
same breed together and hope for the best.
DESIGN-A-DOG: Designer
dogs can be designed as the latest fad, bred to fulfil a certain, encapsulated
niche, without a plan for long-term development of a breed type. Breeding for any one trait is irresponsible
breeding. This is just as true in the
case of pure-breed breeders as it is in those who cross-breed. Any breeder that is "only breeding to
satisfy a need" is failing her responsibility as a breeder which
should be to breed only when she feels that it is to the betterment of the
breed, and in the case of cross-breeds, it would be difficult to argue that
she was breeding to any established
standard and instead is breeding for a reason that is less than what most of us
consider to be reasonable. Perhaps she wants the "fame" of having
bred those competitive cross-breeds. Unlike the people who are at least
cross-breeding to try to establish a new breed and taking the time to develop
standards, aims, goals, and a plan, these dogs are being cross-bred without any
such goal.
BACKYARD BREEDER: May
also be referred to as a “whim breeder”, this person is one who breeds without
any forethought to why they should be
breeding. These people often have
reasons such as “wanting the children to see the miracle of life” or “everyone
just loves Fifi (or Fido)
and wants a puppy just like her/him” or even more frightening wants to “make a
bit of money and recoup some of my cost in buying Fifi”. Backyard breeders, even when they have only
one dog and produce only one litter, are the equivalent and just as damaging to
the breed as puppy mills. The difference
is only the scale of the operation. For
the most part backyard breeders will have done no medical checks and believe
that ‘nature takes its course.’
PUPPY MILL: A
business that mass-produces dogs for a profit with little or no regard for the
health and well-being of the puppies and dogs.
It is a facility where puppies are sold to brokers, pet stores or
individuals without regard for the puppy.
They usually have many breeding animals in many different breeds and
often, but not always, substandard health, living and socialization
conditions. Some well-known and
“respected” breeders have fallen into the commercial breeding trap (see
definition for Commercial Breeder) by losing sight of the primary reason for
breeding, which should be breeding only for the betterment of the breed. Production of puppies only because there is a
market or one needs a bit extra money is still commercial breeding and differs
from puppy milling in that commercial breeders sell only to individual buyers. Some breeders who have slipped to this level
have well-known affixes or kennel names.
COMMERCIAL
BREEDER: A person who maintains
large numbers of breeding females and/or stud dogs and who breeds more than
three litters of puppies a year from the bitches or who provides stud services
for more than fifteen bitches a year (based on
UNETHICAL BREEDING: Any
person who breeds dogs with profit as the main motivation and without
consideration for the health and well-being of the puppies is guilty of ethical
crimes.
Copyright 2001 Sierra
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